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The indoor aviary!

dollfish

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Zeynep Dollfish
Hello everyone!

I have planned and gathered all the materials to divide my largest room in half to make Astro the African Grey an aviary. I am very excited about this and have been very diligent about every detail, however, there is one thing I would like your advice on.

I have trimmed the sides of these panels, tedious work with a Dremel but completed almost all of it today. There are no wire bits sticking out on the sides anymore but the bits that I have cut off left little scratchy / slightly sharp edges behind. I tried sanding the edges down with a steel brush attachmemt for my drill with no avail. What can I use to sand down a large area such as this? It is 3mm 304 quality stainless steel.There are 4 of these panels that I need to do. Is it overkill to want to sand the edges down? The panels will be attached to a wooden frame but the frame will be on the outside.

Can't wait to share the progress in another post!

IMG-20200621-WA0015.jpeg
 

Monaco

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JLcribber

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Is it overkill to want to sand the edges down? The panels will be attached to a wooden frame but the frame will be on the outside.
Yup. It is to me. I would much prefer to make double (thinner) frames and sandwich the mesh between the layers.

I personally would dado a groove into the wood panels to accept the mesh.

Either way if the mesh is tight against the panel IMG_3838.jpeg IMG_3828.jpeg it doesn't pose much risk. What I have also done is build a frame first. Mesh the panels on the inside like you and when installed the frame hides the inside edge of the panel.
IMG_3841.jpeg
 

dollfish

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Zeynep Dollfish
Yup. It is to me. I would much prefer to make double (thinner) frames and sandwich the mesh between the layers.

I personally would dado a groove into the wood panels to accept the mesh.

Either way if the mesh is tight against the panel View attachment 343886 View attachment 343887 it doesn't pose much risk. What I have also done is build a frame first. Mesh the panels on the inside like you and when installed the frame hides the inside edge of the panel.
View attachment 343888
I think my wire may be too thick to go the sandwhich way. I also don't have good enough skills to pull that off. The plan is to attach the wire to the frame using stainless steel zip ties like these:

20200628_075744.jpg
 

Irishj9

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Your avairy looks great.

two points from my experience

1) I left the floor as mesh so that droppings can fall out and be cleaned away. They just soak into wood flooring and its a real problem cleaning them

2) When wood and parrots are mixed, it never ends well for the wood
 

dollfish

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Zeynep Dollfish
Your avairy looks great.

two points from my experience

1) I left the floor as mesh so that droppings can fall out and be cleaned away. They just soak into wood flooring and its a real problem cleaning them

2) When wood and parrots are mixed, it never ends well for the wood
I was thinking of covering the floor with thick PVC but honestly its the same flooring all around the house and I don't care much about the damage unless it soaks it up so much that it may harbor bacteria.

What do you mean you left it as mesh? Did you make a mesh layer above the actual floor like a cage bottom?
 

JLcribber

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I was thinking of covering the floor with thick PVC but honestly its the same flooring all around the house and I don't care much about the damage unless it soaks it up so much that it may harbor bacteria.

What do you mean you left it as mesh? Did you make a mesh layer above the actual floor like a cage bottom?
He’s talking about the bottom of that flight in the picture because it’s above the floor.
 

dollfish

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Is there a type of sandpaper that would work to smooth the edges?
 
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