Part 1: How to Build an Above Tank Turtle Basking Platform Dock DIY

What's up, everyone, let your

turtle

s live here? Today I'm going to show you from start to finish the construction of my

basking

platform

on top of the

turtle

tank

. I got a lot of great requests for my previous video and I'm not going to give myself all the credit for

build

ing and designing this. A lot of the overall design came from a video I watched on YouTube, which I think was called Liam Lunch Trays, so thank you very much Liam. I made a couple of modifications myself. I put this on top of a 75 gallon

tank

and will post the

part

s, cost, and overall sizes and dimensions of this in the YouTube video in the description;

Otherwise, without further ado, let's start

build

ing this, let's go to my AutoCAD model. and check it out everyone. I drafted this Basking tortoise deck design in AutoCAD and I really like doing this just because it's hard for me to visualize any of these designs, these scrapbook DIY projects with 2D drawings and terrible 3D drawings that they try to throw around. dimensions and trying to change things on the fly on a piece of paper is difficult, however in this program it is very easy to see exactly what you are doing, exactly what you are building, it is really easy to change anything you want to do with this . so let's go over the general aspects of this design, from a very high level perspective, this Basking

platform

that you were going to build is going to sit right above your 75 gallon tank and near the middle you will have a ramp. that will start and so you will be able to get out of the water and onto your sunbathing platform without any problems and you will be able to easily slide back in and you will be able to see them from this viewing panel here, which is made of two acrylics. slats that you can slide back and forth that also give you access to the tank without reaching all the way to the top, so that's the basic gist of this Basking rig.

Let's take a look at the general structure. We have these big pieces of wood cut out. which will wrap around and create the walls of your Basking deck, the front display panels will be supported by this frame which you will make with thinner pieces of cut wood and I also have a nice cross brace in the center which is useful for support structures but also for holding any type of covers you want to create to fill this area once you are done with your build. Take a look at the back. Important design feature I want to note if you notice the walls coming to the end. from the edge of the tank, however, there will be a gap here where the deck will not cover and the walls will essentially be recessed and this will provide access to the inlet and outlet tubes if your filtration system were to use them. a wire for your heater and any aeration tubes or any other type of accessories that you use in your tanks for your turtles, that is important because if you didn't do that you would have to drill holes in the tank. or on the side walls and that only adds complexity to your projects.

I want to keep this as simple as possible but also keep it stylish, so if you look at the other corner on the back, you'll notice that I'm actually going along the side of the tank and that's because I don't place my tank right up against the wall and I have a small space of a couple of inches that I can use and instead I extend my platform that way. I can put my nesting area here and then have a ramp that's the right size for my turtles to go up and up, they can sunbathe in the sunbathing area here, we'll have some sunbathing lamps or they can keep walking and get into the small box of dirt that I will have as a nesting area. and what you'll notice here and what you'll see in the final design is that they actually added some walls here so that the turtles can get out of the nesting box and then fall on the ramp, which makes you have to walk back, so they will slide safely back into the tank, the last design feature I almost forgot about.

There you will notice that it had moldings around the two sides and the front of the tank and the purpose of that molding is simple: to provide an anchor. for your Basking rig while it's sitting on top of your 75-gallon aquarium, so it's about five feet off the ground. To me, you don't want to hit this platform and have it fall out of the tank onto the ground, especially if it's a turtle. there, that would be catastrophic, so let's start building this, let's do it and check again the attached file that will have all the details of this model.

Alright team, it's time to start building our 75 gallon tank on the Basking deck and I'm here in my parents garage. Yes, I am lucky to have a garage with many tools that my parents own. If you don't have them, we'll get to that. However, first things first. I showed you the plan. where we are going to take the dimensions in dollars and the first thing you will need is the wood that you are going to use to create this structure, it will be the walls, it will hold the sliding panels, it will basically be the majority of the structure. you're going to build here, so the first thing I go to Home Depot I buy at Lowe's or any other type of hardware store.

Just make sure they are similar sizes. If you're going to try to copy what I'm doing, I have my friends from Home Depot, so according to the plans, you'll need three of these comment boards, you'll find them in the wood aisle, they'll be in stacks and they come in different qualities. Make sure you get good quality, very little bending. The board is going to be quite long and will probably need at least half of this, so just make sure it is fairly straight. You also want to make sure there are knots here, just make sure there aren't a bunch of knots or indentations from the knots. the board you want is a nice solid board, it will be painted, but it will be in your living room and display area, where you want this tank to look nice and you don't want it to deteriorate under years of humidity, so just I want to get a quality board, so I don't need three of these 4 foot boards, that is 48 inches by 1 inch by 12 inches, that is the dimensions label on this board, however, these are dimensions of construction, so you really need to maintain them.

Keep in mind that when you buy them, they are actually 3/4 inch, they are actually 11 and a quarter inches wide and are about 4 feet long, so keep that in mind when you are taking all of your measurements into account. I made it on my model, so you will need 3 of these will be the wall portions of your Basking deck, board number 2, this is a cedar plank, it measures 8 feet by 2 inches by 1 inch, those are the dimensions that you will get if you search online or go to the store and read the card; however, the actual dimensions I have on hand right now are approximately 8 feet and three-quarters of an inch by one and a half inches, so you will need three of these.

Last but not least is a 2 by 2 foot by 4. A piece of one inch plywood costs about $5 and I didn't use it on my first Basking deck and I'm going to try to integrate it into my new design. I'll cut it to size when I get there. Well, I have these tables. we need to mark them up, make sure we have all the plan dimensions on these boards, take them to the saw and cut them that way, they're ready to assemble on our beautiful sunbathing

dock

, let's talk about how you can cut them. So I'm lucky enough to have my parents' garage very close by, so I can take a trip out here and use their table saw, which is a fantastic cutting device.

These are pretty big advancements to deal with, it's very easy to have a nice table. To extend, push these boards to cut that 11-inch piece; otherwise you could use a regular circular saw, which is basically a handheld, it's a pretty big blade, you just push it forward, you need a good table surface for that again, the body support garage. or at least in an outdoor space use this tool, but if maybe you live in an a

part

ment or just don't have access to any type of power tools you could probably get away with just a hand saw, it wouldn't be very easy for these wider pieces but you could do it it won't be as clean but I think it's definitely doable if you don't feel comfortable using any type of vendor to do any type of cutting then I would totally suggest using their services on your Home Local Depot or Lowe's or any other similar store you can use because they will usually provide you with cutting services, sometimes they will charge you, sometimes they won't depending on the person you can talk to, so if you are going to cut this on your own, I have to give the obvious safety bullets here.

These things are loud, they're sharp, and they're generally pretty dangerous. Be very careful when using these machines. Know how to use these machines. So you promise to be careful. I promise to be careful. Let's get to the point, let's start cutting here we are going well, so we cut all the side wall pieces. These are the 11 and a quarter inch tall pieces that will make up the side and back of your Basking deck. It's time to cut the smaller pieces. that will make up the front and a decorative part of this incredible Basking platform. We're doing well as we cut all of our main pieces of wood.

We can start assembling this now and I'll leave the plywood piece until last. Because I'm going to cut that to size, but we can start assembling on the first start of the larger pieces to really solidify the structure that we're going to use here and I'm going to go with the face pieces and then the edge. pieces, so let's start with the back panels and the side walls in the next step, we're going to bolt on the back walls of the deck. I'm going to drill pilot holes for each screw, each screw is one and a half. inches and they will use the DS number and this is a very tight fit for these corner pieces and I'm going to sink the screw a little bit below the depth of the wood that way I can fill it with putty and then when I paint over it, it doesn't look like There won't be any screws there, so I'm going to put three screws on each edge to make that edge really secure and I'll do it all the way around the back that way.

We'd have a nice back structure and then we'll get out the front, so let's do it quick. Note: I am not going to tighten these screws with a pulley. I'll make sure I have this entire rear piece mounted before I sink these screws all the way in, make sure all the measurements are correct that way there will be less backlash and rework means if there's anything that's strictly slightly out of line on the next piece, now we're going to make the whole middle support piece. right edge number two down, next, end, back, good quick note on this edge here.

I'm going to attach a cross beam to the front of this platform, so I can't put a screw where I'm going to attach this cross. and I want to be able to get to the screw and I don't want that cross beam to get in the way, so I'm going to place them a little bit lower just to take that into account, so keep that in mind when we're building this third full edge. Alright, this last wall piece is ready to use. This one is a little more complicated because you won't have a border to guide you.

You will have to measure to where it is. The board needs to be attached to this piece about the second third of the way, so we measure it and then we'll screw it on and we'll have the whole back piece complete, real quick.