Wood – Will the DIY wood and PVC cat cage hold up

pvcwood

I'm a total amateur, looking for feedback on my plan for a DIY wood-and-PVC cat cage before I build it.

CONTEXT:

My cat injured his spine and needs cage rest.

However, he anxiously scratches the mesh sides of his current cage whenever I'm not around, hurting himself.

Therefore, I need to build him a cage/playpen:

  1. Whose walls are only vertical bars. Because he will scratch any mesh or horizontal crossbars, hurting his spine.
  2. Whose vertical bars are 1" apart so there's no risk of him getting his head stuck between them.
  3. As low cost as possible.

crude sketch I made

MY IDEA:

Above is a crude sketch I made.

My idea is simple:

  1. Build 4' square frames out of 2x4s (laid flat)
  2. Drill 3/4" holes (using a spade bit) in both frames
  3. Place 3/4" PVC pipe, 25 inches tall, in each of the holes
  4. Attach the top frame (also with holes drilled to fit the other ends of the PVC pipes)
  5. Once it's built, and sturdy enough, adding a ceiling is easy. (I'm not worried about this part of the project. As long as the frame is sturdy, there's any number of objects I can zip-tie to the top for a ceiling.)

MY CONCERNS:

Here's where I need feedback — I'm a total amateur, and I'm afraid I'm missing something.

Some concerns off the top of my head:

  • Will this work?
  • Will the PVC support the weight of the top frame?
  • Will 3/4" PVC pipe fit into holes drilled with a 3/4" spade bit?
  • If I drill the holes halfway through the flat side of a 2×4, is that deep enough to secure the PVC pipes?

Thanks in advance.

Best Answer

I think this will be surprisingly much harder than it looks.

Making two four foot squares isn't too bad, you could make a half lap joint.

half lap joint

Drilling the holes isn't too bad, you could clamp or temporarily nail the top and bottom together and drill through both so the holes line up. I think it's going to be almost 100 holes if you use 3/4" PVC. You could go with 1/2" or 3/8", either would be more than strong enough, and would let more light through for your cat. It would be more holes, but smaller holes.

Getting a friction fit between the pipe and the wood will be pretty hard, the differences between won't fit, friction fit, and loose fit are tiny. It might be hard or impossible to find a wood boring bit the right size.

Without a friction fit, the whole thing gets a lot harder to do and at this point I'd scrap this design and go back to the drawing board.

Suggestion, design inspired by

wood dish drainer

maybe it would be easier to build this with the 2x4 top and bottom frames built with the 2x4 on edge, with simple butt joints at the corners, and vertical strips of wood spaced 1" apart. Maybe something from the moulding aisle, like a 1/2" x 3/4" pine strip. You could use a heavy duty stapler to drive little brad nails to hold the strips to the frames. The strips don't need to be that strong, their strength will be in numbers.

Not saying this won't still be a lot of work and trouble and unlikely to come out right as planned on the first attempt - that's just par for the course.

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