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#2509937 22-Jun-2020 18:52

mdf:
I'm making kitty play equipment too. Is there a rule of thumb or ideal for height off the ground for boxes? Or spacing between platforms?

They'll adapt to anything, so there's no hard-and-fast rule, cats can jump amazing distances to get to where they want to go. One thing you can do if you want some sort of guide is take commercially-made stuff, presumably in China, and scale it up by about 50% to get realistic sizes for things.

And then when you're done with your $300-worth-of-materials-and-labour creation you'll find the kitty prefers to sleep in the cardboard box the brackets came in.

neb

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#2509952 22-Jun-2020 19:10

Oh, one other thing, go for brute strength rather than finesse. This is a 100mm fencepost bolted onto 12mm MDF with four batten screws that can withstand any kind of feline assault:

as well as being tall enough that a cat at full stretch won't exceed its height. She can also pirouette on top of it without it moving even slightly.

kobiak

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#2510053 22-Jun-2020 21:07

DarthKermit:
Here's one of a number of cat boxes I've made for a cat rescue organisation.

The cats love to climb into these and sit and look out at the world around them.

Excuses for offtopic but is that photo something from recent cat rescue ? Where is that?

My friends Bengal got lost some time in April from Albany. No chip.no collar :( there are Facebook posts but no luck.

helping others at evgenyk.nz

PolicyGuy

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#2510062 22-Jun-2020 21:22

neb: And then when you're done with your $300-worth-of-materials-and-labour creation you'll find the kitty prefers to sleep in the cardboard box the brackets came in.

Ah, I see you have been employed by a cat.

[Dogs have owners, cats have staff]
;)

DarthKermit

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#2510098 22-Jun-2020 22:31

mdf:

I'm making kitty play equipment too. Is there a rule of thumb or ideal for height off the ground for boxes? Or spacing between platforms?

I've just played it by ear. I think real tree branches are better as they are irregular shapes and angles, giving the cat a bit of a challenge to get around. Here's two pics of my work with branches and platforms:

Image may contain: plant, tree, shoes and outdoor

No photo description available.

neb

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#2510110 22-Jun-2020 23:10

Also consider things they can get their claws into, natural wood as @DarthKermit points out, also cut pile (not looped) carpet, which is what the covering on the king-size scratching post is.

neb

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#2513303 27-Jun-2020 02:40

Not a major project but I recently redid the coffee table Mrs.Neb's father-in-law made for us some years ago. Problem was that he decided to cover it in a heavy coat of dark-brown paint to finish it:

What looks like wood grain in the photo is actually coarse brush strokes, it really wasn't doing justice to the timber. So I decided to sand it back and re-finish it:

and found out that the top was CD plywood and the bottom was MDF, rather than decent veneer or even edge-joined planks, although the latter is probably a bit too much to expect for a coffee table. The photo shows the ply after extensive sanding to smooth it out. Finally I finished it with stain and varnish:

with carefully-brushed-out stain on the MDF to make it somewhat resemble the top if you don't look too closely:

(cat hair added post-finish). In practice you can't see too much detail of the bottom layer since it's got magazines and stuff on it most of the time.

It certainly looks a lot better than it used to, but I think the materials and labour for that were about five times the materials and labour to create the original.

jimiham

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#2513506 27-Jun-2020 06:04

I have built an old fashioned 18w stereo Vacuum Tube Amplifier with phono and Bluetooth.

It was a challenge but it sounds awesome!

Handle9

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#2513508 27-Jun-2020 06:42

neb: Oh, one other thing, go for brute strength rather than finesse. This is a 100mm fencepost bolted onto 12mm MDF with four batten screws that can withstand any kind of feline assault:

as well as being tall enough that a cat at full stretch won't exceed its height. She can also pirouette on top of it without it moving even slightly.

It looks like we got offcuts out of the same carpet bin!

Yours is in considerably better nick than the one I made in 2006. Pretty similar construction though.

Handle9

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#2513509 27-Jun-2020 06:45

PolicyGuy:
neb: And then when you're done with your $300-worth-of-materials-and-labour creation you'll find the kitty prefers to sleep in the cardboard box the brackets came in.

Ah, I see you have been employed by a cat.

[Dogs have owners, cats have staff]
;)

Staff implys payment. Sweet chance of any consideration from a cat.

PolicyGuy

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#2513549 27-Jun-2020 09:35

Handle9:
PolicyGuy:

Ah, I see you have been employed by a cat.

[Dogs have owners, cats have staff]
;)

Staff implys payment. Sweet chance of any consideration from a cat.

You may be allowed to provide a pre-warmed resting place, and an opportunity to gently scratch behind Their Lordship's ears.
What possible additional compensation could you require?
:)