Building the Jumbo Jungle Gym Cage.

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Building the Jumbo Jungle Gym cage door

Now, we'll assemble the door, then push it all tightly together, and then attach it the frame.

Jumbo cage frame

Let's start building from the ground up...

Cut a pole [H] long and put a T on each end.

Put two short [E] poles into the Ts and put a 4-way connector
on top of each of the short poles, and put another [H] pole across horizontally.

Now it get's a little trickier...

On the left side, put a [D] pole, then a T connector facing out (to the left - see where it attaches to the frame),

Then put a [C] pole on top of that, with a T connector at the ceiling level facing down.

Cut an [H] pole for the top horizontal and put a T on the other end - also facing down.

You've now got the door frame assembled -- and are ready to tackle the hinges and the doors themselves.

"Good job."
(Someone should congratulate you on completing the cage frame!).

The lower section of the door is made up of two short [I] vertical poles and two [J] poles all
connected as shown with three Ts and one corner connector.

Notice the short pvc plugs sticking out of the right side Ts...

Be sure to push all those joints together tightly, before pushing in the short plugs.

Lower section of door

Those plugs in the right side Ts are slotted to make them work smoothly as hinges.

Cage door slotted hinge

You can make the slots just by sawing into the plug once it's in the T.

Cutting the slotted hinge

The top section of the door is just like the bottom section - except upside down.
You can construct it with two [K] vertical poles and two [J] horizontal poles,
all attached together with three Ts and one corner connector - as shown below.

Push all the door joints tightly together -
then install those right side plugs - and then
saw slots in them to make the door hinges work smoothly.

Upper section of door

One more thing: there's a small gap that needs to be filled between the
top and bottom sections of the door on the left side...
so cut a [L] pole and connect the door sections together.

On the right side of the door, it works best to put the middle hinge together,
which is just a T in the middle facing out (to the right) and connected to the frame.
The top and bottom sections of the door - with their slotted plugs - are installed into that middle T.
That's your middle hinge:

The final step is to make two bars that will fill in the space above and below the door.
These bars are made with pvc poles cut to [M] length and
capped with oversized T connectors (1x1x3/4) that have been trimmed to fit.
(One alternative option is to trim a couple of pieces of plastic gutter guards to fill the openings around the door).

Door gap fillers

To pin the door shut with 3" bolts, I drill a couple of holes in the left side of the door, near the top and bottom.
The nuts aren't really necessary, because the bolts will definitely keep the door pinned shut.
However, if you have any concerns about cage intrusions of the human variety,
you may want to put a locking clasp on the door.

Finished frame of the Jumbo Jungle Gym

Now that you have a cage frame and door completed,
let's cover it with plastic mesh to make our cage functional right now!

To do that, all we have to do is cable tie mesh around the frame.

Then we'll add a raised mesh floor, a ceiling, and some nice shelves...

But first, let's cover the frame with plastic mesh (it's fun!) --- >>>

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