FINCHforum

I'm getting ready for the self Societies I hope to find this spring! (Baltimore Bird Mart, here I come...)

I have a bunch of extra cage panels from cages similar to this



left over from joining two cages together.
The panels are 30" by 18", and they look really nice, but they don't have doors.

So I got these kind of pliers



and was able to cut door openings, and cut pieces into the right size for doors. Hooray!

The cuts are pretty close, but not exactly perfect. There's still a really sharp edge each place I cut a wire.

I'll be building 6 cages, so I don't want to file each bump by hand. What's the best way to take care of these?

I use an old Dremel tool with a cut-off disk to take out the sharp point the cutters leave behind. FAST but you gotta wash the metal and abrasive dust off the cage afterwards.

I also use an edge guard to cover the ends of the wire. A "report cover" spine would do the same, and is easier to find.

You can try putting a strip of electric tape over the rough edges

If you look in the classified section of bird talk magazine there is a small company named "the ammermans" who sell cage makeing supplies, they have wire cutters that are specialy ground to cut wire and leave a smaller nib, that is easier to file down, but what i do is, use a jig saw with a hacksaw blade.

The ammermans also sell a "cage guard" that is made for covering the wire edges around cage doors and other openings, i use this all the time and find it very useful and cuts down on the little nicks and cuts from the wire.

It is a good idea to wear a dust mask when fileing or cutting wire with a power tool because the galvanized wire creates a dust that is not to healthy to breath.

cage building is much fun and i have made a few here and there and i have a few more planned--happy cage building

mitch wrote:If you look in the classified section of bird talk magazine there is a small company named "the ammermans" who sell cage makeing supplies, they have wire cutters that are specialy ground to cut wire and leave a smaller nib, that is easier to file down, but what i do is, use a jig saw with a hacksaw blade.

The ammermans also sell a "cage guard" that is made for covering the wire edges around cage doors and other openings, i use this all the time and find it very useful and cuts down on the little nicks and cuts from the wire.

It is a good idea to wear a dust mask when fileing or cutting wire with a power tool because the galvanized wire creates a dust that is not to healthy to breath.

cage building is much fun and i have made a few here and there and i have a few more planned--happy cage building

Great information! I looked them up, their website is http://ammermans.com/

Thank you! Good info.

I ordered door guard strips from klubertranz, but I know some on here have used the plastic bindings from report covers. You can just cut them using a razor blade to the length you need, and put them over the sharp edges and secure with a zip tie.