Greetings from sunny Victoria

[KittyJess]

Hi all,
Jess here, new to the forum so thought I would start with an introduction. Love woodworking and am starting to build up my selection of tools, so far I have a dropsaw (for my 21st), a lathe, a bench router and odds and ends, drills, sanders etc. When I was at uni about 10 years ago I had access to a friend of mines workshop, but I've since moved house to another town so don't catch up very often. So far I've made a bookcase, garden bench, games table (for Warhammer, not mine, my husband's!), aquarium cabinet, turned pens for christmas presents, and a few bits and pieces (guinea pig hutch, outdoor cat run, garden beds, gates etc.). Well the woodworking bug is biting again and I've gotta get back to it.
Due to lack of funds I've always worked with pine and love my jarrah stain, mostly because I was a uni student for 6 years and when I did have a job I didn't have the time to build anything anyway. My skills are a bit poor and I'm terrified of drawers, which is going to be the next thing I'll need to tackle.
I have my little brothers 21st coming up in december and he wants a pet snake. Not my cup of tea so I will be building the enclosure and then running very quickly the other way. Have included a plan of it from google sketchup. The cupboard door panels are blank because i don't know what to put in there. Any ideas?
Also planning a 5 part bookcase cabinet thing for the games room, with a spot for displaying little trinkets, and a new kitchen sideboard as the above mentioned aquarium cabinet is taking a break in the garage, and we have space to fill.
Any advice on tools I should look at getting, timber to use? I once worked with a 3 foot wide thicknesser and a bench plane, that was heaven but i don't think they'll be in the budget for quite a while!
Thanks all, looking forward to it.
Jess
P.S. Have also included the photo of the pens I made, feel free to guess what the woods are, some of them are a bit obscure.

[Jethrow]

Hi Jess and welcome to the forum.
When you build the cabinet for the snake and it takes up residence post a pic.
Better still pics of WIP up to and including the resident moving in.
Again welcome and enjoy the forum

[KittyJess]

Thanks Jethrow, I'm still tossing up whether to build the snake enclosure out of pine or marine ply. I think pine would look better and I would be able to seal the inside to make up for the humidity, but marine ply would be easier to use as it comes in wide sheets so I could cut the panels out instead of trying to make panels out of pine, which never come out even for me. Maybe i could cheat and use tongue in groove pine floorboards/cladding? I couldn't possibly stuff THAT up too much!
Jess

[Christos]

Welcome to the forum.

[Rowdy_Rod]

Welcome to the forum Jess I would go with the tongue and groove pine and stain it

[KittyJess]

I like the way you think Rod! Will post pics when I get it started. Thanks for the welcome guys.

[JJF]

Welcome to the forum

[rocfish13]

Welcome!!

[munruben]

Hi KJ nice work and welcome aboard.

[billrule]

Yeah.... tongue'n'groove would be my choice.
- You can get pretty much the exact amount you need,
- you can probably make use of off-cuts,
- if you are critical with the selection of boards, it will be both physically sound and good-looking
- a mistake in ripping a sheet of marine-ply could be costly, whereas a blooper with a T&G board is likely to be only a minor irritation, and..
- easier to get home if handling it solo.

Happy chips

Bill

[KittyJess]

Ok you've twisted my arm, T&G it is! Good point about the travel Bill, my favourite timber yard is an hour away so don't think I'd be getting a sheet of marine ply home in my car, and probably no delivery. Going there today for a bit of retail therapy so will check out what they can do, thanks guys!