Making a hide out of a hollowed out trunk

Smotzer

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Jan 17, 2020
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Hey everyone!!

So today like most days I was pruning trees, raising them and clearing out dead wood on a property and I spotted a hollow in a small dead trunk and thought I bet I can make an arboreal hide out of that!! Cut the tree down and brought the log section back to my shop. Got a dremel and started the process of making it into a functional multiple entrance arboreal hide.

here’s what it looked like at the start. Pretty rough and jagged. Not that suitable for a T

299F3AC9-C2D5-4446-8E66-A8B261CA1340.jpeg F47F6EEA-B365-4B57-99EB-7C381DE89134.jpeg

So I began by trying to clear out the to-be hole in the side. Took a little while and two different bits to get the job done


and I made it through!
9D1172DB-A7A4-4E32-A4B7-F330D162A2A5.jpeg

and started widening the hole
D831A694-DE7E-4E57-BEBD-B754DF0C201F.jpeg

Then it was time to clean up the front entrance and remove some of the remnants of bark and pithy wood. E63B0C05-1E88-4982-AFD9-F4D5D939C8EB.jpeg
Here’s it all cleaned up and had a little fun creating some texture in the wood, and I hit it with some 100grit sand paper to smooth it down.
E45B5A0F-4E94-440B-A2BE-8D9132744CEE.jpeg

The last thing to do was to get it to stand up straight. If you see in the previous photo I have some pliers underneath the hide to stand it up staight.

B7AA67D6-4A9F-48CE-8774-64E084225A6D.jpeg

Then I cleaned up the backside, made a hole in the back and cleaned up the sharp jagged edges on the bottom. And sanded all the insides of the holes to remove and sharp burs from the dremel.
Here’s the tentative finished product, I’m sure I’ll fiddle with the dremel on it more to give it more woodgrain texture.
only took about an hour to make a functional multiple entrance arboreal hide out of a small section of a dead tree.
front, side, and back-

4E31023D-C0AA-4AD3-AAAD-877368F95CB6.jpeg 44C3E7D2-C826-4347-83C4-D97BE07966F2.jpeg 8DC2337A-E914-45CC-9400-9691CC75A3F3.jpeg

I’ll probably leave it outside it the Texas sun this week, going to hit in the 100’s just to “bake” it a little bit. I’ll probably make a custom enclosure out of glass or acrylic just to be able to use this hide, but that’s awhile down the road until some of my arboreal slings grow up.

hope you guys liked this little arboreal log hide how-to.
 

Dorifto

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First of all nice work!!

I suggest you to put in in a oven over 120°C 250°F to kill mold, fungus etc, and to dry even more the wood. You will have less chance of mold growing by misting the enclosure.
 

Smotzer

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First of all nice work!!

I suggest you to put in in a oven over 120°C 250°F to kill mold, fungus etc, and to dry even more the wood. You will have less chance of mold growing by misting the enclosure.
Yeah I plan on it once I’m done carving!! , but this thing I bet had been dead and drying for 10yrs, half of the inside was just dust, it probably doesn’t need it the Texas heat made it soooo dry, but I plan on it eventually.
 

Smotzer

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Start from there!! Hahahaha

The sun can dry and cure very well a wood.
This thing is definitely cured already not a bit of moisture in the wood while using the dremel on it, the hole I made in the side was dry and as light as dust
 

Smotzer

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Just got done with this (same process made a hole and hollowed out inside with dremel) , picturing it for maybe a starter burrow for a young aphonopelma. Or just a hide for a younger terrestrial. What species would you guys use this for?
C55DB6D6-DE99-4346-8ED9-73EC0D4C5505.jpeg B1748DCE-4F56-4C2F-8DE3-A5E0D877AC74.jpeg E1285797-A535-493E-A828-EBFA7E4B2DA5.jpeg
 

Charliemum

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I love them that's so cool do you think I could use elder wood for this? I just happen to have had an elder tree come down in our garden last month . Or would I need a hard wood ?
 

jc55

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Apr 3, 2014
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Hey everyone!!

So today like most days I was pruning trees, raising them and clearing out dead wood on a property and I spotted a hollow in a small dead trunk and thought I bet I can make an arboreal hide out of that!! Cut the tree down and brought the log section back to my shop. Got a dremel and started the process of making it into a functional multiple entrance arboreal hide.

here’s what it looked like at the start. Pretty rough and jagged. Not that suitable for a T

View attachment 345074 View attachment 345075

So I began by trying to clear out the to-be hole in the side. Took a little while and two different bits to get the job done


and I made it through!
View attachment 345078

and started widening the hole
View attachment 345079

Then it was time to clean up the front entrance and remove some of the remnants of bark and pithy wood. View attachment 345080
Here’s it all cleaned up and had a little fun creating some texture in the wood, and I hit it with some 100grit sand paper to smooth it down.
View attachment 345083

The last thing to do was to get it to stand up straight. If you see in the previous photo I have some pliers underneath the hide to stand it up staight.

View attachment 345084

Then I cleaned up the backside, made a hole in the back and cleaned up the sharp jagged edges on the bottom. And sanded all the insides of the holes to remove and sharp burs from the dremel.
Here’s the tentative finished product, I’m sure I’ll fiddle with the dremel on it more to give it more woodgrain texture.
only took about an hour to make a functional multiple entrance arboreal hide out of a small section of a dead tree.
front, side, and back-

View attachment 345086 View attachment 345085 View attachment 345087

I’ll probably leave it outside it the Texas sun this week, going to hit in the 100’s just to “bake” it a little bit. I’ll probably make a custom enclosure out of glass or acrylic just to be able to use this hide, but that’s awhile down the road until some of my arboreal slings grow up.

hope you guys liked this little arboreal log hide how-to.
Looks good and i bet the spider who inhabits that home will appreciate it very much.I know i do not miss those 100 + degree days but those temps will definitely bake the wood,lol.
 

Charliemum

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Looks good and i bet the spider who inhabits that home will appreciate it very much.I know i do not miss those 100 + degree days but those temps will definitely bake the wood,lol.
There is a pic of his spood on it in the gallery 😊 that's how I found the thread @Smotzer linked it for me to see how he did it 😁
 

Frogdaddy

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How did I miss this thread?
Looks exactly like the ceramic stumps at PetSmart lol.
 

Smotzer

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I love them that's so cool do you think I could use elder wood for this? I just happen to have had an elder tree come down in our garden last month . Or would I need a hard wood ?
I think it would work, this was a hard wood at one point but it was pretty unstable and soft from dry rot in Texas so I’m sure yours will work. I’ve used a few different types!
 
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