Haven't done a Pictorial in a good long time and was throwing some cages together last night so took a lot of pictures.

Disclaimer, I'm not an expert, km.not a master trapper , nor to I seel.these I'm just a goober in there car shed who like building stuff.

And this isn't going to be a super crazy in depth deal if you have hand any welding or carpentry experience, alot of this is kinda common sense .

Okie dokie so I build my cages out of this horse pannel stuff can get a a 16'er for 75-85 bucks in most places and depending how you build them you can get l 2-4 cages per pannel. Pro's it's galvanize and super heavy duty ..cons ...it's galvanized and super heavy duty lol.
Anyhow I had a little over half a sheet left from the last two I built


So you can cut these on the ground , I used to when I first made them but found it's alot nice to use saw horses


As far as cutting z I see to use bolt cutters and it works but was always upset about the sharp lil nubs they left


Now a prefer a angle grinder with a cut off wheel, let you get nice claw and get a pretty flush cut.


Alrighty no just figure out how big you want you cage and cut out your sides

O and wen you make a cut make sure you go back and trim off theses ends


I went ahead and cut enough for two sets of 10x14" . Just gotta go back and trim everything to length


So you should have your side pieces bottom and tops and two sets of scrap's don't toss those well need them

Now we gotta welded them together( WARNING THIS STUFF I GALVANIZED WELD AT YIUR OWN RISK !!!), highly suggest a mig for this , I built them with stick and flux core ...and they work...but mig is a lot easier stick with some 6011 would be the best I'd use . But anyhow these don't have to be perfect but the more square you can get them the less pains you'll have..I like clamin a metal speed square on of my first first tacks

Then you just do the same with all the side till they look even..ish and then weld it.

Now just make sure though that you put in the side together the same way. If you put the side pieces on top of the bottom of on the left make sure you do it on the right . Other wise your going to have a cockeyed cage that won't sit right and have big gaps. But yeah should have something like this

Ok now if you wanna do the door or back first that's all up to you but I'm going to do the back real quick. And it pretty easy just take one of these scrap bits but on the back rack it in place then cut off the excess.

Now more then likely you'll have a bit of a bow in you cages , that just the way most of these panels are . You can either just weld it as is or you can use a vice grip to kinda pull it over . I like to weld to the bottom first then move tot he sides ans top



Wood working clam works good too


Alrighty backs are done

Ow for the doors , these will be guillotine doors so we need to make some channel for the door . Personally I'm using 1" angles and 1" flat bar. I don't know of any solid rule for making these but I like them a good bit taller then my cage height in this case I have a 14" tall cage and I'm making them 20 something your also need a bit of flat stock the same withe of you cage



So you just gonna weld the flat stock to the angel to make a channel like so


Now make sure when you weld these there not too narrow if there too narrow and tight fitting you'll get problems with you doors not closing due dirt , and definitely ice .want a little rattle . But yeah once you get the channels welded up weld you flat stock on the bottom and you get one of these deals

And for the actual door it's self. You can do it alot of ways but I like to take 1/2 cold rol and make a little u frame make it at least a 1/4" narrower side to side then your channel deal is at its narrowest point . Again you want a lil slop but not too much. Door needs to stay in, and not her too wonky, but if it's tight fitting it'll seize up
I'll just cut and weld some of that scrap pannel to the inside of this

Ok and now for the pan system. There's a few way to go about this but I come to like this one . Gonna need some 1/4" rod, your pan, some angle , and some nuts .

Weld your rod in the edge of your pan like so



Slip a nut on each end and weld them to the top edger of your angle





And we just weld it in place in the trap



Pan is in now for the trigger rod again multiple way you can do this but here how I like mine . Weld or bend a 90 on the end of some 1/4" and slip two nuts on

And just weld the nuts to the back edge of the pan . DO NOT weld the rod to the nuts. You need this thing to swivel .


Now you could do one nut in the corner and bend like a lil hook in your rod for it to hook to and swivel off of but again I'm not a huge bender so I just do this

Now for getting it set up. Slip two or three lock washers or some other build metal ring down the rod.There's two ways you can do this but the first and easiest iz to weld a lock washer at the top corner of the cage by the door channels with the rod already though it


And pull it up a little past where you want your pan to sit and cut the rod a little past the door




And the you weld you other rings tot the side of the cage , there are here to help against some critter pulling your trigger rod out and bending it

Now if your a bit of an idiot like me and bought rings that are way too small you can weld in one of these deals. Keeps the rod closer to the side of the cage if you do s tight rod deal without this your rod come out at a bit of an angle and you need bigger rings



Also feel like these are a little.more sensitive

And a quick test to make sure it triggers


Ok last deal is the lock I for where I saw this but it was years ago and I just fell in love with it but all it it's is a chunk of angle iron with a nut . I've seen the ones where it's just. Piece of flat stock spin not happening here

Gonna hang like this

And when it's all welded up


And done !

So just some side notes , you can also run your pans like this but I've had them seize up in freezing conditions due to ground contact. The ones made with angle is off the found a decent but so it's not as bad



When you weld on you rigns you don't want the rod centered up or touching the top when it's set other wise your trap isn't gonna be as sensitive because the trigger rod is sliding against your rings

Weld some rings on the top sides in case you wanna stake them down


And hog ring some wire to the back and sides like on my double door here . Most of the time I back these up into bushes and brush so only the front is exposed but the times I can't the big 2x4 holes make it too easy for coon and possum to reach though. Dot. Have to use anything super nice either the pannel talks the main abuse



Welp hope this helped someone out and remember a lot of this can translate to other style cages

Looks good ,i build a bunch like them myself. now for the safety nuts to say you cant weld galvanize .

very nice!

I me a you can weld anything now are some things worse for you then others is the question lol

Impressive!!!!!! And educational!!!

Looks like you watched my video. lol.

Yours with the 2x4 would work better than mine with the 4x4 wire i finally wrapped mine in 1x1 cage wire , because i got tired of feeding possums ,they would feed and crawl out of the 4x4. i got a source for the 2x2 now , they will be heavier but should make for a good trap.

I have had a few possums get though the sides before,