After some re-work of the initial design of Gecko Condo and consulting with various people online I ended up changing the design some from the first post on gecko condo. The main changes are that I will be going with steel to use as the primary supports rather than acrylic, and that I will be adding a storage cabinet to the bottom to contain the misting system and supplies.  Here is an exploded view of the new support system:

I have the steel and have drilled more the dozens of rivet and bolt holes to mount everything for the support system.  What a chore!  I had drilled steel with a power hand drill before but had forgotten just how tedious it could be and how quickly it can chew through bits.  A little oil saves them for a while but not long enough.  As sort of a break from drilling through the angle iron I built and painted the bottom cabinet, picked up the acrylic and related tools I will be using and ordered the needed hardware for the project.

That box with what appears to be logs on top of it is full of virgin cork bark I picked up for the naturalistic backgrounds.  Philadelphia is fairly close to what is supposidly the only cork farm in the United States, so I took advantage of the short distance and picked up a load of cork at a good price.

The way Gecko Condo is being constructed there will be several exposed bolts and nuts.  I decided to take advantage of this planning on building little gargoyle (the stone statue not the gecko) gecko heads with a 3D printer to use as bolt covers.  I don't know how well this will turn out or if it will work well or not but it is an excuse to learn how to use a 3D printer and just something else to spruce up the gecko's soon to be new enclosure!

This project will continue with several milestones, and I hope to post on the as they are completed:

1. Build supports and bottom cabinet (completed except some paint)
2. Build the 3 tanks that make up the condo
3. Line up and drill the holes for securing the tanks to the supports.
4. Build the skirts for between levels.

At this point the project will be equivalent to the commercial gecko condos that cost $3,000 plus. I have everything purchased for the above and am a bit under $1,000 for all plastic, wood, metal supports, hardware, paint and solvents. I plan on going further, however.

5. Build naturalistic backgrounds and substrate using Great Stuff foam and natural materials
6. Building an automated misting/watering system
7. Lighting (optional for the moment since what I am working with, may change because of plants)
8. Planting
9. 3D print bolt covers, nut casings and drawer pulls to hide hardware.

Stay tuned!