New SS cage with sharp edges

[WakaWaka]

We purchased our cage about a month ago and it will still be about another 2 - 3 weeks before our baby is ready to come home.
Please understand, this posit is not to bash the manufacturer, but to make others aware to check everything on any new cage, toy, perch, bell, etc to ensure is is safe for our babies. Had we used this cage "as is" our baby may have been injured with a, cut foot, leg, or worse.

Un-boxing the day it arrived we noticed very sharp edges on almost every round bar where they were welded to the square frame and we were fortunate we did not cut ourselves bringing it into the house. I called the manufacturer the next day and let them know about the sharp edges and my concern for any animal that would have it as a home. They were surprised and told me to send them pics.

Well we have been busy lately and just got around to photographing the sharp metal and beginning the lengthy task of de-burring everything to make it a bird safe home. I don't see any sense in trying to send it back and possibly wind up with some other problem. The rest of the workmanship seems OK. Besides, since I have the tools and knowledge, it is the only way I will feel safe putting our baby in this cage.

So I set to work with a Dremel, abrasive disk and Nyalox abrasive brush to put a nice smooth finish on every possible edge that looked dangerous.

When they made the cage, the round bars are sheared off to length, leaving a very sharp edge. Well they just welded that sharp edge to the square tube, gave it a quick clean and sent it out the door. Had they spent a few extra seconds to take that sharp edge off the ends of the round bars, this would have been a much better product. Its a good thing this is a stainless cage and I don't have to worry about taking the paint off to remove the sharp edges. I would have returned it if that was the case.

Well, it took about 2 hours last night and another 2 hours tonight to de-bur every round bar edge on the sides, front and back walls. The food bowl locks were even sharp. l still have to do the bottom grate and the most difficult will be the top. So I'm looking at about another several hours before this is completely safe for our little girl. What we won't do for our little ones

I did send the pics to the manufacturer this evening and I truly do not expect any reply back soon. I do not want to publish the manufacturers name in case they are one of the sponsors for this site. If a Moderator wishes to PM and ask, I will be happy to provide that information and with their permission list it here.

If and when I hear from the manufacturer, I'll post their reply up here.

Thanks
Kelly and Karl

 

[Kiwibird]

I'd just take a metal file to it. Kiwi inherited a stainless cage for the patio and it had a few welds break during shipping (this was a 40-something year old, one piece cage). I used a metal file to take down the sharp points at the broken welds before repair. Don't just file back and forth, file in a rounded motion to actually smooth those rough edges out!

 

[SailBoat]

That is very sad, but also amazing from the manufacturers' side. It's like the Quality Control process left the the facility for several days.

I am aware of the limited number of Stainless Steel cage builders' and most of the large Steel Cage (powder coated cage) manufacturers' and all of them work to not allow sharp edges on their cages. I am not defending the industry, only responding to what I have seen from the vast majority of this industry over last 45 years.

It is possible that you got a fixture test cage, the first couple of cages of a production run. Those cages are normally set aside for inspection prior to release (approving) the fixtures. One of the things that lead me to believe this is that the welds had not been polished.

I hope that you hear from the Manufacturer!

Thank-you, for the heads-up!

 

[plumsmum2005]

Don't forget to give it a good wash down before use.

 

[WakaWaka]

I'd just take a metal file to it. Kiwi inherited a stainless cage for the patio and it had a few welds break during shipping (this was a 40-something year old, one piece cage). I used a metal file to take down the sharp points at the broken welds before repair. Don't just file back and forth, file in a rounded motion to actually smooth those rough edges out!

Thank you for your feedback but this cage is 4 foot wide, 3 feet deep, and almost 7 feet tall. I thought about a knife edge file to get in the area between the bar and square tube, but after taking count of how many ends needed filing, I voted for the Dremel. Besides, that stainless is pretty tough even for some of the best files.

The cage has 345 bars and two ends on each bar, that is 690 sharp ends, plus the areas around the food dishes that have to be de-burred. All the welds actually look pretty good, its just the sharp edges of almost every bar that is the problem. I'll stick with the Dremel and I can get a nice sculpted round edge on each piece.

We have front, back, both sides, and the bottom grate done. Now we just need to work on the top. That has the most sharp edges and bars.

We hope to have it assembled by next week and place some perches and toys inside after a thorough wash down.

Thanks
Kelly and Karl

 

[WakaWaka]

Don't forget to give it a good wash down before use.

Yes, that is an absolute must !

Also need to pick up several sized screw together stainless carabiners to hang the toys. No zinc or cadmium plated stuff for our baby !

Thanks
Kelly and Karl

 

[WakaWaka]

Well, after about 8 hours with a Dremel, sandpaper, and an abrasive brush, all 800 plus sharp edges on this cage are smooth and bird safe. Kelly and I went over everything 4 times just to be sure. At least we feel that we can safely place Arika in there without her getting injured on any sharp metal edges.

We gave everything a good wipe down and started assembling the cage. That is when we discovered they messed up the front of the top where is is supposed to bolt to the front panel where the door is. They just drilled a clearance hole through everything and nothing is threaded.
They did manage to drill a hole through the top of the door and thread that !! Great, I can bolt the door shut and not use it.
OK, I can fix that with a button head bolt and a cap nut so no threads are exposed. Again an easy fix.

Everything is coming together and Lastly, we go to put the bottom grate in the rails and slide it in. No go, the bottom grate is too large to fit between the slide rails. Yes, we are sure everything is correct. It appears that the made the grate too large or the bottom that holds the slide rails is not spaced apart far enough. Its about 3/16 too large and there is no way that SS bottom will flex enough to allow it to fit. Besides, it needs to slide out easily for cleaning.

At this point, I called them and explained the problem. They were nearing closing and they will measure some of the other grates to see if they will fit our cage bottom. I am expecting a call on Monday.

At least we still have some time before we can bring our baby home. We want this right before that day arrives.

I guess I should have bit the bullet in the beginning and sent this thing back. Hopefully they can find a bottom grate that is a little smaller. If not, I'll put this entire cage in my truck and drive it up to NJ myself for a full refund.

Sorry for the vent, but it really should not be this hard to get a half way decent cage. The cost on this SS cage was $2500. I didn't expect a NASA quality build, but this is ridiculous.

Next time we will save up and look at one of the better US built SS units. It will be about twice what we paid but we would hope the quality would be much better. Time to put the spare change in a very large bucket !!

We really hope others have not experienced any bad luck and poor quality like we have. We hope that if you do, you are successful in resolving it in a timely manner.

Pleas check all your cages, food dishes, holders, and toys for anything that could possibly harm our little feathered friends. Its up to us to provide safe "housing" for them.

Thanks
Kelly and Karl

 

[SailBoat]

Thanks for the update!

If you look at a bit longer side assembly bolts and add SS spacers (washers) between the vertical cage pieces you will be able to gain enough additional (commonly) depth. Check your side assembly bolts to determine directional gain and whether this will benefit your application or not. Fingers crossed!

Note: Some cage construction uses thread inserts, while others use nuts and lock washers to anchor the side assembly bolts. The newer cages designs are using thread inserts as a means of avoid industrious Parrots (like all of our Amazons) from loosing the nuts and than dis-assembling the cage. I upgraded the nuts to nylock nuts to slow our DYH Amazon down a bit.

Hope this helps!

 

[plumsmum2005]

I think you have shown the patience of a saint in going to town putting right the problems that just should not be there.

Everything that was described in the sales info should be supplied in tip top condition. If not it is not 'fit for purpose'.

If on casters please check over very carefully. This has been our achillles heel with the cages we have purchased. It keels over after a bit as the parts are not strong enough. Easily rectified and not costly but IMO should not be necessary.

 

[Scott]

What a stunning lack of design and build quality! Particularly disheartening as by definition a SS cage is at the top strata of cost. I do understand your desire to remedy yourself, but as the process unfolded it seems additional flaws were discovered.

 

[SailBoat]

What a stunning lack of design and build quality! Particularly disheartening as by definition a SS cage is at the top strata of cost. I do understand your desire to remedy yourself, but as the process unfolded it seems additional flaws were discovered.

I have checked with an insider friend and my early guess that this cage was likely a fixture check cage was confirmed by her. Your warehouse /reseller should have provided you a replacement cage without any question.

 

[Katu]

At that price I WOULD have expected everything to be perfect, and wouldn't have accepted anything less. It's great that you were able to make allowances and fix everything, but you shouldn't have had to do that. Also, your time is worth $$$ too. Maybe you could get a partial refund or credit or something. You deserve it.

 

[WakaWaka]

Thanks for the update!

If you look at a bit longer side assembly bolts and add SS spacers (washers) between the vertical cage pieces you will be able to gain enough additional (commonly) depth. Check your side assembly bolts to determine directional gain and whether this will benefit your application or not. Fingers crossed!

Note: Some cage construction uses thread inserts, while others use nuts and lock washers to anchor the side assembly bolts. The newer cages designs are using thread inserts as a means of avoid industrious Parrots (like all of our Amazons) from loosing the nuts and than dis-assembling the cage. I upgraded the nuts to nylock nuts to slow our DYH Amazon down a bit.

Hope this helps!

Thanks, that was one of the first things we hoped for, but the width is the issue and the front and back panels determine the width since the side panels fit between them. The bottom square openings of the front and back panels receive the "pegs" that stick up from the base.

I wish they used threaded inserts (PEM nuts) !!!. They just threaded what they could of the thin SS square tube. At least the bolts are M6x1.0 fine thread. If they ever strip out, I'll install PEM nuts and be done with it. Believe me, we will be much more careful ordering the next cage.

For the top, the only choice we have is to use a shallow button head bolt and a cap screw on top. I need a shallow head to allow for the door to open and close properly. I'll double lock it against a thinner nut or nylon locking nut and use the cap nut to protect Arika from any exposed threads.

This morning I used a square to check the base and noticed that the legs were bent inward and the vertical pegs that protruded from the top were bent out to compensate for the error. I used some frame alignment techniques to bend the legs outward and straighten the pins. I managed to gain a little over 1/8 inch. That was just enough to allow the bottom grate to fit between the legs and slide freely.

The last thing is to attach the seed catcher. We unwrapped it from its cardboard and plastic only to find that it too was just roughly sheared SS metal with more sharp edges. I'll have to address that another time or make my own from scratch.

The Manufacturer is supposed to call me tomorrow. I've already sent them numerous pictures of all the issues. Now I need to include pics of the bent legs and seed catcher.

I know, we really should have sent it back. Looking back, I'm sorry we did not do that. Sometimes when you do that, you can get something worse the second and third time. That is why we decided to tackle the issues ourselves.

Sorry for getting into the deep technicalities but Engineers have strange brain patterns Fortunately we have our feathered friends to help keep us straight.

Thanks
Kelly and Karl

 

[WakaWaka]

I think you have shown the patience of a saint in going to town putting right the problems that just should not be there.

Everything that was described in the sales info should be supplied in tip top condition. If not it is not 'fit for purpose'.

If on casters please check over very carefully. This has been our achillles heel with the cages we have purchased. It keels over after a bit as the parts are not strong enough. Easily rectified and not costly but IMO should not be necessary.

Thanks for the suggestion on the casters.
We noticed that they are really flimsy. We are looking at the possibility of using more commercial replacement casters or large "cup" pads with matching thread for the bottom of the legs. If we use the cups, the weight is straight down on the center of the pad and not offset like a swivel caster. I can make a few of them from white delrin and insert a short threaded stud in to mate to the bottom of the legs. (Yes, lucky enough to have a metal lathe)
If we have to move the cage any distance, we can just put it on a large dolly and then sit it back down on the pads after it is relocated.

The more I think about it, the pads seem like a good idea.

Any feedback appreciated.

Thanks
Kelly and Karl

 

[WakaWaka]

What a stunning lack of design and build quality! Particularly disheartening as by definition a SS cage is at the top strata of cost. I do understand your desire to remedy yourself, but as the process unfolded it seems additional flaws were discovered.

Yes, we ordered the SS because we wanted something really nice for Arika and we expected much better. Normally, I would approach a task like this with more structure. Taking complete inventory of all parts, thorough checkout of every part, taking basic measurements, checking square. I slipped this time and did not follow my own rules. As the defects unfolded, it just became another fix that we had to do to get to the next stage, only to discover another problem. Soon, we were to a "point of no return" so to speak. Right now the seed catcher appears to be the last hoop to jump through. It appears to fit ok, but it must have the sharp edges removed also. I'm wearing sheet metal gloves to handle it while smoothing over the shard edges so I do not cut myself.

Believe me, next time we will not hesitate to perform complete checkout of every part. If we find anything wrong, the manufacturer will be contacted immediately and we will insist on proper parts or a complete refund.

On the lighter side, its amazing... after all these years, we are still making mistakes and still learning from them Its all good.

Thanks
Kelly and Karl

 

[WakaWaka]

I just waned to let everyone know that I have not abandoned this thread. We have updates, want to let everyone know the outcome of our experience, and wish to do it in a tactful manner. We've been busy with Arika and will post all the facts as soon as we can.

Thanks
Kelly and Karl

 

[Scott]

Oh yeah! I am sure this thread is just beginning!!

 

[Timneh]

Was this a Kings Cages 506 SS? What was the outcome, what did KC do to rectify this? I almost bought one myself, so which SS cage company do you recommend now, Animal Environments?

 

[WakaWaka]

Was this a Kings Cages 506 SS? What was the outcome, what did KC do to rectify this? I almost bought one myself, so which SS cage company do you recommend now, Animal Environments?

I saw your post and was just about to refer you to this thread and noticed that you already found it.

I purposely left out the manufacturer's name in the previous posts until I checked with the moderators first. They have given me permission to post the name and finish this thread tactfully and with facts.

I still need to finish up the post along with pictures from our cage and ones that were sent by the manufacturer to offer as possible replacement parts. I want to ensure that we follow up properly on this post, but we've held off for other reasons that I cannot disclose at this time.

At this point, I will disclose that the cage was purchased from KingsCages and it is the model 506 SS.

SS is definitely the way to go if your budget permits.

On a positive note:
The 506 SS was very well packed on a large wooden skid, shipping time was good, it looks nice, cleans up well, most of all Arika likes her new "condo" and it is now safe since the sharp edges are gone Their customer support was also very good and the people we dealt with were very accommodating. The final outcome will be posted soon.

Had this been the powder coated version, and it had all the sharp edges we would would have simply sent it back.

Bottom line, check all your options carefully, read return policies, insist on nothing but the best for your babies.

Thanks
Kelly, Karl, and Arika

 

[Timneh]

It was obvious you were talking about the KC 506 by reading your previous posts. It was probably a test cage they had extra because the welds were not polished like the other poster wrote.

Personally I only had good experiences with dealing with Kings Cages so I was surprised by your thread, but your happy now and your awesome B&G.

Merry Christmas :xmas_lol2

View attachment 19944