Button quail need a bigger home

Cage Construction Part 1

Last week, two button quail were given to my son for his birthday.  For some reason, he really wanted these birds, and his aunt thought it was a good idea to give them to him.  Side note: I didn't know anything about taking care of these birds, and we all know that I will end up caring for these instead of my son.  

The cage that they arrived in was fine while they were a few weeks old, but its a cage for hamsters.  They spend most of their time squeaking and running around like crazy things in their cage. Now that they are older, when they are out of their cage they fly around.  I think that they should be able to fly a bit in their cage too, although I read somewhere that button quail don't fly and don't perch.  Since my quail do both, I am building a bigger cage so they can continue to be unique to their breed. 

I have some stainless steel bar remaining from my high top counter project, and would like this cage to look decent if it will be in my living room for a few years. I looked around my yard for anything else interesting to add to the design, and found a window, and a cement mixing tub.  The initial plan was to use the tub for the base of the cage, and allow it to be removed easily for cleaning.  The window will be the top to allow light, and for people to see the birds from above.  This is how far I got today. I welded the stainless steel frame together, quickly polished the material with 60 grit, removed the hardware from the window, and scrubbed it clean (btw: it was still dirty in this photo). 

If you can envision it, the next part of this design is to add the wire mesh from the bottom of the window to the outside edges of the tub, a small door (6" square), and paint the window frame.  The window will be hinged to the stainless steel frame in order to attach the mesh to the frame and to make it easy to add large items to the enclosure than through a small door. Stay tuned.