Acrylic Caging??

[kmrogers]

Has anyone built their own Acrylic cages? I found a place where you can get acrylic sheets pretty cheap, my husband and were thinking about building cages for the cresties.

I have heard that acrylic warps really bad over time, has anyone had any problems with this? Or would plexi glass work better?

It will cost about as much as a extra large exo terra, but I will get a bunch of cages out of it. I just don't want to waste my money on something that wouldn't last in the long run.

[kmrogers]

Thanks James.

I didn't even think of the aquarium thing. Good point there. I was just told that it yellows really bad and warps because its porous. Obviously it wouldn't if they are making aquariums out of it, maybe the person had plexi glass and acrylic mixed up.

I think I will give it a go and start out small. Heating and bending is a good idea, I will look into that too.

[kmrogers]

There is a place locally that I can get it.

I have also been looking at tapplastics.com, their prices aren't too bad either. I am going to buy some locally first, try it out and if its a sucess then I will order some in bulk. The tap plastics place seems to have the best prices out there, I have looked and looked.

I am also going to try a few different cages at different thickness. I don't want to order a bunch and have it not be thick enough.

This may take a while, its kind of a winter project for us. Hopefully we will have time to do it lol.

[honuman]

Yeah I think they must have had them confused. I don't see why they would make huge aquariums out of acrylic though if it was known for warping and getting discolored. Plexi-glass I know has been proven to warp and discolor and scratch rather easily.

Glad to have been of assistance to you. Now whats the address to the cheap acrylic? ~

Acrylic will scratch easily too so be careful with it but it is much better all the way around than plexiglass.

[warnersister_2000]

There is a place locally that I can get it.

I have also been looking at tapplastics.com, their prices aren't too bad either. I am going to buy some locally first, try it out and if its a sucess then I will order some in bulk. The tap plastics place seems to have the best prices out there, I have looked and looked.

tap is local to me and is where we go for all our cage-building needs 

[kmrogers]

There is a place locally that I can get it.

I have also been looking at tapplastics.com, their prices aren't too bad either. I am going to buy some locally first, try it out and if its a sucess then I will order some in bulk. The tap plastics place seems to have the best prices out there, I have looked and looked.

tap is local to me and is where we go for all our cage-building needs 

Sweet. Sounds like I will be trying them out for sure once we build a couple cages, and give them a little test run first.

[LunarGecko]

I have been looking a taps web page and found out about a week ago that I have one 2 blocks from my house . I'm going in there soon to get some display/lock boxes made for shows. I was gonna redo my tanks as well but wow thats gonna take a bit! Would love to see what you make, be sure to take in progress pictures. ttfn

[LunarGecko]

Just got back from taps...keep in mind there online prices are much less tyhan there in store. I got quoted 2 times the price of what it was on the web page  . The guys said they do that or else people would not pay the net cost with the very high shipping.  So it works out to be about what it costs at other places if not a little more.

[warnersister_2000]

i hate it when people come into petco and say, "but it's this much online, why can't you give me that price?"
1) did you think about shipping and handling costs?
2) a physical store has overhead to pay for electricity, salaries, alarm monitoring, animal care, etc.

[andre2000lb]

I have had my plexiglass cages for years and never had a problem with them.  They have never warped or discolored.  They are built out of the 1/4" material though.  I don't use the 1/8" stuff.  I find it to flex too much when you start using to big of pieces.  Here is a photo of what I built. Each one of the sections is 18" X 18" X 24".

[sprwoman1]

Now that's sweet!