Acrylic Display Cases?

[jblayza]

Any plastics shop or storage container shop carries great acrylic cubes. I just got a bunch of 4x4x4 cubes that I'm modifying to suit my needs.

If you need something bigger you can buy and modify display cases designed to display footballs or basketballs.

In my opinion tarantulacages.com is way too expensive if you're willing to put in the labor yourself. With a little bit of practice and about 40-60 dollars worth of tools and about 20 dollars worth of material you can start making all the enclosures you can shake a stick at.

Some links on places that carry fairly priced acrylic display boxes:

http://www.containerstore.com/brows...=14231065&itemIndex=97&CATID=233&PRODID=62553

http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=222&

Those are the cheapest sources for the two styles of display boxes I use for my slings and small juvies. I use the boxes from the first link for avics and the ones from the bottom link for everything else.

Just search around if you need something bigger, both suppliers have larger boxes if you look.

The Container Store is *slightly* cheaper but TAP Plastics will also sell you an acrylic drill bit which you *need* if you want to make professional quality holes (or any holes that aren't a melty mess and aren't cracked and chipped, at least).

I think tarantulacages.com's cages are worth the price if you want a nice uniform set-up. Beleive me the practice alone is gonna cost you if you want a nice clean lookin cage. And where can i get material to build a nice good size cage for under 20 bux?

 

[gvfarns]

I think tarantulacages.com's cages are worth the price if you want a nice uniform set-up. Beleive me the practice alone is gonna cost you if you want a nice clean lookin cage. And where can i get material to build a nice good size cage for under 20 bux?

Yeah, agreed. Acrylic is not cheap at all and it's easy to screw up (I bet tarantulacages gets it cheaper in bulk, which is why they are so cheap compared with DIY work). On the other hand, acrylic sure is fun to tinker with!

 

[saminthemiddle]

You can get practice acrylic by asking for scrap pieces from an acrylic shop.

I just did the calculations and the acrylic that goes into one of those large 16x8x8 cages costs 16 dollars for some nice, cast sheet. If you go extruded (which you shouldn't for this application) you could probably do it for less than eight bucks. Add five dollars for vents, glue, hinges, ect and you have a 20 dollar cage.

Btw, that 2' x 2' sheet that you're cutting from will have plenty of extra material too for gluing practice.

Edit: my calculations were for 1/8" think acrylic. tarantulacages.com uses 3/16" which would cost you about 20 dollars even.

 

[gvfarns]

You can get practice acrylic by asking for scrap pieces from an acrylic shop.

I just did the calculations and the acrylic that goes into one of those large 16x8x8 cages costs 16 dollars for some nice, cast sheet. If you go extruded (which you shouldn't for this application) you could probably do it for less than eight bucks. Add five dollars for vents, glue, hinges, ect and you have a 20 dollar cage.

Btw, that 2' x 2' sheet that you're cutting from will have plenty of extra material too for gluing practice.

Haha. Well. Good luck with that. When I built mine I used 1/4 inch and bought a 2'x4' (part of this thread has been complaining about the size of the large tarantulacages enclosure). There's the shipping (because I couldn't find it cheaper in any glass stores near me). And the hinges, glue, syringe, latches, vents etc. are going to cost more than four dollars (and there's shipping on those too). Then there's the saw blade, but maybe we won't count that because tap plastics will cut a 2'x4' piece for you (though they won't cut a 2'x2').

Anyway, I'm not saying what you suggest can't be done, but I will give you props if you can actually build a decent enclosure out of acrylic for $20.

 

[gvfarns]

Oh yeah, and unless I have made a mistake in my calculations, you can't make a 16x8x8 enclosure out of a 24x24 sheet.

 

[gvfarns]

You can check tap plastics for a basic idea. If we got with 3/16 as tarantula cages does and do all the same stuff (same number of hinges, etc) it costs $50.75. Then there's 14.58 shipping. Total: $65.33. And that doesn't include: the vents (I don't know where they get them), the glue, the syringe, whatever they used to cut, whatever they used to drill holes for the vents, and whatever they use to polish the edges.

Now tap plastics may not be cheapest but it has everything you want and it's competitive. If you buy from several retailers you increase shipping costs. When I priced acrylic at glass stores, it was significantly more than online and it wasn't in as good a shape. Maybe you will have better luck.

But anyway, acrylic is nice, but it's pricey. And at $54.99 tarantulacages' large enclosure is definitely not overpriced.

edit: there's $15 or so shipping from tarantulacages, so to make it fair let's say 69.99.

 

[saminthemiddle]

You *can* make a 16x8x8 out of a 24x24 sheet!

Cost:
3/16" 2'x2' sheet: 21USD
3x hinges: 4USD (and one extra for later)
2x locking hasps: 4USD
1x acrylic handle: 1USD (or make your own)

Total: 30USD + tax

Plus sad paper, glue, cleaning solvent ect...

I don't now where you're getting your numbers from but they are waaay off. Unless, of course you're including tools which isn't very fair as you don't just use the tools once! Most of us need at *least* five enclosures or so by building some you save a lot of money.

Also, shipping shouldn't be a problem if you're close to a big city. Every big city has an acrylic shop that sells stock cheaply.

Edit: Doh, you're right. I was designing an enclosure with a screen lid. If you're using an acrylic lid you need an additional 8x8 inch sheet. and you can cut nine of those out of a 2'x2' sheet. So, if you need more than one it's still easily less expensive to build your own. You don't think that tarantulacages.com doesn't charge for labor or cut a profit, do you?

 

[gvfarns]

You *can* make a 16x8x8 out of a 24x24 sheet!

Cost:
3/16" 2'x2' sheet: 21USD
3x hinges: 4USD (and one extra for later)
2x locking hasps: 4USD
1x acrylic handle: 1USD (or make your own)

Total: 30USD + tax

Plus sad paper, glue, cleaning solvent ect...

I don't now where you're getting your numbers from but they are waaay off. Unless, of course you're including tools which isn't very fair as you don't just use the tools once! Most of us need at *least* five enclosures or so by building some you save a lot of money.

Also, shipping shouldn't be a problem if you're close to a big city. Every big city has an acrylic shop that sells stock cheaply.

Haha. Well it's a three dimensional object. Top bottom front back. That's 4x8x16=512 square inches. Then there are the two sides 2x8x8=128. Total 640 square inches. 24*24=576 square inches. Can't do it. Though it's true you don't have to go all the way to 2'x4' if you can find someone who will sell you a quantity in between those sizes.

I just pulled those prices off of tapplastics.com, which is where I got my stuff when I built it. I had a hard time finding a place that would sell me acrylic in the thickness I wanted. Maybe Chicago's not a big enough city. Like I say, maybe you can find a better source of the stuff. I went to some glass stores but the acrylic prices were above what tapplastics has. I'm not sure where you can find those clasps and things, but online is a good place to start.

I do like your optimism, but it sounds like it's born of inexperience to me.

 

[gvfarns]

And of course they do cut a profit, but I'm sure they have an efficient system set up where they buy the materials in bulk and are really good at using all the pieces and not screwing anything up. I'm not sure how much profit they make on each sale. It doesn't really matter, though. What does matter is it's not easy for a do-it-yourselfer to do the same thing for that price.

If you tried to make a car from scratch that could compete with standard cars on the road, it would be expensive and crappy. But that doesn't mean auto manufacturers don't make a profit. At least in principle.

 

[saminthemiddle]

Yeah, you're right, you do need the extra 8x8 inch square. BUT!

You're calculating costs if you're making one and only one enclosure, I'm calculating costs if you're doing the more realistic thing and building nine cages.

 

[gvfarns]

Yeah. If you need nine cages, you definitely should build them yourself. It's probably around the same price if you have the good tools. And you get to choose exactly what they look like, build custom waterers etc.

When I say tools, of course, I mean a table saw (because any other way doesn't leave a straight enough edge to use the capillary glue, at least I can't make them that straight), the sweet saw blade, plastic drill, router (if you want an edge like theirs), torch. You have to build a lot of stuff before the cost of these tools divided by savings on tarantulacages wares pays off. And I bet they would give you a bulk discount that makes that savings disappear. But if you already have these things, you should use them.

Though, if you build your own, you can also compromise a little on the quality, which is probably reasonable.

By the way, I'm not bagging on DIY. I did it and I enjoyed it. I'd do it again. But I didn't save any money.

 

[gvfarns]

Another thought: if you are building a bunch, most likely most of your tarantulas are not real large, so you can build smaller enclosures and probably use the thinner acrylic which you can get anywhere. It's a lot easier to work with, cut, etc. I've been thinking about trying my hand at making small enclosures from the 1/8 inch stuff now that I have practice working with acrylic. That solvent cement goes a looooong way.

 

[saminthemiddle]

1/8" is fine for pretty much anything short of a fish tank for tarantula sizes...

Anyway, no way do you need a table saw. If you're buying a table saw then yes, I agree that DIY is prohibitively expensive! For those not in the know an acrylic table saw blade costs between 120 and 400 dollars depending on size and quality.

To make a straight cut use a router (a bit costs 20USD) or a saber saw (a blade costs 15USD IIRC) and run the tool along a straight edge that you have clamped to the work.

 

[gvfarns]

1/8" is fine for pretty much anything short of a fish tank for tarantula sizes...

To make a straight cut use a router (a bit costs 20USD) or a saber saw (a blade costs 15USD IIRC) and run the tool along a straight edge that you have clamped to the work.

Hmmm. That's a good idea about the router. I don't have one of course, but it would have been nice.

Has anyone on the board made an enclosure using 1/8" acrylic? I've gotta think if tarantulacages doesn't use it, there's a reason. But I would be happy and interested if there isn't.

Hopefully somewhere in this discussion the original poster and anyone else interested has gotten an idea of what's required to DIY and how financially feasible it is (depending on the accessibility of cheap acrylic and good tools). In my experience it wasn't even close. But it was fun.

 

[jblayza]

I think it may be because if used for larger enclosures 1/8 in acrylic will eventually start to bow

 

[saminthemiddle]

the thicker the acrylic the more professional the work tends to look up to a point.

As for warping, if you're using cast acrylic it will warp a lot less easily than extruded. If he's using extruded then it does need the heavy gauge. However, if they can make aquariums with 1/4" acrylic and have it hold up I would think that you could make a 1/8" terrarium that only needs to hold back a little bit of slightly damp peat moss or coco coir.

If he's using extruded, however, I wouldn't touch his cages with a 10 foot pole, however. He probably uses the extra thickness for aesthetics.

 

[dtknow]

Seems to me that these were meant to be cages to showcase one or two of your favorite specimens.

 

[crpy]

the thicker the acrylic the more professional the work tends to look up to a point.

As for warping, if you're using cast acrylic it will warp a lot less easily than extruded. If he's using extruded then it does need the heavy gauge. However, if they can make aquariums with 1/4" acrylic and have it hold up I would think that you could make a 1/8" terrarium that only needs to hold back a little bit of slightly damp peat moss or coco coir.

If he's using extruded, however, I wouldn't touch his cages with a 10 foot pole, however. He probably uses the extra thickness for aesthetics.

Dang....sounds like you do this for a living

 

[saminthemiddle]

nah, I don't do this for a living. I'm just geeky and working on my own custom built enclosures so it pays to do some reading!

 

[Miss Bianca]

after all this posting about dimentions & rates...

sooooooo in the END, these cages from this site rock, considering LABOR!, quality, materials used, vents, snapping hasps etc. (for the DIY's or for anyone) :clap:

well.. that's my opinion anyway...

PS: and ofCOURSE he gets the materials in bulk... :?