Those that make their own enclosures out of acrylic

Red Eunice

Arachnodemon
Joined
Mar 2, 2014
Messages
666
Buying fancy guns instead of fancy Ts, mann...where's the dedication! ;) I figured something had the attention of our resident acrylic expert. You know speaking of hoffmani, first You are quite welcome. Second, slings are going for 100$ for some reason if I recall now, and when I told you about them, I believe they were going for like 20$.

Didn't know they were inquisitive, that's quite cool. Have their little horns appeared yet?
Still dedicated, just adding another hobby. Lol!
Glad I got the hoffmanni back then, yes $20 each. From all the info I've been seeing the horn is readily visible at about the 2"+ size. They're just barely 3/4" now with no sign of horns. Time will tell, I've got plenty, retired now. :)
 

Jayke

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 4, 2018
Messages
7
If you haven't tried already, I'd suggest googling to see if you have any plastic sheet distributors over there. Something like USplastic, TAPplastics, etc. Many of them have scrap cuts that they'll sell for cheap. I've made a few acrylic enclosures with minimal cutting just by going and getting multiple similar sized pieces from those sort of stores, ends up being significantly cheaper than Lowes/Homedepot/menards/etc. Those plastic specialty shops will also generally only have scraps if they offer cutting services, which you could always use to get your pieces cut (though it's more expensive than just finding similarly sized scrap pieces).

Oh, also, many of those plastics specialty stores will have extruded and cast plastic as well. Like display cases, various sizes of clear containers, etc. They've been super helpful in this hobby in my opinion.

[edit] Forgot to mention, if you have one of those shops, chances are you might have somebody on craigslist nearby who bought more sheets than they needed. So if you still want huge sheets, that'd probably be a cheaper option.
 

Venomgland

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jul 23, 2017
Messages
148
If you haven't tried already, I'd suggest googling to see if you have any plastic sheet distributors over there. Something like USplastic, TAPplastics, etc. Many of them have scrap cuts that they'll sell for cheap. I've made a few acrylic enclosures with minimal cutting just by going and getting multiple similar sized pieces from those sort of stores, ends up being significantly cheaper than Lowes/Homedepot/menards/etc. Those plastic specialty shops will also generally only have scraps if they offer cutting services, which you could always use to get your pieces cut (though it's more expensive than just finding similarly sized scrap pieces).

Oh, also, many of those plastics specialty stores will have extruded and cast plastic as well. Like display cases, various sizes of clear containers, etc. They've been super helpful in this hobby in my opinion.

[edit] Forgot to mention, if you have one of those shops, chances are you might have somebody on craigslist nearby who bought more sheets than they needed. So if you still want huge sheets, that'd probably be a cheaper option.
Awesome! I never thought to do this. Thanks!
 

N8Legged

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jul 6, 2015
Messages
59
What tool do you use to cut the acrylic? How well does the hand tool work compared to electric saws? I don't have any saws. Thats why I am asking.
if you're in the states go buy the acrylic at lowes and give them the dimensions you want it cut too, they'll cut it for free. just take into account the thickness of the acrylic you're using for the cuts you ask for, I.E.: I built an arboreal enclosure that was 10"x10" at the base so I had two walls that were 10" wide but the other two were 9 & 1/2" wide because I was using .22" acrylic which rounds up the 1/4" thick for each.
 

Venomgland

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jul 23, 2017
Messages
148
If Lowes will cut it for me. That would be great! I'll head there this weekend.
 
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