DIY Enclosure Lid

[Beatlesdork]

I ordered a 1/8 thick sheet of acrylic to make a lid out of for my 5 gal glass terrarium that previously had a screen lid. My measurements were slightly off so I will be adding a layer of caulk/glue around the lip of the enclosure and trimming it down with a razor so the lid fits snuggly (I don't want the lid to move around when my T climbs on it) How should I go about drilling the ventilation holes though? How many holes, how small/large, how spaced apart? Like I said my T is definitely going to climb it so should the holes all just be small enough that a leg couldn't fit through or get stuck? Is there a drilling technique that prevents cracking the plastic? What would be the best way to affix a handle?

 

[Poec54]

Put holes at both ends so you get cross ventilation. There's a number of different cabinet handles you can get at a hardware store, just requires another hole or two. My concern with that lid is weight. Tarantulas are strong animals with a lot of time on their hands. They'd have no problem pushing up that lid and escaping. You need to make it a lot heavier. I'd make a wooden frame and screw the Plexiglas onto it.

 

[Sam_Peanuts]

I've never seen my 7-8" P. cancerides manage to move hers in the slightest(she climbed up to it many times) after 3-4 years so I'm not sure if they really can push them without having their feet on the ground. If I want to be safe, I just put something heavy on the lid like a computer hard drive(but that's because I have a ton of old ones laying around).

I use a 9/64 metal drill bit for the holes and I put 86 with a 1" spacing in the last one I did(only because the pattern I chose to do ended up with that many). My first one only had 56 and the 4 corners warped a bit so I assume it wasn't enough ventilation. As Poec54 said, make sure there's holes at least at both sides.

To prevent damage to the plastic while drilling, I just leave the protective film on until all of my holes are drilled and it works great. If you already removed it, you can always put masking tape on both sides and drill that, it will help prevent the drill bit from skipping on the surface and should be enough to prevent the holes from breaking tiny bits of acrylic on their edges(I did one without and it wasn't too bad though). Just don't press too hard and the acrylic should be fine.

For the handles, you just need to use a screw through a hole that goes in the handle you chose, it's that simple.

Here's an example of my latest(it's a 10 gal):

 

[viper69]

Whatever you do, don't use a Dremel. I've posted a lot about this.

 

[pyro fiend]

Whatever you do, don't use a Dremel. I've posted a lot about this.

you can say that again lol jk viper but agree a dremal leaves them about as clean as a jigsaw XD

and as for the NUMBER that depends on what your temps are like and how much humidity you need to hold in

 

[Psingletongolf]

I just cheat get a sheet of polypropylene from walmart (normally dish dryer stand trays and drill into that then glue it to the mesh lid. Works great on the exoterra. Perfect fit nothing could excape because it still has the original lid

 

[SuzukiSwift]

A method I frequently use is soldering iron, rather than drill it you can melt it instead, much lower chance of making a mess =) Obviously if you were using glass you would need to drill, but as your lid is acrylic this will work well, all of my enclosures are made of acrylic

 

[BossRoss]

To prevent damage to the plastic while drilling, I just leave the protective film on until all of my holes are drilled and it works great. If you already removed it, you can always put masking tape on both sides and drill that, it will help prevent the drill bit from skipping on the surface and should be enough to prevent the holes from breaking tiny bits of acrylic on their edges(I did one without and it wasn't too bad though). Just don't press too hard and the acrylic should be fine.

To add to this awesome advice...
Considering the thickness of the acrylic you have there I would either
A) Drill slowly and stop often to prevent heat from getting too high and raising the possibility of damaging the acrylic(cracking it)
B) (Preferred option IMO) Place the acrylic under water when drilling, this helps disperse the heat.

 

[Sam_Peanuts]

To add to this awesome advice...
Considering the thickness of the acrylic you have there I would either
A) Drill slowly and stop often to prevent heat from getting too high and raising the possibility of damaging the acrylic(cracking it)
B) (Preferred option IMO) Place the acrylic under water when drilling, this helps disperse the heat.

Really? That's never been an issue for me, it's drilling fast enough(a second or two maybe) that there's not much heat produced and I'm using the thicker of the two size I can easily get.
I just put it on top of a plank of wood, clamp a piece of plastic with my hole patern already drilled in and drill every holes until I get to the wood with my cheap drill.

I understand that it would be necessary for drilling into glass or an incredibly thick acrylic piece that you'd use for a gigantic aquarium, but for something appropriately sized for a lid, I doubt it would ever be an issue.


As for the dremel, I'll have to test this out of curiosity, I have an old broken piece that came with my apartment perfect for that. That's what I used for my first one, but I had already removed the protective film and didn't use anything to protect it while drilling and it didn't turn out that bad(but some holes weren't too great). Maybe it was not using the dremel and not the protective film that prevent chipping around the holes(but you still want something on there to prevent the drill bit from skipping on the surface).