Hey!
So I’m considering building our enclosures using ABS plastic from Home Depot - I have 12 snakes, two adults and two sub adults - the rest are babies. So I have time!
Anyone have any blue print sources or advice?
Where does one get the clear doors?
Thanks in advance!
Do you know what kind of enclosures you are going to make, large individual enclosures, racks, stackable, sliding doors, swinging doors, etc. Also think about how you are going to heat it and if the plastic can withstand the heat and not cause too much of a problem if there were a failure with your heat source. For the material for the doors, when you’re looking for doors, I’d recommend going to Lowes (I’m not sure if Home Depot has a variety) and looking at all of the acrylic and plexiglass, they have a big variety in types and sizes.
This was my first build with 32qt tubs and a cabinet. PVC from Home Depot and heat tape, thermostat from reptile basics.
I know it’s a little older post, but thought I’d suggest glass doors over acrylic. You can get glass cut to whatever size you need for a reasonable price, and they’re not prone to warping like acrylic is when exposed to heat and humidity.
just heat, humidity wont affect it.
** owalreptiles staff
just heat, humidity wont affect it.**
High humidity differences can cause acrylic warping. The average reptile enclosure is quite often very humid compared to the room it is found in.
Back in the olden days (around 2003ish) the hinged door Animal Plastics and occasionally Boaphiles I had would have the doors warp, which couldn’t have been directly the result of heat, as they were running on heat tape at that time…
Well this was new to me as i’ve seen industrial processes that are far more extreme than anything the reptile trade would throw at it and never have an issue. We make fish tanks out of the stuff that don’t have issues. Even my home made cages I had previously which was a 2x4 panel never had issues.
But after some googling, it is definitely an issue. However from everything I went through it seems to be thin pieces or big 4x8 sheets. Not sure how thick the mass produced reptile cages are, but my 1/4" panels never wrapped after years of use with humidity and heat for carpet pythons and rainbow boas.
I imagine quality of material plays into it. The old days ap acrylic doors were bad at warping, where boaphiles at the same time rarely had the problem. (Rarely but still happened).
Seems to be the case. More reading, seems the type of resin used in making it is the biggest factor. The process (self cure vs heat cure) didn’t seem to matter. I’d imagine modern resins have more desirable properties, so probably less of an issue now. Still good info tho, thanks.
