Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Would it be possible to make a cage out of acrylic? Would a heat pad melt it? I've been trying to find information online, but I can't seem to find anything about fumes or melting heat. If anyone has news, i'd appreciate it. Acrylic would be easier to make a cage out of, lighter, and sturdier.

If I remember correctly, it doesn't take a lot of heat to melt your standard sheet. We worked with it once to set up an experiment and I believe we rounded the edges by placing it in an oven. What I would be more concerned about would be the heat transfer coefficient of that versus glass. The heating characteristics would be very different and you could get a very hot spot instead of an even heat dispersal pattern. In that sense there could be a greater risk to cracking too. You might even want to consider how much it expands under heat, you could be breaking your seals. It for sure wouldn't be as good as glass at withstanding repeated thermal cycles... meaning it will warp eventually, even if you don't exceed the melting temp.

I personally know people have good luck with bottoms of glass or wood and SIDES of plexi, but I'm concerned about bottoms of plexi if you have a UTH.

I guess after all I'm not much help, if I was at the office in 5 minutes I could set up the thermal model and tell you what the temps are and if it melted, but alas it is the weekend and thermal properties found on the internet are not to be trusted.

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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

I was actually thinking of a bottom of glass, but I didn't know if the sides and the bottom could be joined correctly. Would I use silicone for that? I'm only wondering because building my new 40g corn cages/crested cages would be much easier, and I could get the dimensions I wanted. Thanks!

I was just speaking with my brother in law last night, he recently made a multi compartment leo cage and said he had to use "gorilla glue" because it was the only thing that would bind both plexi and wood. I'm not sure how safe it would be, he didn't use it on sides the geckos could get to or lick. I would think aquarium sealant would be "safest" (it expands and contracts with what it is attached to), but maybe you could seal everything from the outside? Might be sloppier, but probably better overall. Just some random thoughts. Be sure to post what you come up with, I'd like to see the pics.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

My mom actually owns a sign shop, making banners and the like, so she deal with acrylic and stuff a lot. There is actually this glue substance that is soley for acrlyic that near instantly binds it together. It more melts than say, a normal glue. It makes it super strong. I'm thinking of making a cage for the cresteds i'll be getting first, as they don't need a heat pad. 48 hours on open air would be good to lose the fumes, yeah?