Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi everyone,
I am making a mew tank for my tincs and i want it to have a sliding acrylic front. it is going to be a wood tank with an acrylic front. has any one ever made a sliding front, how di you do it?
thanks
-----
Nate
1.1 alanis tincs
and some day, if it cools down...
0.0.2 Azureus (soon)
0.0.3 imitators very very soon

i'm not sure how to construct it but when you do make sure there is no gaps where your frogs can get out i know sometimes there are

k

I constructed a sliding front terrarium made out of 3/8" glass and wood. I waterproofed the wood with epoxy paint.

The sliding front was created by routing out a section of the wood and installing an aluminum "U" channel of the right thickness to act as a track for the glass front to slide in. One of these was installed on the top and bottom of the front of the tank. You have to be very careful when lining these up to ensure that the glass (or plexi) will slide freely while not leaving too much of a gap between the front and the sides. The channel is installed using 15 minute epoxy. If you want, I'll try to take a few pics tonight to show the general idea. Hopefully, it will be invisible when I get the wood trim finished out on the tank (it has taken me forever to do the finishing work . . . I just don't have the appropriate motiviation now that the terrarium is up and running).

Oh, one other thing . . . I filled in the gaps between the sliding front and the sides by using silicone to act as a gasket. If you would like to know the secret to doing that, I'll tell 'ya, but it's going to cost you a lot of ooh's and ahh's when I show pics of my tank.
-----
Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

thanks,
I guess i could spare some oohs but that tank better be pretty darn good.
thanks again
-----
Nate
1.1 alanis tincs
and some day, if it cools down...
0.0.2 Azureus (soon)
0.0.3 imitators very very soon

I took some pics of the channel system, but for some reason the website is not cooperating with me tonight. I can't get the pic to show up, and I've done this a million times before.

Anyway, a very easy way to get a tight fitting seal (gasket) between two pieces is to use silicone to caulk between the two pieces. When it dries, you have a rubbery, perfect fitting seal. I know, you're saying "but I don't want the sliding front stuck to the sides, why would I caulk the two pieces together?" You're right. That's why you take a piece of electrical tape and tape over the piece of glass you want to slide freely. Place the tape so that it will be over the area on the glass where you are going to caulk. Place the two pieces of glass in the position where they will be when you have the front shut. Caulk from both sides. Wait 24 hours and use a razor blade to separate the electrical tape from the sliding front piece of glass. Then peal the tape off of the caulking. You now have a custom made seal that will be tight enough to keep all of your fruit flies in the tank. If it's too tight of a seal, take a little sandpaper to it (it doesn't work extremely well, but it works!). That's an easy, cheap way to seal the gap you'll get with a sliding front terrarium. I'll try to post pics of the channel later.
-----
Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense