Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have any experience using Sintra plastic in cage fabrication? Sintra is an expanded PVC plastic sheet. I've been told that you can cut it and rout it with woodworking tools, as well as glue it and screw it. It's lighter than plywood and comes in various thicknesses and colors. I looked at some samples at a local plastic fabricating shop, and the stuff looks very similar to the material on my Boaphile Plastics cages. It prices out very reasonably. A custom cage out of black Sintra, 36x18x12 with a drop down acrylic front door would cost me less than 50 bucks in materials. I'm seeing all positives using this plastic, but if anyone has experienced less than satisfactory results, I'd like to hear about it....thanks in advance.

Sounds good, but I haven't used it. How strong is is? I notice that black is only available in 1/2" (13mm) thickness. If you want 3/4" (19mm) your only choice is white. Seems like it's mainly used for making signs, so I'd be a bit worried about strength, especially if you were going to stack cages...

Could be VERY interesting to use the thinner stuff to line plywood cages if you need high humidity!

I have experimented with Sintra and other expanded PVC's or PVCX (all very similar).

I was able to get quite a bit of free 1/4" scrap from a few sign shops for practice. I recommend you do the same as the learning curve is kind of steep.

First, only the 1/4" offers any significant weight savings over plywood. 1/2" plywood and 1/2" Sintra weigh the same - this info is available online if you care to look it up. For cage's of moderate size (racks are a different story) I think it is worthwhile to learn how to use the 1/4" because of this weight issue.

I experimented with two different solvents to test surface to edge bonds and surface to surface bonds. One solvent was standard PVC pipe cement, the other was one of the IPS Weld-On products. It was a water thin solvent that is injected along joints with a syringe. I'll have to look up the specific product and post another response.

In all cases the total surface area of the bond was held constant.

For surface to surface bonds (or overlap bonds) either solvent created an extremely strong joint within minutes. Strong enough that the bond was stronger than the sheet itself.

For surface to edge bonds the bonds were easily broken with my fingers, even if I allowed them 24 hours curing time. This is due to the porous nature of the PVCX interior.

There is one other type of Weld-On product worth trying. It's one of the ones that comes in the caulk type gun and, I believe, is used by Boaphile.

So to utilize the strength of surface to surface bonds one would have to do a lot of creative bending during cage construction. That was not something I wanted to get into.

What I experimented with next was adding a mechanical joint in conjunction surface to edge joint.

To make a long story short, what showed the most promise were small rivets. If I riveted two pieces of PVCX together and then used the low-viscosity solvent injected along the edge, I ended up with an incredibly strong joint.

Unfortunately I never got past the experimental phase of this.

The problem I had with rivets is that the smallest 1/8" rivets (at least those that were commonly available) caused the PVCX to flair slightly if they weren't centered perfectly. I think the 1/8" would work if you were very careful while drilling your piolet holes.

If you care to experiment with this, I recommend special ordering 3/32" rivets. Make sure they are all aluminum and just slightly longer than 1/4".

Other things to experiment with are:

1) Different types of prepping of the cut edges for edge to surface bonds.

2) One of the caulk-type solvent welds.

3) Thermal welds (expensive start up costs)

4) Structural joints such as dados or rabets.

I've got to run. I'll post more info later.

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Does anyone have any experience using Sintra plastic in cage fabrication? Sintra is an expanded PVC plastic sheet. I've been told that you can cut it and rout it with woodworking tools, as well as glue it and screw it. It's lighter than plywood and comes in various thicknesses and colors. I looked at some samples at a local plastic fabricating shop, and the stuff looks very similar to the material on my Boaphile Plastics cages. It prices out very reasonably. A custom cage out of black Sintra, 36x18x12 with a drop down acrylic front door would cost me less than 50 bucks in materials. I'm seeing all positives using this plastic, but if anyone has experienced less than satisfactory results, I'd like to hear about it....thanks in advance.

I'm pretty sure IPS 2007 was the product I used. I'm out of town so I can't go check.

As far as which caulk-type IPS product Boaphile uses, I have no idea. Maybe call the company and see what they recommend.

Lastly, perhaps consider a cage such as this design I've been playing with. There is a thread on the design further down. This is a 50 gallon tote attached to an epoxy-sealed wood frame. You'd probably orient it horizontally for your application, though.

It would be cheaper and easier than a PVCX cage but would not offer the same thermal properties.

Chris...........my plan was to use 1/2" for both sides of the cage and 1/4" for the top and bottom. I also plan on using horizontal stiles on both top and bottom totaling four. This will add some rigidity, plus act as a bit of a jig during final assembly. I'm considering using screws on the non-visible bottom joints for some added mechanical bond. Furthermore, the rear panel will be set in a dado joint on all four edges. I did a little digging around as to glues. One guy found that regular "super glue" (not the gel) worked best. Seems the cost would be rather high for enough to do a cage of my size. He did note that PVC pipe cement(Oatey clear) was OK. I think this cage design will be plenty strong and rigid.

The only negative perhaps is the fact that the "end grain" of the plastic sheet will be visible. This is basically cosmetic, and you can reduce this by smoothing the edges by wiping with PVC cleaner.

Hi Steve,

That sounds like it will work very well. I like the idea of screwing through the thinner material and into the thicker.

I've considered trying something akin to frame and panel construction as used in cabinets. Frames could be made from 1/2" stock and panels could possibly be as thin as 1/8". You'd have to deal with cut edges being exposed inside the cage (vs. only outside in your design) but the frame and panel idea would save a ton of money and weight.

The bottom of the cage would have to be a single piece of material, obviously.

Regardless, the thermal advantages of PVC are lost with the amount of ventilation required by the species I keep so I'm going to stick with my storage tote design. PVCX is still the best, though, for building a plastic cage with excellent thermal properties.

Chris............Since I need a stackable design, I'm going to see how this plan works out. I've been very satisfied with my Boaphile 4'x2' plastic cages. That drop down door design is the only way to go for snakes, IMHO. The problem is that you don't get much of a price break when you drop down to a smaller cage size by these plastic cage manufacturers. By the way, those Boaphiles definitely appear to be glued with some kind of a caulk. The plastic is bent into a box, and then the side panels are glued in along with the top rear seam. I can also give kudo's to Boaphile for that fluorescent cabinet light they use. I ordered mine from the manufacturer(got the runaround at my local Home Depot). This light is the thinnest profile under-cabinet light that I have seen. It's called the Westek Ultralight.....20" long and has a 16 watt T-4 bulb that puts out 80 watts of light. Now here's a tip......while the light comes with a standard "warm" bulb, you can get a "cool" bulb (FA200CB). That bulb puts out a softer, more pleasing light. You can order these from Amertac.....800-777-0802. Ask for Kathy, and tell her your local Home Depot can't get this item for you(at least mine couldn't!). I paid 21.19 for the complete fixture and 5.63 for the extra cool bulb, plus shipping. Pretty decent price for a light of this quality, IMHO.

I imagine I'm like a lot of folks out there, I've been using sweater boxes, because you can't beat them for cost and space effiency. But.............you just can't appreciate or observe them like you can in an illuminated display cage. Some of my charges deserve fancier digs............Steve G.

Well said. I love lidless rack systems when it comes to cleaning day. Not so much when I'm drinking my coffee in the morning and want to see how everyone's doing.

Thanks for the lead on that light. Is it a fairly "snake proof" light? I work with Gonyosoma and they tend to try to get into everything. A cage mounted light that was secure would be something that would interest me. Of course, I'd still have to deal with mist heads.

Good luck and let us know how your cages turn out. PVCX is an outstanding material for snakes and worth learning to work with.
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Chris............Since I need a stackable design, I'm going to see how this plan works out. I've been very satisfied with my Boaphile 4'x2' plastic cages. That drop down door design is the only way to go for snakes, IMHO. The problem is that you don't get much of a price break when you drop down to a smaller cage size by these plastic cage manufacturers. By the way, those Boaphiles definitely appear to be glued with some kind of a caulk. The plastic is bent into a box, and then the side panels are glued in along with the top rear seam. I can also give kudo's to Boaphile for that fluorescent cabinet light they use. I ordered mine from the manufacturer(got the runaround at my local Home Depot). This light is the thinnest profile under-cabinet light that I have seen. It's called the Westek Ultralight.....20" long and has a 16 watt T-4 bulb that puts out 80 watts of light. Now here's a tip......while the light comes with a standard "warm" bulb, you can get a "cool" bulb (FA200CB). That bulb puts out a softer, more pleasing light. You can order these from Amertac.....800-777-0802. Ask for Kathy, and tell her your local Home Depot can't get this item for you(at least mine couldn't!). I paid 21.19 for the complete fixture and 5.63 for the extra cool bulb, plus shipping. Pretty decent price for a light of this quality, IMHO.

I imagine I'm like a lot of folks out there, I've been using sweater boxes, because you can't beat them for cost and space effiency. But.............you just can't appreciate or observe them like you can in an illuminated display cage. Some of my charges deserve fancier digs............Steve G.

I haven't had any issues with those lights. The bulb tube is protected by a snap on lens cover that fits well. The cord is simply routed along the inside top edge of the cage and exits the top rear. I have it secured with a wire clamp in the front corner, but I suppose it is possible for an active, arboreal snake to want to cruise through the cord. If you think that would be a problem, you can always route the cord through a tube glued to the underside of the cage top.

All use expanded PVC sheeting. Sintra is just one brand of XPVC. So yes, it works well in snake caging. I'm leary of using it for anything with claws and strong legs.