Reptile & Amphibian Forums

how to you build a cage out of it. i mean i see no screws. how do you keep the sides together. do you have to melt or weld them together. just wondering might become a project for me.

RV
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Corns 0.0.3
0.0.1 03' Amel
0.0.1 03' Normal
0.0.1 04' Ghost
Rats
Yellow Rat 0.0.1

my lil sisters under my supervision
0.0.1 Green water dragon ---- "Dragon"

Although i have not built any yet,i have looked into it a little.

From what i understand about the bonding methods.
Once bonded, the 2 pieces actually become 1 piece on the molecular level.

Look around in here...
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/category.asp?catalog_name=USPlastic&Category_Name=62&Page=1
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2.0 50% het Caramel Ball pythons
1.0 Very dark Ball python
0.9 Ball Pythons
1.1 Thayeri Kings
0.0.1 Viper Boa
1.1 Axanthic looking felines...

When cages or aquaria are constructed from acrylic the panels are solvent welded together. You use a fairly low-viscosity solvent that is injected along edge-joints with a syringe. The solvent softens the acrylic up and the two pieces essentially melt/weld together as the solvents evaporate. Similar process as joining PVC pipe.

Solvent welding plastics is not terribly difficult but acrylic itself has a pretty steep learning curve. The edges really need to be perfectly prepared for best success. A high speed router with an acrylic-specific bit is the best way to do this.

Acrylic is also not idea for all herp applications. It is very susceptible to warping in particular. But in the right hands and in the right situation it is great.

I have started doing some acrylics recently , I use a standard table saw to cut the sheets to size could use a router aswell but since i have a necnch planer i can easily clean the edges up for solvent welding . There are two types of solvent i use one is a water thin solvent known as methol chloride ( nasty dangerous stuff lol so dont breath it use a rspirator as it can cause cancer in the liguid/fume form it says )and then there is a thicker solvent much like a pvc cement that is used for a "rougher cut acrylic" that will bond voids this is applied w a brush i will say the water thin is nice and does bond rather quick compoared to the thicker form .But you definately need a very small syringe or applicator bottle with a super small tip as it will flow freely when inverted and once it gets onto the surface of the acrylic is does its thiong and will melt/ haze the surface very fast , as chris stated with heat it can warp the acrylics so the uses are best for display or rooms that are climate controlled .
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