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Which is better? Can you make pre-drilled holes around the edges of either? Does Lexan scratch easy? This is for the front window of the cage, the doors are on top. Any advise would be helpful.
Thanks,
Max

First, I'll assume you literally mean these two brands and not just any brand of polycarbonate (Lexan) or acrylic (Plexiglass). As you probably know acrylic varies greatly in quality while polycarbonate of different brands is more consistent, or at least seems so to me.

Lexan will be a lot easier to drill, but plexiglass can be drilled if you're careful. The more holes you drill the more likely you are to crack a piece.

Plexiglass scratches more easily to Lexan but is also easier to polish than Lexan. Perhaps there is a polish made specifically for polycarbonate, but when I used #3 plastic polish on both I found the acrylic easier to polish up.

As far as which is better, that's a difficult question. Both can scratch, warp, and even crack when exposed to certain types of disinfectants (an important consideration when dealing with animal cages).

Lexan is a lot more expensive, but is generally more durable and easier to work with. Given that you want to drill holes that might make Lexan a better choice.

But if you can build your front window into a frame or use adhesive to attach it to your cage, acrylic might be a better choice money-wise.

However, if that were possible I'd recommend plate or tempered glass. Much cheaper, easier to clean, and won't warp, scratch easily, or crack from disinfectant use.

Is there a reason you've ruled out glass?

::::Which is better? Can you make pre-drilled holes around the edges of either? Does Lexan scratch easy? This is for the front window of the cage, the doors are on top. Any advise would be helpful.
Thanks,
Max

Hi Max –

I prefer glass doors or fronts these days for my reptile cages. But once upon a time, back when the very first Neodesha Plastics cages came out, the tracks for the acrylic doors were WAY undersized and the fronts wouldn’t slide. Unfortunately, I had volunteered to make a bulk purchase for members of the Chicago Herpetological Society and had all these damn unusable cages that people were expecting to receive. We ended up having to router down the edges of the acrylic to get them to work. I decided to buy my next batch of cages minus the standard acrylic and purchase Lucite SAR locally. Twenty years later those SAR sheets look WAY better than the standard acrylic. I’m not saying you can’t abrade the finish; you can. But unless an animal plastered urates against the sliding door, I used a sponge, not a scrubber, on it and they held their transparency well. SAR = super abrasion resistance. I’m sure there’s a cheaper generic equivalent to the Lucite now.

-Joan

>>Which is better? Can you make pre-drilled holes around the edges of either? Does Lexan scratch easy? This is for the front window of the cage, the doors are on top. Any advise would be helpful.
>>Thanks,
>>Max

Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead but do HomeDepots or Lowe's carry Lucite SAR? i called but one was busy and the other couldn't figure out what the hell i was talking about.
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Later,
WhisQuila

I'm afraid I don't know, but back then I bought it at a business that sold glass and plastic sheet. Check the yellow pages under "glass".