Here should be all the answers, and a pick fo the finished product.
The following was an email I wrote to someone and I saved it just in case more asked how I made them:
I personally purchased the plastic through a local plastic fabricator. I would imagine you should be able to buy it, as well as custom simple cut acrylic for the doors from any plastic supply/fabrication company or sign shop in your area. Those shops can also custom cut your styrene to your specs but you need to be dead on or it wont work, better to just take your time and do it yourself. If all else fails you can find it at usplastic.com. They sell it by the sheet as well and I have found it in 40 inch by 6 feet sheets, or standard 4 by 8 sheets. I would recommend mapping out your plans on graph paper to get a better idea of what size material would be best, this way you can eliminate unusable excess as much as possible.
I worked with 1/8 inch styrene as it was cost effective, light, and suitable for my needs. I would think that 1/4 inch would make even more sturdy cages but it would run a little more. What is even nicer about the 1/8 inch plastic is that you can use a standard utility knife (box cutter) to score the plastic deeply once or twice and then just bend it and brake it. If you have ever done drywall you are probably familiar with the "score and snap" method. The same works with styrene, you just need to ensure that the first score into the plastic is as strait as possible, then follow up with a couple more scores and snap it off. You can help make straiter cuts by marking the line you need cut, using a strait edge or T square and using that as a guide to cut with your knife. There are special plastic cutting table saw, and jig saw blades but many do nothing other than melt your material and make a mess. Anything under a quarter inch should probably just be cut with a knife and snapped.
You can also find adhesive on tapplastics.com. Use anything that is a high strength bond made for Styrene and keep in mind a better stronger bond is attained by sanding both areas to be welded and cleaning them to remove excess particals. Make sure they are sanded, wiped off, and then apply the bond, it will be much stronger. (So strong I glued to test pieces together and they broke outside the bond) At tapplastics.com you can also find the acrylic angle rod I used for sturdying the cage. I dont think this is an absolute must but I wanted my cages to be pretty sturdy so i went the extra mile, and I think it helped. I used a hacksaw to cut the sections in small two inch pieces, then I used the same sand paper scoring method, with the same bond to connect, and reinforce the styrene joints inside the cage.
I put on the top of the cages last as it made it much easier to seal the joints on the inside floor of the cage with silicon then to do it after I had boxed in the cage. After applying the silicone I put the top on and the cage looked more like a box with a rectangular hole cut in the front panel.
You will notice in the front of the cages there seems to be a thicker piece of material to go flush with the 1/4 inch acrylic I used for the door. What I did was I marked out the front panel of plastic the same as the back, except I cut out the middle of the plastic (where you will look in the cage). From the top of the cage down there was about a two and a half inch piece of plastic. I wanted to use this as a lip in which my acrylic door would rest so what I did is I glued two 1/8 inch piece of styrene together so they where 1/4 inch (the thickness of the acrylic) . The pieces that I glued together ran the length of the cage (36 inches) and two inches wide, this way when I attached it to the top of the cage it left a half inch plastic lip under for the acrylic to sit on (so the door doesnt just fall inward) I built up the bottom in the same way but did not need a lip so I just made it flush so the hinges would mount on the acrylic properly. So when you close the door it should end up flush.
After the entire cages where constructed I used a small miniature plain to finish the edges smooth. Then it is a matter of using a plastic/wood drill bit to drill the needed holes in the acrylic and plastic. You can go to any hardware store and get a small package of bolts to match the drill bit size. You will use these to attach the hinges to the cage and door, as well as attach the flush bolts to the top of the cage that will lock it. You can do many things for vents, just look at some other peoples cages and decide what is best for you.
I am sorry if it sounds complicated but it really isnt. I have eliminated allot of the guess work for you hope, and good luck with your project. Email me if you think I can be of any assistance to you and your projects.
Hope I could help,
Keoni Koch
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"Victory is reserved for those willing to pay its price"
