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Plexiglass casing

Hi all anyone know how to make casings out of plexiglass? I saw a Nep in one, at the BACPS meeting and I thought it was cool. And I wanted to know if anyone else uses plexiglass as a contaner or mini terrarium. I want to look in to it so I can grow my Neps. in them, or maybe other plants that need a hight humidity. Thanks
 
Basically its the same way as making an aquarium. You cut the shape of plexiglass you want your terrarium to be. Indoor can be enclosed or not, you want to use a safe silicon that will not harm your plants, and silicon them together. You can leave one of the top open, or make a canopy for the top for indoor lighting. It might be easier to use glass or acrylics. Its all depends on how you want to design your terrarium
 
Acrylics is the way to go to have professional looking cases. With glass you have to use silicone which can be messly and it doesn't give you the seamless edges that you can get from working with Acrylic.
Here is my $0.02:
I am working on making a plaudarium. First is to build the basic box. For the exterior (front back and sides) you will need (obviously) 4 sides cut. I went to TAP Plastics in Sacramento, CA and they do straight cuts for free so I gave them my measurements. When the plastic is cut it is imperative that you ensure that the cut is 90 degrees flush otherwise things will not work as nicely. This is done at TAP via a router. On my front and back pieces you need an additional half inch added to the edges on the Left Right sides (not the top and bottom) the pieces for the sides are cut to size. So what I did was I used a magnetic welders square, some felt, and a 1/4" piece of wood. peeled back the backing only as far as I needed around the edges. I then used some tape from the plastic shop to tape off the edge at exactly 1/4". This helped give me a 'lip' to help me place my side in place. since my front was larger than the depth. I had the front lying down flat on a glass table. Once the side was in place along the lip I used the welders square lined with the 1/4" piece of wood to keep the side at a right angle. I used some magnets in between felt to hold the square in place. This also enabled me to place a very tiny gap between the pieces. I used pins for sewing to space the gap. I then used solvent from TAP and a special applicator bottle from them as well. The solvent seeps into the crack via capillary action. I then used the pins to remove any air bubbles that I could see. I waited a day and then put on the other side in the same manner. Then I waited a week not for curing reasons (I had other things to do). Then I put on the back panel by taping off 1/4" on both sides (exactly like the front) and used the tape as a gude for placing the three panels on top and using the weight of the three panels alreadly cured together to hold the pieces in place. I proped them up with the pins and applied the solvent to the inside of the box. Then used the pins to remove any bubbles. I took my project back to TAP and they routed off the 4 'lips' extending from the front and back panels. I then used a dremel with a polishing wheel to polish the edges for the seamless look. Now all that is left is the bottom. I had the bottom piece cut with 1/4" excess around all the edges. I used tape to use as a guide as before taping all four edges. I then placed the four pieces down on the base proped up with pins on the edges and used the solvent to weld the seams. I used the pins in the same manner as before and added an additional coat of solvent just to ensure that there would be no leaks. I then took it back to TAP and they routed off the four edgesFor the top I used an acrylic piano hinge and a knob for the outside and some catches for the inside. Most of my information and ideas for building this came from San Diego Plastics
Hope this helps. and the TAP plastics people are awesome.
 
I heard that plexiglass bends a lot, so you should probably consider glass. I'm not sure what the prices are like though.
 
Plexiglass doesn't bend too much. It depends on the thickness. I use 1/4" for most applications, If I know it will take a lot of abuse and pressure I use 3/8 to 1/2"

Glass is the same way. You want a thickness that will apply to your application. If you use 1/8" glass it will bend quite a bit depending on the length.
 
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