Weld-on #16

[Lucille]

This is an AWESOME glue. I am finally building my acrylic cages, and have spent the morning drilling air holes in the acrylic sides with a special acrylic bit I purchased. I have some acrylic scrap left after the glass shop cut the sides to order for me, so just to test out how strong the bond is on this industrial grade acrylic glue, I glued a couple of scraps together this morning.

After four hours, my teen who is a strong person, could not pull the pieces apart.

The glue was quite expensive, over $47 for a gallon, but it will be worth it, the cages will be extremely strong, sturdy and gorgeous.

[Limey]

Can you post pics of the cages when they are finished?

Good luck with the building!!

[Glenn Bartley]

I don't think that the glue was expensive at all. If my math is right, figuring by the half pint (8 0unces) it came out to about $2.93. Compare that to regular glues for other applications and I think it was a deal, but I'll bet it only came in that large size. My guess though is you paid a lot for the acrylic.

I too would like to see your enclosures once completed, sounds very interesting and creative.

Also some info if you know please: If you wanted to cut the acrylic yourself, what kind of saw would you need? What kind of drill bit did you use to cut the air holes?

Good luck, I hope the project works out nicely.

[starwarsdad]

I have never worked with acrylics for cage building, but I have used it for doing trade show displays. The guys that we buy our acrylic and plexi from say to use a slightly dulled bit and make sure to drill VERY slowly. It will keep the material from cracking during drilling. Another good trick is to make sure that you are drilling on top of something that you can drill into. Most of my mistakes have come right as the bit penetrates the acrylic. The back side always splinters. The company we buy from is http://www.piedmontplastics.com/. They are nationwide and may have a branch in your area???

[Ophis]

Just a thought on finding a plastics distributor/fabricator in the local area when purchasing a cage or material to make one.

I found a large plastics distributor/fabricator in my area (Midland Plastics) who will make any type of Acrylic or P.V.C. custom cage, for around the same price as the various cages available on the net. The difference is you get exactly what you want, with no shipping costs. I thought about making them myself, but to me it wasn't worth the investment in the tooling needed or the time involved.

[Lucille]

I have almost completed 2 cages, will have my son take pics when they are all complete.
I used 3/8 acrylic sheet found on Ebay, the 4' lengths were slightly off, and sides were cut from the sheets (did not want to cut it myself so a local glass company cut for me.) Acrylic sheet is ordinarily light, but 3/8 is fairly thick for acrylic sheet so the completed cages although sturdy are not lightweight, but much lighter than glass.
The air holes are being drilled with a special bit made for acrylic and Plexiglas: a 3/8" (they come in other sizes as well, I also purchased a 1/8") Plas-Drill bit by Craftics.
The acrylic hinges, hasp sets, and acrylic door pulls were all ordered from TAP Plastics, www.tapplastics.com

[Lucille]

I am now working on the 7th (out of nine). Tomorrow I will glue on the hinged front panels, door pulls, and hasps, as well as putting a litter dam in each cage. (I bought some high density plastic scrap 1x1s for the litter dams). In case you decide to make similar cages, one could glue together an entire Egyptian pyramid with a gallon of Weld-on, I did not need near that quantity..... :D