• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Just for informational purposes...

P

primus diddy

New member
Joined
Nov 6, 2005
Messages
15
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Rockland, Maine
Just for informational purposes, how would one such as myself go about building say...PVC cages? So far, I know I need to scour the internet for a PVC provider. Beyond that I have no idea how to "weld" it together or anything like that. I'd also like to know what tools are required and all that good stuff.

Thanks!
 
how about...

Check out US Plastics.Com. They have everything you might need....several types of sheet plastic, welding solvent, etc. along with specs, tips, and guidelines about each type of plastic. And their customer service is top notch!! I bought some perfed plastic panals that UPS damaged in shipment. They were replaced within a week, no questions asked. Can't beat that!!

Scott Nellis
 
Thanks! How would one go about thermoforming a cage? After looking at the prices it seems like a cool idea to make my ownplastic caging. It seems like it'd be a better idea to thermoform. I don't see any equipment on that site for it. Does anyone have any info on that?
 
primus diddy said:
Just for informational purposes, how would one such as myself go about building say...PVC cages? So far, I know I need to scour the internet for a PVC provider. Beyond that I have no idea how to "weld" it together or anything like that. I'd also like to know what tools are required and all that good stuff.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

First, make sure you buy expanded PVC (PVCX) and not regular PVC. Regular PVC is very heavy and tends to flex a bit more due to being a solid material.

If you do go with PVCX, even then you should be careful about the brand. People are often surprised to hear this, but many expanded PVC products are HEAVIER than plywood of the same thickness.

Now let me back up and say that if you go with 1/4" it's really not that big of a deal as even the heaviest PVCX is still pretty light at that thickness.

I have found it's always best to find a local or regional plastic distributor rather than go with US Plastic. I just looked at their site and they have 1/4" black at $89 per sheet before shipping. And the brand they carry is one of the heavier ones, at least it was a year or so ago. Regardless, I'm pretty sure it would cost you over $100 per sheet by the time you had it shipped. I can do better than that by going down to my local sign shop and paying their huge upcharge.

I just ordered TWO sheets of 1/2" in black and got it shipped here and everything for $200. And it's one of sthe lightest brand of PVCX - Celtec 550.
Twice the thickness and the lightest brand of PVCX in the same color for less money.

Welding the stuff together is not too hard. My favorite way is to use at least 10mm thickness and rivet it together. Once assembled I think like to use the water-thin solvent from IPS and inject it along the joints. It wicks in via capillary action.

The big companies thermoform the main carcass of their cages. This saves a ton of time and does make the long edges of the cage easier to clean but it is not the ideal way to make a cage necessarily. A 90" joint made from two panels is more rigid and resistant to sagging than a thermorformed 90* joint.

However, it is a lot more work. The edges of corners of raw PVCX sheet are not very good. It takes some work to prep them for edge glueing. But for a DIY project where labor does not matter I think it's the better way to do it.

I don't mean this as a shot to PVCX cage companies. If I were to build PVCX cages for sale I'd do it the same way.
 
I was actually leaning more towards high density Polyethylene. What's most important to me is accuracy of the angles and what not. I wouldn't be putting a whole lot of stress on the cages, other than stacking three (maybe four, max) high. That is, if I even decide to make cages. I could decide on just making rack systems and leaving cages to the pros.

I made a melamine rack and it's just too big and bulky for me. You should have seen me getting that thing up the stairs! It's made for four or five Sterilite 1960 tubs. I only have three levels in it right now.

I'm stuck on what thickness plastic would be best too. Polyethylene is apparently what Boaphile Plastics uses, and I've never heard anything bad about their cages' insulation. I'm thinking 1/4' for cages, should I decide to make them, maybe even less for racks.

Back to the melamine rack thing. I found it to be a huge pain to get all the angles at 90* and to stay there. It ended up taking two people to build it. That's why I was hoping for info on thermoforming. Do you have any tips for that? "That" meaning either building with only one person of thermoforming.
 
If you've never heard anything bad about boaphile's insulation, then you might not be reading around much. I have heard a ton of people complain that they can't seem to keep there boaphiles heating properly. I own a boaphile rack for 28 qt tubs, 6 lvl's. In order for it to stay above 84 i had to place insulation along the back of it and push it up against the wall. Even just having the rack itself pushed up against the wall wouldnt do it. I use the insulation that comes with rodent pro orders, that stuff works like a charm for insulation.
 
Last edited:
I am not as experienced with HDPE. It is a great plastic in many ways but also very heavy and expensive. I think you will find it much more difficult to work with than melamine, sorry. And it can't be solvent welded like some plastics.

It really lends itself best to one-piece molding which can't be done by the hobbyist at home. A friend of mine is an experienced cage builder and decided to splurge on some HDPE and a plastic welder. He regets it. The cages and racks are very heavy and are sagging under their own weight. And they ended up costing him quite a bit.

BTW, IIRC, Boaphile uses 3/16" HDPE for their racks and 1/4" PVCX for their cages.

At any rate, if you use HDPE be very picky about the exact product you buy. HDPE varies more than any other plastic. I used to live near a huge plastic distributor and spent quite a bit of time going through different products with a company rep. There were so many varieties of HDPE my head started to spin.

Personally, I think it's best left to companies capable of one piece rotational moulding (ie. Vision), although it sounds like the Boaphile racks are well built.
 
Thanks for the replies, XPVC was in a very close second and is now my ahead of HDPE.

Still looking for advice on actually peicing it together. Do you suggest clamps to hold the peices in place? I'm looking for all the advice you can give. Depending on how many new tools I have to buy, I won't be building this any time soon. I like to do my research before I do anything.
 
primus diddy said:
Thanks for the replies, XPVC was in a very close second and is now my ahead of HDPE.

Still looking for advice on actually peicing it together. Do you suggest clamps to hold the peices in place? I'm looking for all the advice you can give. Depending on how many new tools I have to buy, I won't be building this any time soon. I like to do my research before I do anything.
Click to expand...

If you don't have a lot of tools plastic is not the best material to work with. I may have mentioned previously that the stuff does not come from the factory with square corners and flat edges. Each piece needs to be straighted out before cutting it to size and joining it.

Before I get carried away, tell me what size cages you need and what you want to get from the cage. Light weight, durability, easy to clean, etc. What's most important?

Also, what species will you be keeping in the cages?

Just so you know where I'm going, assembly of cages is easiest when you have perfect sized and square panels to join together. This is not always easy to do yourself. It's also not easy for employees at Home Depot, etc. who only have access to panel saws that are not always well tuned. And their is a corporate policy against clamping anything to their saws to act as a spacer so you can't always get consistent cuts.

However, cabinet shops will often do this work for you and do an incredible job. I wish I had pictures of some of the cages and racks I build entirely from high end materials cut by cabinet shops back in the early 90's. I built some great cages that practially assembled themselves and saved me a ton of money. As I became a more confident woodworker I started doing more of the work myself with more basic tools. But rarely does a cage go together as well as one made from panels cut by a cabinet shop.

They won't cut plastic for you but there are other options for making a cage that is reasonably light, durable, and easy to clean.

I only mention this because you seem to be stressing ease of assembly.
 
I'm a boa man myself, and don't have any other reptiles. In the future, when I get my own place I'll probably experiment a little bit. In the remaining year of highschool and college though, it'll be boas, and probably throughout the rest of my life.

I can probably find a place around me that will cut plastic for me. We have a vocational/tech school that I could talk to, an industrial park, and if necessary I can visit one of the community colleges and have them cut it. I'm really just looking for tips as to how to make assembly easier (like using clamps and stuff...sometimes I wish I had about six arms). I'm not a very handy person, but I'd like to change that.

As for the qualities I'd like in my cages, I'd like them to hold heat and humidity well and I'd like them to be light enough to move around on my own. The cages should be stackable, so fairly durable would be nice.

However, like I said, I'll probably be building racks if/when I get into using plastic. So for qualities in racks...well...they should be similar to the cages. Maybe not as stackable, if at all. Durability is pretty important, I don't want to have to build new ones all the time. I'd heat them with Flexwatt and I'd want a pretty small space between the tops of the tubs and the "ceiling" so I don't have to use lids.

I think that pretty much covers it.

If you'd rather respond in e-mail feel free. This seems to be a two way conversation now. [email protected]
 
Back
Top