DIY enclosures

[Chris Barnard]

I've recently made some enclosures for my Ts. Two are currently 'lived in'. The arboreal one is ready for a pokie.

G. rosea enclosure - all DIY including vents






B. vagans enclosure - DIY lid and vents. He/she has done some serious digging today!


Arboreal enclosure - all DIY - just need to attach the acrylic hasps. Also need to add a water bowl (and the P. regalis!)

[Matt Ball]

Wow, really nice enclosures, Chris! I've been considering building my own enclosure when my T needs an upgrade. How long (roughly) did they take to make? Did you find it hard to gather the materials and tools needed?

[Chris Barnard]

Thanks Matt

It's very satisfying to make your own enclosures. I guess it took a couple of hours per enclosure. Slightly less for the B vagans as I only had to make the lid and the vents.
The acrylic sheets are readily available on eBay (or you may have a supplier nearby). Plan it in advance and you can usually get the eBay supplier to do four cuts for free - this should reduce the amount of cutting you need to do yourself. I ordered A4 sheets with a couple cut to size. Unless you are handy with a bench saw or a router it can be tricky to get a perfect cut. You need the cut edge to be completely straight and as smooth as possible to ensure the bonding solvent works.
Just added the hasps for the arboreal enclosure - I'll post a pic tonight. I also added a turntable so that I can easily rotate the enclosure to view the pokie if it decides to hide!
The vents are the most challenging. Took a bit of brainstorming to design. The mesh was bought from Dartfog.co.uk.
Acrylic bonding solvent is best applied with a syringe and needle.

I will need to build another terrestrial enclosure for my B vagans when it grows up a bit. Also a full sized arboreal one for the pokie when it grows. Hopefully getting my P regalis sling this week - can't wait!

Have fun building and feel free to pm me if you need more guidance.

[Chris Barnard]

Update - added the acrylic hasps to arboreal enclosure.

[Aaron Annal]

Excellent enclosures Chris alot of mine are old fish tanks with custom lids made by my brother but i have used acrylic for some of the lids and partitions

[Matt Ball]

Thanks for the info, Chris. It will help me a lot!

The arboreal enclosure looks really nice with the clasps. And adding a turntable! What a great idea!

[gareth yates]

wow it looks great chris did you get the hinges and clasps from the same supplier and is it more cost effective getting the sheets and do they supply the glue sorry so many questions but would realy like to try try this thanks p.s how does the turn table work as that is a brillient idea xxx

[Chris Barnard]

Hi Gareth, thanks for the comment.
Got the acrylic from Red Ltd on ebay - there are at least 2 other major ebay sellers that offer acrylic in various sizes, thicknesses and colours. I've used 5mm as it makes the enclosure sturdier and you've got a decent thickness to bond. Acrylic solvent from SIM (ebay), who also sell acrylic sheets. Bought the hinges, clasps and turntable direct from supplier Alternative Plastics. Postage was a bit steep though. Ive requested a quote from 3 ebay sellers for custom sized sheets to make a new larger enclosure - will be interesting to see if this is cheaper than buying the standard sizes and using the '4 cuts for free' offer. Asked for a 'flame polishing' quote too but may have a go at this myself at some point. This will smooth the edges to eliminate the saw blade grooves.
Turntables were available in 3 different sizes I think - could have actually used a slightly larger one.



Look forward to seeing your enclosure when finished. Good luck with it.

[Aaron Annal]

That turntable is a cool idea may have to purchase 1 or 2 of those myself
Thanx for adding the details

[Chris Barnard]

New DIY arboreal enclosure

Thought I'd make another arboreal enclosure - this one for an adult Pokie. I have tried something different with the openings on this one.

I have used flame polished acrylic this time and it does make a difference. The solvent bonds the pieces together better and it looks much cleaner and there are no rough sawn edges.

(edit) Size is approx 16" x 8" x 8"

[Jamie Cooper]

Very nice enclosures Chris! I've had a go at making my own too. I used SIM Acrylics for the acrylic sheets and bonding adhesive. I found it a little more challenging than I expected. I was delighted with the final result though. I'd post pics but I'm having trouble unfortunately. I also used Alternative Plastics for the hasps, etc. I know what you mean about the postage charges! I complained to them about this and they actually reduced it!

I built four 4" x 4" x 8" arboreal enclosures. I really liked Adam Hundts work (Tarantulacages.com) and modelled mine on his. The vents he used were very difficult to track down. Nowhere in the UK stocked them so I bought some from him which turned out quite expensive with delivery charges from the US. Yours vents look great, how did you make them? Also, how much were you quoted for flame polishing?

Jamie.

[Chris Barnard]

Hi Jamie
Thanks for the comments. It's nice to know there is someone else brave enough to try this. It definitely takes practice to develop the 'art of bonding' LOL! You really get no second chances with the acrylic solvent.
The flame polished 5mm acrylic was ordered cut-to-size and was just over £20 for the 16"x8"x8" enclosure.
I looked at tarantulacages for inspiration but had already read about the postage costs and knew I was going to have to look elsewhere. I could not find any supplier that made anything suitable so needed to do a bit of lateral thinking and come up with my own design. I have used curtain eyelets so far. These are the largest ones i could find and have an internal diameter of 50mm. They come as two halves that clip together. I've used a hot glue gun to stick the mesh (bought from Dartfrogs). Then used a hole-saw to cut the acrylic. Each half of the eyelet is then glued to the sides of the enclosure using the hot-glue.







Hope this helps. Feel free to pm me for any more help.

Would be good to see some photos of your enclosures if you manage to upload the pics.

Chris

[Chris Barnard]

Image of vent attached to enclosure:

[Jamie Cooper]

Hi Chris,

Here is one of my enclosures. I used 5mm extruded acrylic. I decided to go for a top opening design which I regret a bit now, lol. Its difficult to maintain with limited access, I can just about get my hand inside! I'm in the process of building the upgrades for when my T's get a bit bigger, and will have a front opening door instead.

Your absolutely right about the bonding solution! For anyone using it for the first time, I would strongly recommend some practice first! I work in the building trade so I was able to get my hands on a scrap sheet to practice on. It made all the difference!

I had all the edges polished by the guy I bought from, but they were still a little rough. I used some ultra fine sandpaper to get a really smooth, shiny finish. I might try something similar to yours with the vents. There the only thing I',m not 100% happy with. They look a little untidy from the inside. Where did you get the curtain eyelets from?

Jamie.

[Chris Barnard]

Hi Jamie, your enclosure looks great. How did your supplier polish the acrylic? Mine was flame polished and was very smooth - you can run your hand over the edges with no fear of it cutting you.
The 50mm eyelets were bought on ebay.
Look forward to seeing your next enclosures! How much did you pay for tarantulacages vents?