Skeptic
Well-Known Member
In my experience glass is cheaper than perspex. You've just gotta find the right glazier
Glass or Perspex???
- Thread starter Craigo
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- antaresia maculosa
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In my experience glass is cheaper than perspex. You've just gotta find the right glazier
Rogue5861
Very Well-Known Member
Polycarbonite will yellow with uv exposure but acrylic wont, polycarbonite is a stronger material an less likely to chip (more likely to scratch). Acrylic can be polished so will return clarity back to how it was (92% light transmission).
Glass really is the best for clarity. Acrylic is safer when children are involved.
Rick
andynic07
Very Well-Known Member
Cheers , very comprehensive. What is perspex made from, I am assuming it is a brand name?
Rogue5861
Very Well-Known Member
justin91
Active Member
Oh ok, didn't know that. Thats ok though, as long as I get a few years out of it. It was mainly one of those weeks where I just wanted to finish building my enclosure but I didn't quiet have enough for glass (stupid rego).
I wish I knew the same glazier you did lol. The perspex cost me $70 whereas glass was going to cost well over a hundred.
P
Pythoninfinite
Guest
Gee, I've rarely read so much misguided advice from people who have very little idea of what they're talking about.
1. Clarity - acrylic sheet (Perspex etc...) is many times clearer than glass, by a factor of ten to hundreds or more - it is used to pipe light hundreds of kilometres in fibreoptics etc.
2. Acrylic sheet scratches easily, the first time you wipe it over, you begin the process of degradation
3. Acrylic sheet is highly electrostatic - clean and polish it in a dry atmosphere and it will attract more dust IMMEDIATELY, and this is very hard to remove because the more you wipe it the worse it gets
3. Acrylic sheet absorbs water and expands on the side where the greatest humidity is, so it bows according to ambient conditions
4. Acrylic sheet is highly flexible, and as others have said, animals will escape if they put a bit of pressure on the overlap (one respondent had an animal escape THREE times???)
5. If you read the OPs first post, you'll see that the size of the sheets required is very large, the flex factor will be very great, making acrylic totally unsuitable, unless each sheet is fully framed
6. The only appropriate material for unframed doors here would be either laminated glass (preferred) or toughened glass (will have to be processed specially for this size), but you would need ball-bearing runners to support the weight.
Overall, as Snowman said, acrylic is a crap material for animal enclosures - I spent years with the stuff as showcase material, working in museums. Compared to glass it makes for a massive amount of extra work, is unstable for the reasons I've outlined, and generally has a relatively short service life. I wouldn't touch the stuff for this application.
I don't know where the comment about it being cheaper than glass comes from - the respondent obviously hasn't shopped around for glass...
Jamie
1. Clarity - acrylic sheet (Perspex etc...) is many times clearer than glass, by a factor of ten to hundreds or more - it is used to pipe light hundreds of kilometres in fibreoptics etc.
2. Acrylic sheet scratches easily, the first time you wipe it over, you begin the process of degradation
3. Acrylic sheet is highly electrostatic - clean and polish it in a dry atmosphere and it will attract more dust IMMEDIATELY, and this is very hard to remove because the more you wipe it the worse it gets
3. Acrylic sheet absorbs water and expands on the side where the greatest humidity is, so it bows according to ambient conditions
4. Acrylic sheet is highly flexible, and as others have said, animals will escape if they put a bit of pressure on the overlap (one respondent had an animal escape THREE times???)
5. If you read the OPs first post, you'll see that the size of the sheets required is very large, the flex factor will be very great, making acrylic totally unsuitable, unless each sheet is fully framed
6. The only appropriate material for unframed doors here would be either laminated glass (preferred) or toughened glass (will have to be processed specially for this size), but you would need ball-bearing runners to support the weight.
Overall, as Snowman said, acrylic is a crap material for animal enclosures - I spent years with the stuff as showcase material, working in museums. Compared to glass it makes for a massive amount of extra work, is unstable for the reasons I've outlined, and generally has a relatively short service life. I wouldn't touch the stuff for this application.
I don't know where the comment about it being cheaper than glass comes from - the respondent obviously hasn't shopped around for glass...
Jamie
justin91
Active Member
If your referring to me, then yes. It was cheaper to use perspex then glass. Quoted from two different businesses. One quoted $200 (Don't know if he was trying to rip me off big time or not...) the other was $130. 4.5mm acrylic - $70. Therefore it was a better option for me to go perspex. Might not be for others, but in my case it was.
P
Pythoninfinite
Guest
Well, I wonder what size/s you were looking for, and what sort of glass and thickness you were quoted for? The fact that one quoted $200 and another $130 should indicate that there is a fair amount of profiteering going on. I've found that there is often a variation by a factor of x3 in the price of glass. Most reasonable glass suppliers (usually smaller businesses) will cut what we want from offcuts that they're glad to get rid of. The bigger suppliers have a fixed price per sq metre and so charge heaps more even though they too cut from waste.
In my experience acrylic is never the best option if functionality is to be considered.
And to the OP, sliding panels which are three times taller than they are wide, especially if they are heavy, as these will be, are potentially quite dangerous, and unless you use quality ball-bearing track, you'll have all sorts of sticking problems.
Jamie
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