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Posted by chris_harper2 on May 03, 2003 at 15:29:49:

In Reply to: How do you make a frameless door? posted by Otter on May 03, 2003 at 14:23:26:

Hi Otter,

I just saw your response to my previous post today and had not gotten around to replying.

If any of this does not make sense feel free to e-mail me through my name-link and I can send some junky pictures.

:Can you post details on how to make a frameless door?

A frameless door is similar to what is used by Precision Caging.

I've made them on oak-laminated plywood terraria with great success.

Let's say you have a wood face frame on a cage that has outside dimensions of 16" x 24". If the frame is made of out 1x4's (actual width of 3.5") the actual opening into the cage will be 9" x 17". These dimensions are hypothetical.

So what I do is run a piece of oak that is 2.5" wide and 1/4" thick about 1' above the opening and another 1" below the opening.

So the distance between that top strip of oak and the bottom strip of oak would now be 11".

Next I'd have a piece of acrylic cut that was 19" x 10 7/8".

This piece of acrylic would fit between the two strips of oak and would overlap the cage opening by about 1" all around.

Then all you have to do is attach hinges to the oak and the acrylic, and lock/hasp the door however you want.

This can be done by using acrylic hardware that you glue to the acrylic or you can use metal hardward that is screwed or riveted to the acrylic.

:Do you just pre-drill then screw the hinges and locks on?

Pre-drilling/using screws can be difficult with acrylic, but is possible. Lexan is easier but more expensive.

:Which is easier a frameless door or sliding glass?

Sliding door is MUCH easier assuming your cage opening has 90 degree corners. If they are slightly off sliding doors will have gaps.

Advantages of frameless doors are the following:

1) More escape proof for both herps and prey items. Important if you keep live-bearing herps that produce tiny young or feed small crickets.

2) Keeps moisture from misting systems in better.

3) You can make doors hinge where ever you want(up, down, sideways) and have choice of single or double door.

4) No sliding doors to get filled with substrate or worn out.

Disadvantages are:

1) For flighty species sometimes you have to have a lot of the door(s) open to get water bowls out, etc. I often prefer sliding doors for flightly animals. But in some cases, I prefer hinged doors for them.

2) More expensive.

3) Can be quite large/flexible for large cages.

:Thanks,
:Otter

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Follow Ups:

Thanks... Otter 05/04/03 (0)