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Home made enclosure.
Loafman

Home made enclosure.

I have built two of these enclosures from scratch (out of clear acrylic) to house my two P. Metallica's.
@Marija Thanks :).
It is a lot of work to do it properly. I cut the acrylic with a hand held circular saw, then smoothed all the edges with wet and dry sanding paper (you have to make sure the edges are all perfectly square), then chemically bond it all together. But I am very happy with the final product.
 
@Loafman it looks perfect! Maybe if I had all the parts cut for me and simply assembled it... What kind of chemical bond to use?
 
@Marija You would also need a mitre block in order to hold the edges at 90 degrees to each other. Once the parts are placed squarely in the mitre block I use a 2ml medical syringe with an 18 gauge needle to apply a solvent called Dichloromethane (Methylene Chloride) to the join. Capillary action draws the fluid (which is thinner than water) into the void between the two surfaces. It then "melts" the edges of the acrylic, and as the solvent evaporates (which happens very quickly) the 2 surfaces weld together, effectively creating 1 piece. I must add that this solvent is incredibly dangerous if inhaled, as it metabolises in your body into carbon monoxide in your bloodstream.. so you should either do it outside or use an extractor cupboard of some sort. It also causes severe desensitisation if it makes contact with your skin, so you need to wear chemical resistant rubber gloves (most rubber gloves dissolve on contact with the solvent). I wouldn't recommend using it unless you are used to handling/using hazardous chemicals.
 
By the way, you would still need to lightly rough the edges of the acrylic with fine wet and dry paper to get the best bonding finish.. ;)
 
@Loafman Ummm, I think I'll stick to buying finished enclosures :p Thanks though for taking time and explaining the whole process :)
 

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The yobs at Loafs house.
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