Installing THG Heat Tape Under 3/4" Melamine?

[Craiga 01453]

That is the alternative that a lot of people use. Not with plexi-glass, but with laminated bathroom panel board or similar. Personally, I don't want to commit to that if I don't have to, because if the heat tape would ever need to be replaced, it would be a huge pain. And, not to mention, if pi$$ or water managed to seep past the caulking, there would be huge problems. It would also add about $14.00 to the cost of each enclosure and i'm building several. I would LOVE to use PVC, because it is MUCH lighter and easier to work with than melamine, but these are larger enclosures, which require 2 sheets per enclosure. At $80.00 per sheet for PVC, that would get very expensive for multiple enclosures... I'm getting melamine for about $32.00 per sheet right now...

I hear ya. I've been wanting to build my own stack of PVC display enclosures, but I can't justify the cost per sheet. Not yet anyway.

And again, I'm just thinking here, but my vision was just a simple, thick bead of silicone around the perimeter of the Plexi. (Oh, and I'm thinking of aquarium silicone) I feel like it would...
a) soften the edge of the Plexi by covering sharp edges
B) be water tight
C) would be easy to just cut the silicone with a razor if they needed to be removed. I've cut that material in the past and it actually comes up easy.

Again, just a thought and if I'm repeating myself because I'm not exactly sure how to explain it I apologize, hahaha.