Sheets of acrylic can make great housings for things like this; they're transparent, and a plastics shop will cut you panels to size for cheap. One example of an instrument you can make with acrylics is a gel electrophoresis box:
Some chemicals can dissolve plastics, but hey. It's cheap, sturdy, and easy to assemble. Acrylic cement has the consistency of turpentine and sets pretty quickly.
Yes, I may have investigated installing a chemical hood in my house, but it was all theoretical... for now.