Plexiglass: Is it as hard as everyone says?

[Kyosho]

I've already seen that site...
and I'm looking for ABS plastic supplier. Usplastic has a big selection of acrylic and polycarbonate. But...NO ABS!! AAH!

What do you call this?

[PadMasta44]

LMAO!!!

Sorry, forgot that it was on there...

My bad, people.

on a more recent note, guess who just got a new system to mod!!!


i shall have my way with it.

I won't release anything yet, even the name of the system that I'm hacking, until I'm done.

So wish me luck!
I'll have pictures of the project upon completion.


PM_44

[Gamerdude]

I have found, or rather have received complaints, from my father of the odor that melting plexiglass makes...

I also broke a routing bit today ... while i was trying to rout some thin aluminum for a controller I'm trying to make...

It was a $3.59 bit...


Anyway, I've decided to use plexiglass or ABS or.... let's just limit it to "plastic", for the enclosures of the rest of my projects here on out.

My question is this:

Does anyone know of a good ABS supplier? I need just large sheets of it. I can shape it all myself.

Try going to http://www.plastruct.com/Pages/OnlineCatalog.lasso it is a site for scale modeling supplies but they sell every plastic in every shape or size you could ever want.

For example: 12" x 24" x 1/16"


Plastic + Eyes = AAAAAAAAAH!!!!


Thanks!

[drcrash]

The best place to get plastic is usually from a local plastics supplier. They're everywhere, just look in the phone book.

Some of them have a $100 minimum order to keep the riffraff out, but others have no minimum, or a low one like $15 or $25, so call around. (Their ads usually don't say.)

They usually have a nice assortment of common plastics for glazing and sign work---HIPS, ABS, polycarbonates (like Lexan), PMMA acrylics (like Plexiglass); what they don't have they can special order. (Mine usually gets special order stuff within a day or two, from a bigger distributer in town. No shipping charge.)

[HotDog-Cart]

I find that plexi glass is very troublesome to cut, as I don't have a lot of patience when cutting stuff. Heh. If it doesnt cut when I want to... Hello hammer .

Just kidding. A dremel should do fine. I have a cheap rotary tool, and its sorta like a dremel. I got it for free from my moms freind. I just have to find it. My dad said it was like a dremel but I havn't seen it so.. yea.

[drcrash]

One thing to be aware of about plexiglass (acrylic) is that it absorbs moisture from the air, and when you heat it to bend it or vacuum form it, the moisture can turn to steam and make bubbles. Your results may vary depending on the weather.

To fix that, you can bake it at around 200 degrees for about a half hour per millimeter of thickness. That'll drive off the water.

Fresh plastic doesn't usually have that problem, but it's been sitting around for a long time---at your place, or in a warehouse---it may be "wet."