Modders: where do you buy plexiglass/lexan/etc?

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silent-circuit

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As the title says -- I'm getting in to a fairly involved mod (building a new casing for my Soyo DYLM24D6) and I'm going to need a good bit of black, frosted, and clear plexiglass/lexan/polycarbonate.

I know I can order this stuff online, but is there anywhere local that you guys regularly get your stuff from? I am in the Aiken, SC / Augusta, GA area, though I doubt this is any help. There's a Home Depot, a Lowes, a Hobby Lobby, and a couple of local glass shops. Might be more, but I can't think of it off-hand.

Will the price premium buying locally make it not worthwhile, or will the cost of shipping offset the local price hike? I know I can get clear, but can I even get black and frosted locally? If so, where?

If buying online makes far more sense, where would you suggest? Prices at www.estreetplastics.com don't seem bad, but unfortunately I'm looking at ~$75 after shipping, which is $20 or so more than I wanted to spend, though I realize I may have to just deal with it.

As of right now, to be safe I think I'm going to need one of all the following:

1/4" or thicker black plexi sheet - 24"x18" or larger
1/8" or thicker black plexi sheet - 24"x18" or larger
1/4" or thicker clear lexan sheet - 24"x18" or larger
1/8" or thicker frosted plexi sheet - 24"x18" or larger

total shipped to me from estreetplastics.com is around $75

Thanks for the help and ideas in advance.
 
The lowes in my area doesn't sell Lexan (just plain acrylic)

The Home Depot however does sell Lexan (sure isn't cheap though)
 
TheDigs said:
The lowes in my area doesn't sell Lexan (just plain acrylic)

The Home Depot however does sell Lexan (sure isn't cheap though)
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The clear stuff I can pick up locally I know, but I need to know if there's anywhere that stocks the black stuff and the frosted stuff, or if I should just go ahead and order it online. I do not want to paint clear, as I feel it'll come out looking like crap.
 
my local Menards had tinted something. Been a couple years, cant remember if it was lexan or p.g.
 
After searching around the interwebnets for a couple hours I determined that www.estreetplastics.com actually had the best prices on the stuff I wanted in the quantities I needed. Figures.

It might cost less per square foot to get a 6'x8' piece of 1/8" (or even 1/4") thick black acrylic from a few other places... but I don't need that much, and I don't want to pay $100+ before shipping -- freight, slow -- for it either.

Still welcoming other suggestions, as I might need more at some point. Also, anyone know what's involved in bending/shaping this stuff? Will a heat gun be enough, do I need to start making a form to put in the oven, or what?
 
Have you tried TAP plastics or US Plastics?

If you can't find anything, I can try to contact a local source (Canadian) and see their prices on the colours you need... This website, warehouse plastic sales is awesome! Most 0.18" acrylic (any colour) is 7$ a square foot, and they even cut it for you, down to the millimeter.

So, rather than buying an 8x6' sheet, perhaps I could get the dimensions for you, and inquire what they would charge to ship it to you.

We're good friends ;)
 
Arcygenical said:
Have you tried TAP plastics or US Plastics?

If you can't find anything, I can try to contact a local source (Canadian) and see their prices on the colours you need... This website, warehouse plastic sales is awesome! Most 0.18" acrylic (any colour) is 7$ a square foot, and they even cut it for you, down to the millimeter.

So, rather than buying an 8x6' sheet, perhaps I could get the dimensions for you, and inquire what they would charge to ship it to you.

We're good friends ;)
Click to expand...

Awesome, man. I really appreciate it.
 
silent-circuit said:
Awesome, man. I really appreciate it.
Click to expand...

No problem. Just hit me up with the dimensions and I'll submit an inquiry from my account.

Although, I must say, that you have roughly 12 square feet of material... The fact you can get it for 75$ shipped is pretty good...

(((24*18)*4)/144) = 12sqft...
 
this is gonna sound stupid but is actually quite effective. If there are any machine shops near you try stopping in and talking to someone. I use to get free peices of lexan, plexiglass, and carbon fiber. Alot of these materials are used in the machine tool industry and alot of time they throw scraps out. But good part for you is what they consider scraps are many times big enough for case mods. Just a thought and hell can't hurt anything to try. Let me know how it turns out.:D
 
Yea, your local shops are great. I just started putzing with plexi and found a local distributer in the yellow pages under "plastics" that had some of the more exotic pieces I needed (a tube). Pretty cheap if you buy from places like those.
 
LaChupacabra said:
Yea, your local shops are great. I just started putzing with plexi and found a local distributer in the yellow pages under "plastics" that had some of the more exotic pieces I needed (a tube). Pretty cheap if you buy from places like those.
Click to expand...

Alot of time you don't even have to buy them they will give them to you.
 
Arcygenical said:
No problem. Just hit me up with the dimensions and I'll submit an inquiry from my account.

Although, I must say, that you have roughly 12 square feet of material... The fact you can get it for 75$ shipped is pretty good...

(((24*18)*4)/144) = 12sqft...
Click to expand...

Yeah, their prices are pretty damn good, particularly on smaller pieces. Shipping is a killer if you're only getting one or two sheets, but at 3+ it works out pretty well. I ended up just getting 3 1/8" thick 18x24" sheets of black acrylic ($42 shipped) and I'll probably pick up some clear acrylic or lexan/polycarbonate locally and play around with frosting it myself or painting one side for accent pieces -- I don't want to use straight clear as the goal here isn't a "I can see its guts" type of effect, but something as slick looking as I can manage with no prior experience at all relevant to the project. Should be interesting to say the least.

Cost was a lot higher on the thick stuff and the frosted stuff, and given the design is still fairly vague in my head I couldn't justify it at the moment.
 
Be aware that acrylic is relatively easy to bend with heat, as it can be worked through a fairly wide temperature range. Polycarbonate has a higher and narrow working temperature range, which can make it difficult to bend (especially thicker material, such as 1/4"). Polycarbonate also has shape memory, so if you bend it at too low a temperature it will try to straighten a bit as it cools. Polycarbonate also absorbs moisture from the air, and this moisture can form bubbles in the plastic if you don't bake it out with an electric oven before using heat to work it. Also, if you need to do a lot of drilling in thicker sheets, be aware that you'll probably end up melting polycarbonate unless your bits are ground correctly (bits for wood and steel are not).

So basically the additional expense and difficulty of working polycarbonate is justified when you need a part with greater strength or scratch resistance. Lexan brand polycarbonate is surface-treated for even greater scratch resistance. For most applications, acrylic is easier to work with. I'm not trying to nay-say polycarbonate, because it is an amazing material - but be aware of the differences and choose the appropriate material for each part.
 
Living Weapon said:
Be aware that acrylic is relatively easy to bend with heat, as it can be worked through a fairly wide temperature range. Polycarbonate has a higher and narrow working temperature range, which can make it difficult to bend (especially thicker material, such as 1/4"). Polycarbonate also has shape memory, so if you bend it at too low a temperature it will try to straighten a bit as it cools. Polycarbonate also absorbs moisture from the air, and this moisture can form bubbles in the plastic if you don't bake it out with an electric oven before using heat to work it. Also, if you need to do a lot of drilling in thicker sheets, be aware that you'll probably end up melting polycarbonate unless your bits are ground correctly (bits for wood and steel are not).

So basically the additional expense and difficulty of working polycarbonate is justified when you need a part with greater strength or scratch resistance. Lexan brand polycarbonate is surface-treated for even greater scratch resistance. For most applications, acrylic is easier to work with. I'm not trying to nay-say polycarbonate, because it is an amazing material - but be aware of the differences and choose the appropriate material for each part.
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I appreciate this, and I'll definitely keep it in mind if I end up working with polycarbonate of any kind. Thus far it's just acrylic, though.
 
Having agreed with what Living Weapon said, it's still not all that difficult to bend/drill :).

Get a glass drill bit if you want to drill through it, and just be very careful with the heat gun. I've never had a bubble, and I've never baked my poly... And I've sure as hell used a lot of it :eek:
 
Living Weapon said:
Also, if you need to do a lot of drilling in thicker sheets, be aware that you'll probably end up melting polycarbonate unless your bits are ground correctly (bits for wood and steel are not).
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Agreed. No need for special bits however. Just a few minutes with a grinder changing the rake angle on
the drill bit cutting edge and you're good to go. Basically you want more a scraping action than digging.
 
Arcygenical said:
Having agreed with what Living Weapon said, it's still not all that difficult to bend/drill :).

Get a glass drill bit if you want to drill through it, and just be very careful with the heat gun. I've never had a bubble, and I've never baked my poly... And I've sure as hell used a lot of it :eek:
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To excellent effect from the logs I've seen :cool:

Susquehannock said:
Agreed. No need for special bits however. Just a few minutes with a grinder changing the rake angle on
the drill bit cutting edge and you're good to go. Basically you want more a scraping action than digging.
Click to expand...
Yup, 105 degrees is the right rake angle, and a drill press helps - but most folks don't have a pedestal or bench grinder ...though a $60 grinder from the auto parts store ends up being a lot cheaper than buying drill bits if you use them much! All in all, this is really overkill for 1/8" poly - getting into 1/4" it still barely makes a difference, but for anything thicker it becomes pretty important. Poly in square bar makes awesome case frames :D
 
try a local glass shop. i picked up a scrap sheet of tinted plexi glass for under $5 and they even cut it for me
 
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