Styrene sheet - Best online store?
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Styrene sheet - Best online store?
Hi, I'm just starting scratchbuilding. Just wondering where the best/cheapest place online is to get syrene sheet from? Thx.
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en'til Zog
- Posts: 2405
- Joined: Fri Jul 12, 2002 3:03 pm
- Location: The Wilds of Northwoods Wisconsin
Hail, DARTHTODD!
First - how big a sheet do you need? And how thick?
"For Sale" signs are usually 15 x 19 and fairly flimsy. "OPEN HOUSE" signs from Home Depot are 1 x 2 feet and about 0.080 inches thick - fairly solid. The advantage to these? They're usually available locally at Wally World, Home Despot, and Menards.
How big is the town you're living in? Check the Yellow Pages for "Plastics suppliers - sheet/rod". They usualy stock, or can get, BIG sheets of styrene or 'most any other plastic in almost any thickness. I buy 4 x 8 FOOT sheets of styrene and cut it down to storable size.
The bigger the sheet, the cheaper per square foot it gets. EVERGREEN and PLASTRUCT stuff is available at the LHS, but it's expensive per square foot. The signs are cheaper. But the full 4 x 8 foot sheet is cheapest, when you can find a local supplier.
Another advantage to a local supplier? They often have "drop stock" or the bits left over from cutting another customer's custom order. If a customer needs 14" x 2 foot sheets, the supplier can cut them from 4 x 8 foot sheets. What's left over from the cutting is 'drop stock' or 'leftovers'. Which they are usually happy to get rid of, cheap.
HTH
First - how big a sheet do you need? And how thick?
"For Sale" signs are usually 15 x 19 and fairly flimsy. "OPEN HOUSE" signs from Home Depot are 1 x 2 feet and about 0.080 inches thick - fairly solid. The advantage to these? They're usually available locally at Wally World, Home Despot, and Menards.
How big is the town you're living in? Check the Yellow Pages for "Plastics suppliers - sheet/rod". They usualy stock, or can get, BIG sheets of styrene or 'most any other plastic in almost any thickness. I buy 4 x 8 FOOT sheets of styrene and cut it down to storable size.
The bigger the sheet, the cheaper per square foot it gets. EVERGREEN and PLASTRUCT stuff is available at the LHS, but it's expensive per square foot. The signs are cheaper. But the full 4 x 8 foot sheet is cheapest, when you can find a local supplier.
Another advantage to a local supplier? They often have "drop stock" or the bits left over from cutting another customer's custom order. If a customer needs 14" x 2 foot sheets, the supplier can cut them from 4 x 8 foot sheets. What's left over from the cutting is 'drop stock' or 'leftovers'. Which they are usually happy to get rid of, cheap.
HTH
Where there's a Will....there's Probate.
Thx for the tips guys, I never thought of using signs but I can see how they'd be cheap and easy to find. I'll pick some up next week.
I need them for some 7-8 inch long SW models I'm going to scratchbuild. Since I'm just starting and I'll be really slow at this, I won't be needing any 4 x 8 footers.
The signs thicknesses should work good. Probably the flimsy stuff for the bodies of the ships and then the .08 stuff for wings, etc.
Thx for the ideas!
I need them for some 7-8 inch long SW models I'm going to scratchbuild. Since I'm just starting and I'll be really slow at this, I won't be needing any 4 x 8 footers.
The signs thicknesses should work good. Probably the flimsy stuff for the bodies of the ships and then the .08 stuff for wings, etc.
Thx for the ideas!