Abs/Styrene sheet thickness

vlester · Post by **vlester** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:44 am

I've been looking at the plastruct site and I'm thinking about ordering a few sheets in various thicknesses but I wasn't sure what everything meant..

when it says a thickness of .010 or .4 etc I know more is thicker, but is that .4 millimeters or what?

I know this is a very broad question but is there a standard thickness that some of you use for ship hulls?

Thanks for any help.

Vance

kenlilly106 · Post by **kenlilly106** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:59 am

Thicknesses are in inches unless noted otherwise.

.010 is pretty thin stuff, think a couple of sheets of construction paper, for a reference standard copy paper is .03-.04 thick.

.040 is about as thick as a US Penny.

For hull plating, you'll need it thin enough to take the curve/shape, but thick enough to hold it's shape without warping. .040 is pretty stiff, it can be cold bent 'a little', but in reality takes heat to bend it. .010-.020 can be bent fairly easy.

Ken

vlester · Post by **vlester** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 1:28 pm

Forgive the continued stupid questions but this one is more...advice related.

Plastruct requires a $20 minimum purchase no biggie there.

I've never used this stuff before so I wanted to try different thicknesses and materials.

I'm looking at ordering 2 .04, a pack of .02 and .01 styrene and a couple of .02 ABS sheets.

Do you think that would be a good bit to start out messing around with?

vlester · Post by **vlester** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 1:30 pm

Woohoo my first double post!

kenlilly106 · Post by **kenlilly106** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 1:53 pm

Sounds like a good assortment to try things on, you might want to add some more .040 to the mix, it makes great bulkheads and frames.

Ken

Johnnycrash · Post by **Johnnycrash** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 2:03 pm

Save some money...

Grab the yellow pages, and look under Plastic. There should be some listed. They will more than likely be selling sheet plastic. I can get a 4' x 8' (that is feet) of 020 (0.020") for $15 with tax. That's 4,608 square inches of plastic.

And many shops have scrap bins. And some of them will be willing to sell you a bucket full for $10 or so. In there you could get a variety of thicknesses.

BTW, a sheet of paper is 0.003", not 0.03". Or you could say 003. The decimal is implied. Most plastic injected kits are about 050-060 thick (0.060")

Recommended to stcok: 005, 010, 015, 020, 030, 040, 060, 080

Arklan · Post by **Arklan** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 3:18 pm

i have a big stack of .020 and another of .040 that i use for basically everything i build. the 40 for strutctural stuff, the 20 for curvy stuff.

vlester · Post by **vlester** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 3:22 pm

Arklan wrote:i have a big stack of .020 and another of .040 that i use for basically everything i build. the 40 for strutctural stuff, the 20 for curvy stuff.

So for something like...scratchbuilding the various raised parts on a star destroyer, you would 20 for that?

Arklan · Post by **Arklan** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:02 pm

well, a star destoryer specifcally is made primarily of varius flat surfaces with alot of little bits for detail. i generally use .020 when building a planes fuselage, say, or the hull of a boat. things like that. if the shape can easily be made from flat panels, i use .040, becuase of it's strength.

cours,e i am by no means a pro at this stuff. just a hobby for me.

vlester · Post by **vlester** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:05 pm

Well I still appreciate the info

Thanks everyone

DX-SFX · Post by **DX-SFX** » Sat May 10, 2008 6:18 am

.040" or forty thou is 1mm or so close as makes no odds.

.060 is 1.5mm which is as good as 1/16th"

therefore 0.8mm is 1/32nd" and 0.4mm is 1/64th".