Plexiglass (Plexiglas) comes in a wide variety of sheet sizes. Like a lot of materials, when you purchase the REAL stuff - there is a difference. Forget everything you saw at the big box home stores. You know, the film masked stuff jammed in a few slots in between the fence posts and bags of cement. Oh - you need it cut?
Plexiglas sheet (and other brands) are made from a machine that is over 8ft wide. They can run any length (until they run out of room) as a sheet. You can also get a ROLL of Plexiglas in certain thicknesses (not for the casual user). But the fact is: you can get Clear Plexiglass sheet in 4x8, 5x8, 6x8, 4x10, 4x12, 6x10 and so forth. Keep in mind - you might need several people to pick the sheet up! But a quality Plexiglas Distributor should have this available AND be able to trim the sheet to the final size you need.
Big is not always better - these really large sheets have specific applications. And the shipping cost to bring it to you is pricey - not every truck on the road can handle the largest sheets.
Most people will find the 48"x96" and 72"x96" sheet sizes to give the best yields for cutting. But if your company has an odd size and needs a LOT of them (say 2000 lbs or more), you qualify for custom run to size programs to eliminate waste. Pretty cool.
What about thickness? Is it really metric? Yes. While the width and length are in INCHES, the thickness is actually made in MILLIMETERS. Here's a little cross reference:
Inches mm fraction
0.060 1.5 1/16
0.080 2.0
0.118 3.0 1/8
0.177 4.5 3/16
0.220 5.5 1/4 (what you find as 1/4" at most shops)
0.236 6.0 1/4
0.354 9.0 3/8
0.472 12.0 1/2
0.708 18.0 3/4
0.940 25.0 1.0"
I'm looking for large sheet of plexiglass for framing a poster; I need something at least 104" x 80" - how do I even find someone that will sell me one (cut to size)? I've done a lot of web searching and found very, very little. Any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteThat would come from an 8ft x 10ft sheet - in 1/4" thick plexiglas. It is not listed on the www.ePlastics.com site but they have it. You have to call in - obviously there are issues with knowing the cutting information and shipping costs for a single large sheet. But yes, it's no problem.
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