Finding affordable acrylics

[twehr]

I am always on the lookout for good vendors with reasonable prices. I have been buying my acrylic sheets at the same place for a while now, and thought others might be interested as well.

The dealer is Delvies Plastics. They provide good service, reasonable shipping, and what I have found to be the very best prices. For example, 1/8" clear cast acrylic is $4 per square foot, with discounts starting on the 2nd piece. 1/4" is $7. Compare these prices to the popular places that charge 2 or 3 or more times that amount.

They also carry colors, transparent, translucent, mirrored, and a variety of thicknesses, as well as tools, solvents, etc. they use lasers to do their cutting, so you don't lose 1/8" off the stated sizes for the saw kerf.

If you need a good source, give them a try.

[r691175002]

I find that for material it can be worthwhile to find a local place.

Industrial paints and plastics does 4x8' sheets of 1/4" for around 160$ and I've got a local machine shop that sells me metal at what I assume is near cost (half of online metals prices) and I don't need to deal with shipping.

It isn't always clear whether a place will sell to individuals or not so you need to poke around.

[mondo50m]

I am new here and have not started building yet. But, I have a CNC router and I get my acrylic from www.freckleface.com. The las time I ordered it, I paid around $37 for a 2' X 4' sheet.

[twehr]

I appreciate that everyone has different needs. Since I don't have a laser large enough to cut 2' x 4' or 4' x 8' sheets, I need smaller pieces. Delvies sells 1' x 1' pieces at super prices compared to anyone else that I have been able to find selling similar sizes. If you check out their discount schedule, you will see that it prices become even lower very rapidly.

I could buy larger and then cut large pieces on my table saw with an appropriate blade, but unless I start going through a lot of material (selling lots of product daily), the extra work, storage, and having the $ tied up an sitting on the shelf is not worth it. I don't typically buy 8 sq feet for 32 sq feet of a single color and thickness. I would rather have a few pieces of a variety of colors available when I need it. In other words, until this become a much larger business, I find Delvies to meet my needs (almost) perfectly. (Would be nice if they were located next door - maybe I can get them to move )

[Gadroc]

So far I've loved Delvies, and I haven't found anything else that's cheaper. The freckle face has slightly cheaper for clear, but doesn't look to cary any colored acrylic (I use black, white and translucent green for my needs) and freckle face doesn't cary 1/16" thickness.

My machine can only hold about 8" x 14" right now so I order 12x24" sheets and just hand score and break sections of vary length by 12" wide for the parts I need.

[TLHarrell]

I primarily raid the scrap bins at Tap Plastics whenever I'm near one of the shops. Made out like a bandit this last weekend... they had a 50% off sale on scrap. Picked up a ton of cutoffs in a variety of colors and finishes.

[mattrsch]

I'm going to add a +1 to finding a good local place. I can get 1/4" cut to whatever size or sizes I want for $5.50/SF. 1/8" is about $3.20/SF. Both are cast acrylic with paper backing. Sweet!