ChefDude

basically, i want some acrylic reflective/shiny acrylic/perspex sheet (4 or 5mm thick, 50cm or 1m square) for table top photography. black and white glossy, definitely.

i don't want to spend £40 a sheet on this stuff though

Any ideas?

dpb

Isn't acrylic just quite expensive anyway ?

ChefDude

hmmm, so it seems.

ChefDude

i wonder if a mirror with coloured backing card would be cheaper?

hodgy0_2

any signmaker will have some

Don Clark

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Clear-Plas...item337267fbbb

ChefDude

Onan The Barbarian

http://bit.ly/QpW1XG

hodgy0_2

i knew what that was goint to be before I clicked

but it always makes me chuckle

I do sometimes wonder if posters have ever heard of google

ChefDude

Cheeky cvnts. I spent half an hour on google coming up with £40+ solutions.

The reason I asked you lot is that local suppliers are often cheaper. I don't know any though.

dpb

Go to a bloke who runs small shop in Brighton to get windows for my boat made up ( cut out) , and that was 30 I think. - 2 x 2' by 9" by 6mm.
Not even completely sure they're acrylic. Certainly not perspex

hodgy0_2

isn't perspex just a trade name for acrylic

GC8

It is. Perspex is acrylic and Lexan is polycarbonate. Polycarbonate is dearer at about £40-odd per square metre - acrylic is a fair bit cheaper.

dpb

Total confused now, polycarbonate is the stuff you'd use for your shed roof isnt it ?

Cheap I thought

GC8

Polycarbonate may be a twin walled shed roof skylight, or it can be a three inch thick bullet proof partition.

Polycarbonate is extremely tough, but it is soft and scratches easily.
Acrylic is very tough, slightly less so than polycarbonate and it is more scratch resistant.
Both are tens of times more resistant to breaking or shattering then glass.

These are the two products, but they have a variety of commercial names (Plexiglass, Perspex, Makrolon, Lexan etc) which people tend to mix and match and confuse with the correct names.

GC8

Buying PC well isnt particularly easy. You can easily pay over £300 for a 3000mm x 2000mm x 4mm sheet.

albob

any caravan repairers/suppliers near u???

john banks

We have had good stuff from Trent Plastics (we laser cut it). It is expensive for thick stuff.

We got 2 square metres of 2mm thick stuff for secondary glazing for about £40 from another supplier.

Both were Perspex and equivalent quality as they are made under license to use the Perspex brand.

There are differences between cast and extruded that are relevant to thickness (extruded is more precise) and the way it engraves (cast gives a nicer result).