my huge sheet of acrylic

specter539 · Post by **specter539** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:19 am

i just bought a huge ( .220" X 24" X 48") sheet of acrylic at homedepot for 35$ What is the best way to cut and spray paint this? i bought rust-oleum professional high performance enamel to paint it with and was wondering if it would work well. It says its ideal for metal, wodod, concrete and masonry surfaces but i heard enamel was good for plastics too.
Thanks

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:28 am

Rustoleum isn't the best. I tried Rustoleum and Krylon Fusion paint, and the Rustoleum paint is inferior by far. I suggest buying some Krylon Fusion, it's specifically designed for plastics and works amazingly. 1 coat is all you'll need.

khaag · Post by **khaag** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:58 am

That is not exactly huge... And you got ripped off. I am selling the same size sheets, in white/clear for $15 a sheet plus shipping.

specter539 · Post by **specter539** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:52 pm

do you realize how much that would be for shipping? this sheet is huge.
and where did you get them that you can sell them for that little?

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:32 am

His job, I believe. Employee discount.

specter539 · Post by **specter539** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:38 am

Thats sweet. Where does he work?

khaag · Post by **khaag** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:53 am

It wouldn't be THAT much for shipping. I could cut it in have to have two 2'x2' sheets, and then ship them between 2 pieces of cardboard. To the states it would probably cost 12-13 dollars tops.

EDIT: I work at Rona. It's a building supply store like Home Depot.

Murdok09 · Post by **Murdok09** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:32 am

Which just about evens out.^^

skeneegee · Post by **skeneegee** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:03 am

If you're going to paint it anyway, I think styrene would be a lot easier to work with.

Acrylic takes much more effort to sand because it's so durable. My arms would hurt for weeks from sanding and filing pieces for puzzles I've built. However the payoff is worth it afterwards since it has such a nice finish.

Anyway as for cutting, you can get a scoring knife like this for a few dollars. http://img.underbid.com/Theidealplace/373633383133.jpg

You can just layout your cuts on the protective paper on the acrylic and using a straight edge and an exacto or something to score your line lightly, then you can use the scoring tool a few times to make your cut deeper. After you get a nice score you can snap it off on the edge of a table!

I learned lots from this manual http://www.tapplastics.com/aa/pinfo/a_w ... rylite.pdf

Also if you just go to the tapplastics.com main site, there's instructional videos and manuals for all kinds of plastics and resins.

Good luck!
-mike