Acrylic Question: What are the ingredient to make Acrylic Clear Plastic and the best place to buy them?

Im looking for Acrylic ingredient and the place to buy them. Since I do not have laser to cut them perhaps I can just pore acrylic liquid to my mold. Custom Acrylic cutter are too damn expensive for me and some do not reply to my Acrylic request and Im tired of it.Acrylic Question: What are the ingredient to make Acrylic Clear Plastic and the best place to buy them?
Cutting through sheets of acrylic ';plexiglass'; is pretty hard to do except for straight lines.





You can use other things to simulate sheets (or shapes) of clear acrylic though... for example, epoxy resin, polyester resin, acrylic/polyurethane resin (usually a bit too dangerous for most hobbyists though), clear acrylic sealers like polyurethanes/acrylic mediums/floor polishes like Future/Mop'NGlo, clear embossing powders, clear fingernail polishes, etc.


Some of those will be less scratchable than others though, or not be UV protected so they'll eventually yellow with too much direct exposure to sunlight/etc, or won't harden quite as smooth as others, etc.





If you want to ';cast'; one of those materials in a removable mold, there are things you'll need to know about what kinds of molds will work, if releases are necessary and which kinds if so, which resins or other materials will work best, etc.





Generally, crafters and artists use *polyester resins* when casting in removable molds because they can be poured deeper than 1/2';. However, the surface of a polyester resin that cures *next to the air* may not be perfect, so the ';front'; of the cast item will be the area which contacted the mold while curing.





Epoxy resins will also produce a clear object (in a removable mold or in a permanent ';cell'; of some kind) or a clear thick coating, but it's not usually used to make things that will be deeper than 1/2';.


On the other hand, epoxy resins are better for lungs than polyesters, and they don't have the problem of the surface next to the air curing imperfectly.





Once those resins cure though, the can be carved and cut but with difficulty (then need to be buffed).





For much more info about using resins, and the differences between them, check out the 3 LINKS in this recent answer I wrote about resins:


http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;鈥?/a>





HTH,





Diane B.Acrylic Question: What are the ingredient to make Acrylic Clear Plastic and the best place to buy them?
Tap plastics has just about everything plastics. They have retail stores as well as online store.


http://www.tapplastics.com/index.php?PHP鈥?/a>





I've made paperweights using the resin and hardener and bought their molds.
A good hobby store will have that. It is sold for embedding objects, say, to make a paperweight.





You can find online sources by searching for





liquid acrylic





at http://www.google.com/products