Local:

Canal Plastics - 345 Canal Street, New York, NY 10013 (212) 925-1666

T&T Plastic Land - 315 Church New York, NY 10013 - 2 blocks south of Canal (212) 925-6376

Online:

K-Mac Plastics - a variety of plastic products

Online Metals - online source for metals and many sheet plastic products

Small Parts - plastic tubing, fasteners - check out their great catalog

Plastics info:

Wikipedia - Chemical Properties of Plexiglas

Build a Plexiglas gluing jig (scroll down page)

Plastics Tips

Cutting acrylic by hand:

1. Using a straight-edge and a plastic scoring tool, cut a groove in the acrylic sheet (thicker sheet will require repeated passes with the tool) by placing the point of the tool on the acrylic and pulling the tool along the straight-edge, producing a fine curl of scraped plastic

2. When the groove is sufficiently deep, place the sheet on a sharp-edged table top with the line of the cut directly above the table edge. Place a board on top of the plastic and line the board edge up with the scorline and table edge below, sandwiching the plastic sheet.

3. Clamp or hold the board firmly on top of the plastic.

4. Snap the overhanging plastic downward sharply breaking the sheet at the scoreline.

Gluing Plastics - Acrylic, ABS, Polycarbonate and Styrene can be fastened with Methylene Chloride. Methylene Chloride is considered a restricted chemical at ITP and may not be brought into the building. A small amount is kept by the school for distribution for projects as needed. Methylene Chloride is applied to plastic joints and spreads quickly through capillary action causing the surfaces it comes in contact with to melt and then fuse together then evaporating. It must be used with adequate ventilation.

Lightly sanding the surface of acrylic plastic produces a frosted effect