Where to get acrylic?

[Gordonious]

DIYSers, where does everyone get their acrylic? I need to buy some acrylic soon and may be heading to home depot before anyone can post an answer to this. I have posted about this in the general forms several times in the past, but I don't think I posted in the DRC forum. In the last thread I was sent to a hand full of web pages that were 50 page long tables of sheets you could buy, I have no clue what half the names of them would mean to me. I noticed one LFS, Just Fish, was using Lucite CP.

Is there some place local that is cheaper or carries better quality stuff. I am going to use it to partition an all-glass 20high for a sump to start, but have several other projects I would like to try in the future like small tanks.

Jon

 

[kaptken]

It just so happens I went through an acrylic tank building phase a couple years back. for your partition job you would only need 1/4 acrylic, and it wouldn't matter what type. Lucyte cast, is one of the best for clear vision and maybe a little extra strenght. but costs more. a small piece of 1/4 inch acrylic can be found at home depot, and loewes, and sears by the newark library.

when you want to build an aquarium out of acrylic you have to set the wall thickness per the height and width of the tank to accomodate the water pressure. a simple calculator is at GARF.
under the DIY PAGES on the left hand menu. there is aslo a how to tutorial there somewhere.

http://www.garf.org/

once you have your measurements you can got to:

KAUFMAN GLASS co. in wilmington..

you can find them in the yellow pages and mapquest the address.
they will have the proper ACRYLIC CEMENT, WELDON #4 AND WELDON #16. plus the aplicator bottle with capilary tube. get the stainless steel capilary. more durable. plus ask them to look at their scrap acrylic stockpile. you just might find enough odd sizes to make your tank at a discount.

rule of thumb , 1/4 inch thick good for up to 14 -16 inch deep tank with proper top edge gussets and center spreader strap. and thicker as you go deeper and wider. i have made 40 gal breeder tank size out of 1/4. no problem. 18w x 36l x 16h. or also 40 gallon 18w x 48l x 12h. no problem.

 

[Gordonious]

Thanks a ton for the info. Really helpful. I debated partitioning my tank with glass and would actually prefer to if it was not too different in price.

 

[kaptken]

for a partition you are only talking a few bucks. much safer to work with as that one fellow posted his stitches from broken glass pointed out, doing much the same thing. im sure the stitches cost more than the plexi .

plexi is great, you can just cut it with a table saw or circular saw like wood, and drill it with a forstner bit or one of those round saw bits for drilling door knob holes.