Hey all,
Ive latley been looking into styrene and have noticed that it is EXPENSIVE!
Does anyone know where i can get it cheap or any cheaper substitutes for it???
Thanks for all your help! ! ! ! ! !
Raptor55
Most plastics come from oil. Most plastic prices will fluctuate with oil prices. If one is up they probably all will be until if and when this thing decides to ease off some.
The price of oil has increased. This means the price of most plastics is increasing. You can check around for larger sheets in various thicknesses, but for a lot of the shapes, strips and other special forms available from Evergreen or Plastruct, you’re likely going to have to live with the new price.
If you’re pricing styrene products packaged specifically for modelers, then be prepared to pay for value added and convenience. Having built several large projects, I have generally found the trade-off in the past to be worth it. YMMV
Be aware, though, that for large quantaties of commonly available plastics, a local plastics shop can save you money. They carry extensive selections of sheet goods, but you may be looking at buying a 4’x8’ sheet, instead of a package of pre-cut pieces like at the hobby shop. Many will offer to cut product for you at a small fee. They also will have tubing and solid shapes of various types and may have some embossed sheet goods.
I just purchased a piece 40"x70" for $15.00. Look in the yellow pages under plastic.
thanks everyone for your help!!!
Thanks again for all your help guys!!! It really is helping me out with the plastics ;o)
If you don’t have a local source you can try the following link.
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/product.asp?catalog_name=USPlastic&category_name=76&product_id=3008
If you can’t find a palstics supplier in your town, simply go to Home Depot or Wally Mart and buy a couple of their “For Sale” (or similar) signs. Same stuff and still far cheaper than your LHS.
Mike Tennent
You might want to stock a junk bin with used plastic; peanut butter jars, kid’s toys, plastic throw away plates etc etc etc.
I’ve found that Ace Hardware has Loctite that will join any type of plastic in the world, even the slippery plastic caps on food bottles that no other glues will work on.
I always ask around stores and fast food resturants. They usually use styrene for signs. Most of the time it’s pretty thin, but it’s free. You need to sand off the color before it will glue, though.
Been expecting this for some time but since I haven’t had reason to purchase any hadn’t really observed the prices. There are suppliers of styrene sheet but you will have to purchase them in large sheets - U. S. Plastics used to market a .020 thickness in 2 ft by 4 ft but I linked to their website and .030 is the smallest they have listed. That’s a little more than 2 1/2 inches in HO but a whopping 4 3/4 inches in N-Scale, far too big for practical use.
Not sure exactly what you are using Styrene for. Most of my scratchbuilding of late has been in wood - its price is linked to the graces of the spotted owl but has remained fairly constant over the last few years.
I believe it was Al Armitage who used a lot of Strathmore board in his construction projects. This is readily available at Art Supply Houses. I tried this one time with mixed results but found out later I didn’t really use the proper ply material and I didn’t pay attention to the direction of the grain and that probably accounted for my troubles. I will probably give it a try again in the future.
As I said earlier, I’m not sure just what you need styrene for but if you are looking for thicker material you might consider what is called “PVC lumber”- structural sheets sized to lumber specifications. The October, 2006 issue of Workbench magazine has an article dealing with using this material. The article doesn’t give any specifications of thickness but if it came down to, say, 1/4 inch I could probably find some use for it.
US Plastics still has .020 styene.
Is this the PVC you are speaking of? USP has it down to 1/16" thick. It is not UV stabilized. What glue works on the PVC? Pipe cement?
With the ideas for getting styrene you guys have presented, I just may give it a try. I generally work in wood 99.999999 % of the time. The only plastic I use is on my RTR locos.
I too have thought that plastic was way too expensive [I once saw it made and a drop makes a lot]. Anyhow, with your ideas, after all these years, I just might have at it. I especially liked the idea of old signs.