NEED STYRENE?

[Baugher Garage]

Hey all. I'm new to the group and have been loving seeing everyone's creativity. I had no idea there were people making their own parts out of plastic sheets of styrene. Amazing!

I've been in the graphic design industry for many years, so when I heard "styrene" I immediately thought of my local digital large format print vendor I've used in the past. They print a lot of signs on styrene sheets. I drove over there at lunch today and poked around their dumpster (yes, I'm a dumpster diver) and found several sheets of styrene that were printing mistakes aka throw-aways.

If you want styrene and don't want to spend any money on it (like me), track down a local digital printer who prints on the stuff. Their dumpster will likely be a treasure trove. Or they might be willing to give you their scrap.

I've you're desperate, let me know. No promises here, but I might be able to hook you up.

Happy creating!

Mike

[alangarber]

Wow your lucky to have a place to get that for free. Now you can build and not worry about making mistakes. Lucky find

[disabled modeler]

I have to be creative with my budget or lack of one...Id dumpster dive if I could get permission to any day. Good tip! You would be surprised at what you can build from junk or spare parts even...most of my builds are from them...LOL...

[Skypower]

I will check with my local printer, we use then occasionally maybe I can get a little better bang for my buck. lol

[Baugher Garage]

You're supposed to get permission to dumpster dive? Lol

[ZTony8]

Felonious trash picking-what a concept!

[Baugher Garage]

It's how I roll.

[Kaleb]

It's actually illegal here to dumpster dive, some homeless man was killed while sleeping in the dumpster. The garbage man didn't know he was in there.

Ok you have me curious, what exactly is a print shop? We have a few copy places around here but to my knowledge that's it.

[Zarana-X]

Alot of signs are printed on styrene, like FOR SALE, YARD SALE, BEWARE of DOG. You can usually find those cheap. Gift cards/credit cards are also good for small, thick parts.

[dbiggied]

Getting stuff for free is awesome.

Having said that, look in your local yellow pages (they still have those???) and find a plastic supply company. You might have to call a few to find one that will sell small orders, but about 15 years ago, I bought four 4x8 foot sheets in different thicknesses, and they even cut them into 2 foot squares for me. For about $30, I got enough sheet to last me the rest of my life

[Thatswhatshesaid]

I'm lucky to live near the Evergreen building. They sell the big sheets a lot cheaper than the LHS.

[SlotDaddy1963]

It's true... I work in the sign industry too and our main substrate supplier sells a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet of .015 to .060 styrene, blank-white for around 7 or 8 bucks. I'm still working from my first.

[DrGlueblob]

..And a big T-Square is your friend.

Get a metal one and a scoring knife and go to town

[impcon]

It's actually illegal here to dumpster dive, some homeless man was killed while sleeping in the dumpster. The garbage man didn't know he was in there.

Wow!! That's sad... Can you even begin to imagine the wild confusion and fear of his last seconds? Poor guy. What a way to go - free falling from a dumpster..

Ok you have me curious, what exactly is a print shop? We have a few copy places around here but to my knowledge that's it.

[greymack]

Hi just wanted to say where I get my styrene sheets from to and I buy short ends and have bought a 4x8 sheet from a local sign place here.

[Narampa]

Will Acrylic sheets work the same?