acrylic

[at]

I have been looking for 1/2" acrylic everywhere,and the thickest I can find is 1/4" . Home Depot and Lowes dont have anything close. Any suggestions? Also is plexiglass the same thing?

Thanks Andy

[Grue]

Looked in Yellowbook.com typed in plastics in Maryland found 10 places. Not sure which is closest to you.
Grue

[cubereefer]

Check out this site....

http://www.jmkdisplays.com/sheet.html

They are great with very reasonable prices...the only thing is you would have to pay shipping....they can do custom, send supplies or anything in between (drill holes, etc.). I am having them make me some custom inserts for my sump to convert to refugium...

Jon

[at]

thanks guys I will try them.

Andy

[shovelhead91701]

why 1/2"? just wondering.....
i buy all mine from usplastics.com they havi it all the way up to 1" thick..lol

$277.72 for 1/2" x 48"x 96" plus shipping on motor freight... that is the bad part...too big to ship ups...

you can get it 24"x 48" x 1/2" thick shipped ups though... don't know what you are needing exactly... this piece is $87.12 plus ups.

[at]

My new sump is going to be 4'x 30"x 30" tall. I didn't think 1/4" would hold. Icould be wrong

[shovelhead91701]

marc is the acrylic guru on here but my sump is 48"x 30"x 24" tall and i used 1/4" but the baffles and bulkheads hold everything together in tandem with the top plate holding it all too!

[at]

If it works on your sump mine should definitley hold. I guess I am just worrying too much. Thanks for the advice. By the way what did you use to hold it together?


Thanks Andy

[shovelhead91701]

weld-on is what i use on all my acrylic work..... if you do not have the tools to use weld-on then get them! lol you need some needletip applicator bottles and some acupuncture pins or cut down guitar strings to gap the acrylic when you get ready to apply the weld-on. look on marc melev's site.... it is the best site i've seen to walk you through acrylic work as a newby.

[melev]

40 x 30 x 30? That's 155g to the top, using outside dimensions. Due to the fact that you are building it up 30" tall, you definitely need 1/2" to deal with the deflections.

If you were making it 16" tall, I'd suggest 3/8" material. And that would be an 83g sump using outside dimensions.

Shovelhead, your sump is underbuilt for 144g (outside dimensions). That is a lot of stress on your sump, even if you have internal baffles and a top flange. I recently stopped at a friend's house and he showed me a huge sump someone else had built for him, copying my 80g. And it was bowing out in every direction as expected. 1/4" simply isn't a good choice for large water volumes, especially in tall vessels. The taller the project, the thicker the material.