Wow, thats pricy. And is it CAST or Extruded?

Let me know what you want, and I am sure I can beat that.

I believe it was extruded. I told him I wanted the cheapest acrylic possible.

My cost on high grade Cell Cast 4'x8' sheet is:
1/4" $118.40
3/8" $177.92
1/2" $243.52
3/4" $388.16
1" $526.08

If you dont buy much acrylic you could pay a bit more than that, and if you buy alot of acrylic, you could pay less than that, whatever you do, dont go to Industrial Plastics unless you want to remortgage your house....

multiply those prices by 2 and thats about what IPP charges for low grade extruded acrylic sheet

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the diff betwen extruded and cast. Cast seems pretty obvious but extruded?

cast is superior in clarity. extruded has optical flaws in it due to it being extruded out of a mold.

as for strength, they are so close it doesn't really matter for the average person, and for glue-ability they are both good. tank builders use cast because of the clarity of it, and all the skimmer and reactor makers use it because the tank builders do. then they try tell you extruded will fail in 1 year or less and develop crazing. this is just them trying to justify there use of a product that is 4 times more expensive because of the processes used to make it. if you cut and glue extruded properly you will not get crazing.

Steve

Steve, you're making stuff up again. :rolleyes:

Joel, this will explain the differences.

http://www.plasticsmag.com/ta.asp?aid=3919

yup your link is exactly what I said, if you work extruded properly it is fine, and cast is optically better.

Steve

thanks Brad... :biggrin:

No problem Joel. For most purposes, extruded is fine to work with, although cast machines better (it's more dense = harder) and it absorbs less moisture than extruded. If you're making something yourself, use extruded. If you're paying big bucks for a device, make sure you're buying cell cast.
One is better than the other, just not sure if the cost warrants it for hobbyist DIY projects.