Where do you acquire cheap thin plywood and acrylic sheets?
November 18, 2013 9:11 PM Subscribe
I'm a member of a maker space that recently acquired a really awesome laser cutter. I want to learn how to make awesome laser-cut 3D objects. Problem: materials for it seem unreasonably hard to find in local stores, and are super expensive online.
Does anyone sell:
a) 1/8" plywood, that lays flat enough for use in the laser cutter, for under $5 for a 12x24 piece (the price I paid at a local hobby store)? Is there some kind of lumber yard that would stock this (my local home improvement stores don't)?
b) Acrylic sheets, preferably in interesting colors, for less than $8 or so a sheet? I found one place that has clear acrylic only for that price (and usually only stocks 1 or 2 pieces). All the colored acrylic I have found online is at really high prices, like $20 a sheet. I really like the look of mirrored acrylic but that is even more insanely expensive.
c) REALLY thin plywood, like 1/32" or 1/64", for cheap? Local price is around $20 for a 12x12 sheet.
d) MDF in 1/8" or 1/4" thicknesses?
I'd prefer to buy online. I'm not buying in large enough quantities that wholesale makes sense.
We're going to run through a lot of this stuff learning how to make neat laser-cut objects, and I don't want to break the bank!
Does anyone sell:
a) 1/8" plywood, that lays flat enough for use in the laser cutter, for under $5 for a 12x24 piece (the price I paid at a local hobby store)? Is there some kind of lumber yard that would stock this (my local home improvement stores don't)?
b) Acrylic sheets, preferably in interesting colors, for less than $8 or so a sheet? I found one place that has clear acrylic only for that price (and usually only stocks 1 or 2 pieces). All the colored acrylic I have found online is at really high prices, like $20 a sheet. I really like the look of mirrored acrylic but that is even more insanely expensive.
c) REALLY thin plywood, like 1/32" or 1/64", for cheap? Local price is around $20 for a 12x12 sheet.
d) MDF in 1/8" or 1/4" thicknesses?
I'd prefer to buy online. I'm not buying in large enough quantities that wholesale makes sense.
We're going to run through a lot of this stuff learning how to make neat laser-cut objects, and I don't want to break the bank!
For the thin plywood check out Aircraft Spruce. Unfortunately I've not seen their wood as I've only bought a short bit of steel tubing from them to repair my gas pogo stick.
posted by tinker at 10:07 PM on November 18, 2013
posted by tinker at 10:07 PM on November 18, 2013
a) 1/8" plywood is hard to get to lay flat unless you store it in a climate controlled environment.
Luan is plywood that is made of wood that is resistant to humidity. I've used it in high humidity environments where we need a thin stable plywood.
foodgeek a) above has wise advice. I used to work at a cabinet shop and not only do they have lots of scraps but they are usually the type of people that are into their craft and happy to share materials and knowledge.
posted by vapidave at 12:18 AM on November 19, 2013
Luan is plywood that is made of wood that is resistant to humidity. I've used it in high humidity environments where we need a thin stable plywood.
foodgeek a) above has wise advice. I used to work at a cabinet shop and not only do they have lots of scraps but they are usually the type of people that are into their craft and happy to share materials and knowledge.
posted by vapidave at 12:18 AM on November 19, 2013
vapidave has you covered on plywood. You should be able to buy Luan 1/8" plywood for less than $15 a 4'x8' sheet - even the big box stores sometimes carry this.
No 1/8" ply is going to sit particularly flat with humidity changes though.
Veneer (thin wood) should not be as expensive as you mention. Find out where cabinet makers buy theirs locally. The same place should be able to sell you thin MDF, though 1/4" may also be available at a big box store.
In general, you want to shop at a place that sells plywood for cabinetry, etc. versus the more expensive hobby store.
posted by ssg at 1:28 AM on November 19, 2013
No 1/8" ply is going to sit particularly flat with humidity changes though.
Veneer (thin wood) should not be as expensive as you mention. Find out where cabinet makers buy theirs locally. The same place should be able to sell you thin MDF, though 1/4" may also be available at a big box store.
In general, you want to shop at a place that sells plywood for cabinetry, etc. versus the more expensive hobby store.
posted by ssg at 1:28 AM on November 19, 2013
Yay! Laser cutters are AWESOME. I use the one at our hackspace for acrylic cutting, so that's what I mostly know.
Unfortunately, the places I would point you to would be all in the UK, and my Google is failing for finding something similar in the US.
(However, if you're in the UK and want acrylic: Hobarts, Plastic Stockist, and Kitronik.)
I hate to say this, but have you tried eBay? Because it's where I usually end up going for small pieces of stuff to play with.
posted by Katemonkey at 2:38 AM on November 19, 2013
Unfortunately, the places I would point you to would be all in the UK, and my Google is failing for finding something similar in the US.
(However, if you're in the UK and want acrylic: Hobarts, Plastic Stockist, and Kitronik.)
I hate to say this, but have you tried eBay? Because it's where I usually end up going for small pieces of stuff to play with.
posted by Katemonkey at 2:38 AM on November 19, 2013
For 1/8" ply I'd go for Baltic birch. It's finer-grained than lauan which makes it nice for small, intricate things, and anyhow the lauan ply available in home centers is thicker than you're looking for. The standard size for a sheet of Baltic birch ply is five feet square. Being an import the price can fluctuate quite a bit but I'd expect it to be around 1/4 the price you're paying for 1/8" ply now.
Plywood will be cheapest when you buy it in the large sheets it's typically manufactured in. Domestic plywood is almost always 4 feet by 8 feet, and Baltic birch is five by five. When you buy small pieces you're paying for someone to carefully cut down a big sheet into small pieces, discard the ones with small imperfections, and handle many more individual transactions. Bought in full sheets, thin plywood can be pretty cheap, but shipping is a major obstacle to buying just one sheet online. See if you can find a large plywood distributor nearby that supplies cabinet shops and lumber yards. When I lived in Cleveland I bought Baltic birch ply at Cleveland Plywood, and they were willing to sell me single sheets right off the loading dock. I did however have to fill out tax-exempt forms and give a vendor's license number, because they weren't set up to deal with retail sales tax.
1/64" ply has got to be a real oddity. Plywood has to be at least 3 layers thick, so at 1/64 total you're talking about layers that are just a few thousandths of an inch each. I am skeptical that what you're buying is actually plywood.
posted by jon1270 at 3:26 AM on November 19, 2013
Plywood will be cheapest when you buy it in the large sheets it's typically manufactured in. Domestic plywood is almost always 4 feet by 8 feet, and Baltic birch is five by five. When you buy small pieces you're paying for someone to carefully cut down a big sheet into small pieces, discard the ones with small imperfections, and handle many more individual transactions. Bought in full sheets, thin plywood can be pretty cheap, but shipping is a major obstacle to buying just one sheet online. See if you can find a large plywood distributor nearby that supplies cabinet shops and lumber yards. When I lived in Cleveland I bought Baltic birch ply at Cleveland Plywood, and they were willing to sell me single sheets right off the loading dock. I did however have to fill out tax-exempt forms and give a vendor's license number, because they weren't set up to deal with retail sales tax.
1/64" ply has got to be a real oddity. Plywood has to be at least 3 layers thick, so at 1/64 total you're talking about layers that are just a few thousandths of an inch each. I am skeptical that what you're buying is actually plywood.
posted by jon1270 at 3:26 AM on November 19, 2013
My source for cheap plywood has been our local built-to-size packaging manufacturer. They do boxes in thin plywood, but I'm not sure of the exact thickness as I've generally bought thicker material from them. That kind of plywood has usually got a few blemishes, but I guess you could work around that on the laser cutter.
posted by Harald74 at 5:00 AM on November 19, 2013
posted by Harald74 at 5:00 AM on November 19, 2013
Inventables sells birch plywood for $3.58 per 12x24 sheet. They also have all sorts of other weird building materials at low prices. Their acrylic is more like $10 for a sheet of 12x24, depending on color, some less.
posted by juniperesque at 5:33 AM on November 19, 2013
posted by juniperesque at 5:33 AM on November 19, 2013
Framing stores and stores that do framing (like Michael's craft stores) often have scrap pieces of clear acrylic. The Michael's near me has a dumpster where I get lots of long rectangles of clear acrylic (and many other wonderful art supplies), but I bet you could also go inside and talk to them about getting their scraps.
posted by Presidente de China at 7:10 AM on November 19, 2013
posted by Presidente de China at 7:10 AM on November 19, 2013
In our shop we use 1/8" and 1/4" Masonite. You want 2-side tempered, the chocolate-colored stuff, not the lighter, blond stuff. It's pretty cheap.
Even cheaper is chipboard. Double-thick (30 ply) is a great prototyping material, but it's still sturdy enough for work like this.
If you're using MDF, make sure it's formaldehyde free. Even if you have the best possible ventilation on your LC, you're still going to need to saw or sand the material.
Speaking of toxins, do your research on what's safe to cut. Some materials will produce highly toxic fumes, and some will produce corrosive gases that will damage your machine.
posted by hydrophonic at 7:22 AM on November 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
Even cheaper is chipboard. Double-thick (30 ply) is a great prototyping material, but it's still sturdy enough for work like this.
If you're using MDF, make sure it's formaldehyde free. Even if you have the best possible ventilation on your LC, you're still going to need to saw or sand the material.
Speaking of toxins, do your research on what's safe to cut. Some materials will produce highly toxic fumes, and some will produce corrosive gases that will damage your machine.
posted by hydrophonic at 7:22 AM on November 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
"I'm not buying in large enough quantities that wholesale makes sense."
Try going in with other members of your space on a group buy. When you buy materials like these online you're paying at least 30% more in shipping alone.
Put a scrap bin next to the cutter and encourage other members to donate usable scraps.
There is some good advice for buying wood above, but I'll add mine. Under no circumstances shop at the home center/big-box hardware store. Their quality is awful and prices high. Go to an actual lumber yard. (You don't say where you are, but trust me, there's one nearby.) They'll have higher quality, better selection, and better prices. Buy full-sized sheets and cut them to size at the space.
For acrylic, call places that do storm windows and glass replacement.
If you're just getting started with laser cutting, practice with cardboard. It's essentially free and plentiful. And you can make actual useful interesting things with it.
I have a small test pattern I use when I'm cutting with a new material or laser cutter. It lets me test cutting speed, etching settings, etc. And it's only 1/2" square so I can use it on a corner or edge of material to test the cutting and etching settings before I commit to a large (expensive, time consuming) cut. You can whip up something similar in the vector app of choice in a couple of minutes.
posted by Ookseer at 11:15 AM on November 19, 2013
Try going in with other members of your space on a group buy. When you buy materials like these online you're paying at least 30% more in shipping alone.
Put a scrap bin next to the cutter and encourage other members to donate usable scraps.
There is some good advice for buying wood above, but I'll add mine. Under no circumstances shop at the home center/big-box hardware store. Their quality is awful and prices high. Go to an actual lumber yard. (You don't say where you are, but trust me, there's one nearby.) They'll have higher quality, better selection, and better prices. Buy full-sized sheets and cut them to size at the space.
For acrylic, call places that do storm windows and glass replacement.
If you're just getting started with laser cutting, practice with cardboard. It's essentially free and plentiful. And you can make actual useful interesting things with it.
I have a small test pattern I use when I'm cutting with a new material or laser cutter. It lets me test cutting speed, etching settings, etc. And it's only 1/2" square so I can use it on a corner or edge of material to test the cutting and etching settings before I commit to a large (expensive, time consuming) cut. You can whip up something similar in the vector app of choice in a couple of minutes.
posted by Ookseer at 11:15 AM on November 19, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks everyone. A lot of good tips here. I'll have to start calling lumber yards. Chipboard seems ideal as a prototyping material, I'll have to try that. Tons of fun ahead!
posted by miyabo at 9:35 PM on November 19, 2013
posted by miyabo at 9:35 PM on November 19, 2013
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b) I've only bought acrylic from tap plastics at their store in San Francisco, they have a random assortment of small pieces for a couple of bucks a piece. I assume you can find a local plastics place and ask what they do with the leftovers from custom cut pieces.
c) I've never seen 1/32" or 1/64" thick plywood but a veneer should work in that thickness, I have no idea why but veneers tend to be cut .024" (1/42") thick. Something like this seems like a reasonable starting point for figuring out what you can do with really thin wood.
d) no idea.
posted by foodgeek at 10:00 PM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]