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Hi
Jon,
The plexiglass is definately going to be a fraction of the cost of the cast
acrylic. The reason for this is that I have a few thousandths of an inch
differences between the eight viewport frames and I'm concerned that they will
each have to be custom machined to fit. I'm hoping that the variation will
be small enough so I would be able to just have one lens fit all the viewport
frames.
Brian
Hi Brian,
Acrylic and
Plexiglas are one in the same. Given the thickness of 1.5 inches I can't
see any financial benefit to prototyping with a low grade Plexiglas which no
doubt is going to be very expensive regardless of the lower grade. If it
is machining that you want to play with, you might try calling around to see
if you can get a small remnant. If it is fit-up that you want to play
with, how about using a 1.5 inch Styrofoam panel from Home Depot or
Lowes?
Jon
On 9/20/2010 11:20 AM, Brian Cox wrote:
Greg, I have already machined my viewports and
they are just waiting for me to get the acrylic lenses to fit in. I
was thinking that I could purchase some regular plexieglass (1 1/2"
thick) and machine those so I could play around with how everything is
going to fit together. Can you tell me if the machining properties are
much different between the cast acrylic and regular "low grade"
plexieglass? I imagine that the cast acrylic would be a denser
material so it may machine and polish much differently.
Thanks,
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