Need help figuring out type of material I saw in store...

[jim_russell]

Hey all,

I went to Pottery Barn Kids the other day in the mall and took a look at the individual letters and other items they sold. The material was about 1/2-3/4" thick, felt like a hard plastic??, fiberglass?? that had a naturally white color to it. Seemed very durable. I am pretty sure it was weather resistant. Does anyone know what this material could be and where I could buy it? Thanks, Jim Russell www.trendycrafts.net (http://www.trendycrafts.net)

[Andy (Unregistered Guest)]

Jim,

Sounds like it could Foam PVC- gatorfoam?! Not exactly sure what you guys call it but over here it's called foamex or foamalux.

Comes in 10mm thickness which can be laminatedd up to pretty much any thickness.

Foamex is weatherproof, UV resistant and flame retardent.

If not foamex then it could be an engineering plastic- I know engineering grade plastics have the thickness that sign/ display material doesn't.

I've got a slab of Green nylon that's 75mm thick (3").

I doubt the letters are fibreglass as it's a pretty labour intensive method.

Did the letters look kinda rounded on the edges? If they did they might be vacuum formed acrylic- the thickness of these can be adjusted by making thicker or thinner letter forms.

Try alcan.com they do Dibond and Gatorfoam.

Hope this helps.

Andy

[Brady Watson]

Jim,
It was probably a urethane resin. You can either create a mold for each letter and pour liquid resin into the mold OR cast a block of resin and machine it like solid surface.

You can buy this type of resin from PolyTek or SmoothOn just to name a few....It could also be PVC sheet.

-Brady

[jhicks]

I have been investigating materials and have seen parts or references to on the forum,at the jamboree, or elsewhere. Several that I am following up on to reduce paint/finish time and costs. The 3 or 4 suppliers and materials I am following are
1) Alcan family of materials which includes sintra, gator foam and several variations of composites suitable for routing.
2) Kings plastics in Florida who makes the "Color core" multi layer/multi colored stock
and 3) Poly tone made by "Laminations" which also has solid color and multi layered materials used for kitchen cutting boards and one they call "boat board"and
4) which Brady mentions could be PVC sheets.

All appear to be viable alternatives to HDU or wood which should be cut, light edge finishing, and ship rather than prime, paint, mask, cut, prime, paint, wax, peel, touch up etc, etc, etc.

If you find a new one, please post what you find.
Thanks

[jim_russell]

Thanks everyone who responded. I didn't realize there were so many different materials out there...I guess PVC Sheet sounds like what I would be looking for...What exactly is PVC sheet? Does it come in 4x8 sheets? What thicknesses can you get it in? Where would you buy this?

[jhicks]

You might try Grimco. 4X8 sheets are fairly standard and thicknesses of 1/4" , 1/2" and others are available.
PVC = Poly Vinyl Chloride.
They stock in my local chicago area store and have facilities throughout the US.
1-800-542-9941