Acrylic question

[target]

I am thinking of trying my hand at some small scale acrylic projects. I am going to try and build some 12" cubes just to try and practice without having to go full scale without having any experience.

My question is, do you think I would need to use cast acrylic or would extruded be ok for this application? I will only need 1/4" thick acrylic. Does cast have better viewing properties or is that only when the acrylic gets thicker?

Thanks

[m_class2g]

ask joey! hes made many acrylic tanks, sumps etc!!!

[uarujoey]

Yup, that would be fine. 6mm extruded can sometimes be used for smaller projects like that. In fact, i did a 48x12x12 in 6mm extruded... If braced properly, 6mm is ok for tanks up to 12" tall. Anything over 36" long, and you'll have a some bowing.

A 12x12x12 box will be no problem though. Just make sure its braced well. Acrylic tanks are only as strong as their bracing.

When it comes to clarity.... well, both are the same to the human eye i have found at thinner sizes. 6mm extruded and 6 mm cell cast look identical to me. you only really notice the difference when you look at the edges. No matter who cuts extruded, i find there are always saw blade marks. Extruded is the softer material, but it is easier to machine because of it. Cell cast technically does have better optical properties though. That wont mean a whole lot until you get to something thicker like 9mm+

[target]

Thanks Joey. Another question I thought of. Can you flame polish the edges before you assemble the tank? Reason I am asking is that with the cubes I was going to do a 2" trim around the top edge but thought it would be difficult to flame polish the inside edge after they were cemented in place. Also, would a 2" wide trim be enough?

[uarujoey]

Flame polishing before you cement is not a good idea, even if the edges you are flame polishing are not going to be cemented.

You cannot flame polish an edge that is going to be cemented for sure. You will get an entire edge with crazing(thousands of little cracks)

You still risk crazing if the edge is not going to be cemented.

You dont need to be straight with the acrylic and flame, to flame polish. Doing it on an angle is fine as well.

[target]

Cool, thanks. Looking forward to giving this a try.

[uarujoey]

Good luck!