R. A. Mitchell
01-08-2009, 2:24 PM
I'm looking at different vendors for sheet acrylic to figure pricing to quote a couple of jobs. What I have noticed is that there is a big price discrepancy with acrylic sheet depending upon the measurements for purchase.
If you look at an industrial supplier like McMaster Carr, they carry acrylic in a variety of different thicknesses. If you buy .118 cast acrylic instead of 1/8", the savings are disproportionate to the price changes among various other thicknesses. In other words, they seem to charge a premium for 1/8" ($17.48 for 24x12) over .118" acrylic ($9.67 for 24x12) which, because of tolerances of thickness, may very well be 1/8". Same thing holds for .236" acrylic and 1/4". And I also noticed that the extruded acrylic is only sold in the thicknesses that correspond to the decimal expressions, not even fractions (those are only sold in bars and rods).
Anyone know why the prices are disproportionately higher for fractional thicknesses of acrylic as opposed to the thicknesses expressed by decimal? Given the pretty wide tolerances in sheet acrylic thickness, does anyone know of a good reason to stick with the fractional widths over the decimal widths?
p.s. - I caught the typo in the subject after I posted, but I can't edit the title to correct it. Sorry.
If you look at an industrial supplier like McMaster Carr, they carry acrylic in a variety of different thicknesses. If you buy .118 cast acrylic instead of 1/8", the savings are disproportionate to the price changes among various other thicknesses. In other words, they seem to charge a premium for 1/8" ($17.48 for 24x12) over .118" acrylic ($9.67 for 24x12) which, because of tolerances of thickness, may very well be 1/8". Same thing holds for .236" acrylic and 1/4". And I also noticed that the extruded acrylic is only sold in the thicknesses that correspond to the decimal expressions, not even fractions (those are only sold in bars and rods).
Anyone know why the prices are disproportionately higher for fractional thicknesses of acrylic as opposed to the thicknesses expressed by decimal? Given the pretty wide tolerances in sheet acrylic thickness, does anyone know of a good reason to stick with the fractional widths over the decimal widths?
p.s. - I caught the typo in the subject after I posted, but I can't edit the title to correct it. Sorry.