I've been offered a piece of clear plexiglass and can't think of what to do with it. Its clear and about 6' long, 3' wide and 2" thick. Never been used for anything that I can see. Any ideas or suggestions? It feels like it must weigh around 300 pounds. And there is quite a bit involved with the moving (stairs). How well does plexiglass sandblast etch or carve? Thanks for thinking about this.
That pc of cast plexi is worth about $1200 new, undamaged, as near as I can tell from a quick web search.
It would make a hell of a bullet-proof window for a convenience store in the 'hood.
There are a few people who post here once in a while who are sand carvers. There is also a sand carving message board on Yahoo. You may want to try there for more info on how to work with it or to find a buyer for the blank.
It would make a lot of french cleats for glass wall panels.
Custom fishtank?
I don't know how you'd cut the thing without melting it. There must be specialized equipment for that.
I think it would make a nice drive through window for a bank, in Baghdad.
As I learned when I was attempting to drill 3/4" Plex rod, extruded Plex can not be worked internally because it shows silvery internal tension breaks that look just line COE cracks in glass. Cast Plex does not have this problem and something this big has almost certainly got to be cast. Plex can be carved, etc., but it is very soft and will gum up tools that get hot, so running water and slower speeds are advised. Plex goes soft and mushy about 240F, so it can be molded and sagged, but this big a piece and would take a long time to get evenly to temp. There are some art plastic books around, the one I have is a couple of decades old.
In the 70's I worked with a company that did embedments of various objects in Lucite blocks. I wonder of there's a big difference in materials?
The old fly in the ice-cube trick?
Were they imbedding in casting resin or in solid castings by carving?
Must have been casting resin. I never actually saw them do it, only the finished products. Crystal clear and frozen in time. Pretty cool stuff. I wonder if we can melt down plexi for the same effect?
Melt down plexi?? better do some research, I understand it is toxic as hell when hot.
Probably not with much success.
The resin process was probably done under vacuum to get the bubbles out or done with a process that caused no bubbles to be introduced.
Jack
use it for a light table, or send it to me so i can ! m
A thong? A light table? Bingo!!!!
Wait! Put an 8 foot pole in the middle and we have a dance floor. Thong, light table, Michelle, BINGO!!
Man you guys are sure sexist.....how about a little respect here...
yeah, i mean, really, how are you going to drill the hole for an 8 foot pole in that! Use a little imagination here, will ya? m
Thanks everyone for all the thoughts. I haven't seen anything that really excites me, though. The piece is so heave that working with it would be a real bear. Just lifting it is a serious two man job.
I've got a large coffee table that I made using bulletproof glass for the top. Its about 1" thick and is supposed to be able to stop up to .44 magnum and .223 (if I remember right). I decided it would make a good table top, but when I started the final assembly realized no one would ever know it was bulletproof. So, I fired three rounds into it with a .45. When the third one flew back and hit me in the ribs I decided that three was enough. Makes a cool table top, but the plastic is so soft it scratched easily. I ended up covering it with a piece of 1/8" clear to protect the bulletproof part. Kind of ironic. I just know if I pass on this plexiglass, not far down the road it will come to me what I should have done with it. Some variant of Murphy's law prevails.
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