03-12-2008, 08:45 AM
Just an aside on thickness.
The thickness of a vacuum drawn body varies across the body. Look at the edges of a shell before it's trimmed. That's the blank before they pull it. Much thicker than the finished area of the body.
.030 is pretty sturdy.
.040 at 1mm is plenty for flat panels filling cagework on a crawler, I would suspect.
Bob, I'm always cutting and keeping scraps of flat plastic for paint uses, and I find plastic clamshell packaging, like bakery goods come in at Costco, usually have large areas of good, flat surfaces. Maybe you can sweet-talk a kid at Costco or Jewel into giving you a couple boxes? If nothing else, buy some cofee cakes and keep the boxes when you are done eating them.
The thickness of a vacuum drawn body varies across the body. Look at the edges of a shell before it's trimmed. That's the blank before they pull it. Much thicker than the finished area of the body.
.030 is pretty sturdy.
.040 at 1mm is plenty for flat panels filling cagework on a crawler, I would suspect.
Bob, I'm always cutting and keeping scraps of flat plastic for paint uses, and I find plastic clamshell packaging, like bakery goods come in at Costco, usually have large areas of good, flat surfaces. Maybe you can sweet-talk a kid at Costco or Jewel into giving you a couple boxes? If nothing else, buy some cofee cakes and keep the boxes when you are done eating them.