[Looking 4] plastic sheets

HI!

I am making a series of award pins consisting of a die cut of a
small fat pig (as in the sport of curling=hog line) in 24 ga. gold
filled and also nickle which would then be mounted onto a square of
blue (first event) some onto red (2nd event) some onto White (3rd
event) and then some onto green (4th event). Winners receiving the
gold and runners up get the nickle codlor. In the past I have made
many curling award pins with fused glass in the appropriate colors.
However, the red is always a big problem firing. I was thinking of
making these with a fused tie tack finding and just placing the
little hog (really cute) onto a stiff colored plastic backing? I
could just drill a hole in the backing and adhere the hog in the
center of a little square. I need the colors listed to
differentiate between winners of different events. They tend to
wear them year after year and this allows everyone to know which
event they won. Anyone use sheet plastic in colors and where would
I go find such an item?

Thanks, Pat DIACCA Topp

Pat, you could use acrylic sheet for this application. Acrylic
comes in transparent, translucent and opaque, in the colors you need
and in a variety of thickness options. Not everyone who has acrylic
sheet has all the colors in stock and the 16th inch, last time I
checked quite some time ago , didn’t come in very many colors. If
you can, however, find the thickness and colors you need, you can
epoxy your image to the acrylic. Keep the hole for the post as small
as possible without cracking the plastic. It works best if you
abrade the surface(only in the area to be glued) with silicon
carbide paper.

I always got my plastics in NYC on Canal Street but you might find
what you need at your local window glass store or a sign shop. Sign
shops frequently have several different kinds of plastic sheet in
addition to acrylic or they’ll know a local supplier. Since it
sounds as if you may need a relatively thin plastic backing, if you
can’t find acrylic in the thickness and colors you need, you might
try to use one of the brands of shrinkable plastic sheets. That way
you could color the plastic yourself and shrink it to thicken it. (I
don’t know if you could just shrink it with the metal parts already
in place.) There is some about this material at
www.luckysquirrel.com. Or, you might consider one of the epoxy
coloring systems like Durenamel ™ or Colores™ over acrylic or
metal plates.

You might try here for acrylic sheet.
ecomplastics.com. This company
has some interesting colors but the thinnest is 1/8 ".
CAST ACRYLIC SHEET The Rio catalogue has
about the shrink plastic and the epoxy coloring systems.
Linda Moughemer

Hi Pat; Try Cadillac Plastics in Detroit. They’ve got everything. I
believe a search will turn up their web site. Have you considered
using formica? It’s nice to work with, saws and sands easily, and
it’s tough.

David L. Huffman

If you are in the US Tap Plastics is a good place to try. They have
acrylic sheets in various colors and thicknesses.

  • Wendy