Source for Acrylic? For 1/4" Hex Steel?

[LarryG]

I guess "Getting Started" is as good a place as any for this.

Does anyone know of a source for clear, 1/4" acrylic in small quantities? I need some for a bit guard on my router fence. HD has 0.220" material but the smallest sheet is huge and would last me four lifetimes. I'd rather buy a piece around one foot square or so.

Does anyone know where I could get a piece of 1/4" hex steel, like that used for drill/driver bits, about one foot long? The crank handle on my router lift is too short to clear the top of my fence, and I need to fabricate a longer shaft for it.

[WayneJ]

Maybe Lee Styron could help with the plastic. For the 1/4 hex shaft,I have seen screwdriver bits up to 8in long or an oil pump driveshaft from an old car engine. Usualy found at the bottom of the distributor. Maybe weld two together. A glass shop might help out with the plastic. HTH
Wayne

[ironhat]

Larry, for the hex steel you might try one of the machinest catalogs - Enco is the onlyh one popping to mind right now (MSC??). Most of them offer bar stock of various configurations but there may be a 3' minimum on length.

[Thom2]

I'd use polycarbonate, NOT acrylic for the bit guard, acrylic has a tendency to crack/split and will also shatter in the event a bit lets loose or possibly even if the stock blows out. I pick up scraps all the time at a local HW store in the glass dept. They're kind enough to let me raid the scrap barrel whenever I want, so if you can't find any locally .. drop me an email and I'll be glad to mail you a few small pieces.

While you're at the HW store, look for loose hex keys, a HW store with a good selection often has them by the box, you can cut these off and epoxy them into a piece of dowel, or even heat a piece of some sort of plastic tubing to form fit the hex.

Thom
HTH

[LCHIEN]

if you want raw stock, try graingers of MSCdirect.com

othewise try long drivers for power screwing devices
or long hex keys (allen wrencehs)

plastic stores, or USPlastics.com
you really want polycarbonate.

[LarryG]

Duly noted on the polycarbonate (which, if memory serves, is the generic name for Lexan). However FWIW I'll note that the WOOD Magazine article for the fence I'm semi-copying specified acrylic, and I'm pretty sure that's what Hylton & Matlack say to use for bit guards and such in their book. But, again, I'll use polycarbonate.

I'll check out some of the sources/ideas for a piece of hex steel. I hadn't even thought about hex keys (slaps forehead). I did think about long screwdriver bits but so far had only found them up to 6", and I'll need at least 8".

Thom's suggestion to fit a piece of hex into a dowel or whatever may be the easiest way out, and is a good idea ... I need hex at the top, for the crank handle, and hex at the bottom, for the lift's height adjuster, but everything in between can be any shape at all (another forehead slap).

Thanks much, guys.

[sweensdv]

US Platics also has clear acrylic sheet goods. Their PN 44350 is a 12"x12" square for $4.40. They also sell clear acrylic circles, PN 44187 is a 5" circle for $1.93.

http://www.usplastic.com

[BrianWillan]

Greetings

Lee Valley sells Lexan in 1/4" and 3/8" 12" x 12" sheets.

http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/pa...=3,43576,43581

[dhovis]

Mcmaster-Carr sells darn near everything you could want in raw materials (except wood).

http://mcmaster.com/

Their website can be a little confusing, but if as you keep making specifications, they remove options that conflict with your previous choices until you get to the exact thing you want, and they tell you the price.

[dlminehart]

Check your Yellow Pages for "plastics". In the SF Bay Area, we have quite a few vendors. One chain, TAP Plastics, has an odds 'n' ends box that sells acrylic or polycarbonate pieces ranging from about 4"x6" to about 10"x12", for from $1 to $10.