Black acrylic or plexiglass for obolisk

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nurturer
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Black acrylic or plexiglass for obolisk

Post by nurturer »

Looking to buy a 11" long, 4" wide and 1" thick piece of black acrylic or plexiglass for a 2001: A Space Odyssey diorama I'm considering.

Can't seem to find a source. Anyone know of one?

Thanks.
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Kylwell
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Post by Kylwell »

And... there's a reason for that. It's expensive. A 2x4 foot sheet of 1" acrylic will set you back $250.

Then there's the heat issue. The thicker the sheet the more heat it generates while curing and the more heat the better the chance of bubbles forming. And IIRC black holds more heat than clear acrylic.

But... if you're sure about this http://www.eplastics.com/Plastic/Plexig ... 00CCM24X48
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zymurgeist
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Post by zymurgeist »

It would be far easier to cast one out of epoxy resin.
Jawarob
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Post by Jawarob »

zymurgeist wrote:It would be far easier to cast one out of epoxy resin.
If it doesn't have to be tranparent, you could get thinner plexi, build the box with the correct dimensions, and polish the edges to get rid of the seams.
nurturer
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Post by nurturer »

Dang. Now I'm thinking I should just stick some styrene sheets together and hit it heavy with Tamiya Gloss Black and sand it to a polished finish.
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Post by USSARCADIA »

nurturer wrote:Dang. Now I'm thinking I should just stick some styrene sheets together and hit it heavy with Tamiya Gloss Black and sand it to a polished finish.
That's probably your best bet. I sprayed a plaque using Krylon's Hammered paint in black it it came out looking pretty good. Has a slight texture to it.

The other option is calling around to local sign shops, plastic suppliers, etc. looking for a remnant.
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SpaceRanger1
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Post by SpaceRanger1 »

Evergreen makes black sheet styrene. Might be easier to make it out of that, then give it a good polish.
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Ant
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Post by Ant »

Have a look at Delrin or Acetal - a nylon-like material that is available as thick sheets in all sorts of sizes
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Johnnycrash
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Post by Johnnycrash »

Grab some plastic sheet. Grab a chunk of wood. Shape the wood to the size you want minus 2xPlasticThickness. Glue plastic to wood. Sand smooth and paint flat black. Done. The wood is to give it a strong core. It's just a box after all.

By the way, the dims should be in a ratio of 1x4x9. The products of the square of the first three prime numbers (1, 2, 3). Although the movie got that wrong. Oops!
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I know that's not what the instructions say, but the kit's wrong anyway.
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Post by kenlilly106 »

I have one of the Captain Cardboard 2001 figure kits that came with a monolith, it was a piece of MDF in the proper proportions.

Sealing it with several coats of shellac sanded between coats got rid of any of the texture of the MDF, priming it auto lacquer filler/primer and sanding between coats again got the surface perfectly smooth.

Make sure to use a sanding block and be careful not to round off the corners.

Ken
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naoto
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Post by naoto »

Johnnycrash wrote:Grab some plastic sheet. Grab a chunk of wood. Shape the wood to the size you want minus 2xPlasticThickness. Glue plastic to wood. Sand smooth and paint flat black. Done. The wood is to give it a strong core. It's just a box after all.

By the way, the dims should be in a ratio of 1x4x9. The products of the square of the first three prime numbers (1, 2, 3). Although the movie got that wrong. Oops!
1 is *not* a prime number
In the book it was noted that the sequence 1:4:9 were simply what was apparent to us -- it wasn't readily apparent to anybody that the sequence continued into higher dimensions with 16:25:36...
Last edited by naoto on Thu Oct 09, 2014 7:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Johnnycrash
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Post by Johnnycrash »

Yes, I knew that. Didn't mean to type prime. Oops!! :oops:
John Fleming
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Post by E-Dub »

Seems on point to link to my monolith album:

http://s1217.photobucket.com/user/Emsle ... y/Monolith

Inspired by an Owen Oulton piece where he did the same basic thing with TNG figures.
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zymurgeist
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Post by zymurgeist »

1, 4, and 9 are the first three perfect squares. Pedantic I know but that's why they were used. It's an alternative form of establishing a mathematical basis for communication. Primes being the most obvious basis. To us anyway. Lord knows what a species with three fingers uses. :?
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Kylwell
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Post by Kylwell »

They'd use a base 3 or base 6 most likely.
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