[Shop-talk] Source of special plexiglass

[John Miller]

 > Acrylic is commonly found in all kinds of colors and opacities.
> Polycarbonate is commonly found only as clear.  If you look at the edge
> of a sheet of clear acrylic it looks clear; the edge of a sheet of
> polycarbonate will look black.   Polycarbonate filters/absorbs different
> parts of the light spectrum than acrylic.

This matters in particular if you're trying to assemble (acrylic 
solvent-welds easily, polycarbonate not really at all) or laser-cut on a 
CO2 laser (acrylic cuts nicely, polycarbonate just sucks up all the 
light and melts) random pieces of unknown plastic sheet.

John.