Does anyone have experience using ABS plastic for modeling instead of Styrene? According the Plastruct catalog, ABS is prefered for outdoor uses. The one drawback I’m aware of is that their ABS shapes are not as “fine” as their styrene shapes.
Ray:
ABS is significantly stronger than polystyrene and I prefer it for building things that need to be operated or handled. Some manufacturers mold their LS rolling stock from ABS as opposed to styrene, taking advantage of the superior strength. I just looked for the comparative strength data, but can’t lay my hands on the paper. I’ll look again later.
Neither of them has very good UV resistance. Darker colors last somewhat longer than lighter colors, but all need to be painted to last very long. Painted ABS definitely lasts longer than painted styrene. Both these materials can have UV stabilizers added during manufacturing, thus extending their outdoor life by 3 to 5 times. I don’t think any of the Plastruct line is UV resistant, but the ABS is definitely stronger and better for large scale construction.
Personally, I don’t use them where I want to leave the item outdoors in exposed locations.
Happy RRing,
Jerry
Though not available in as many thicknesses, you might also want to consider acrylic. Most acrylics today have UV stabilizers added, they cut easily with either hand tools or a laser system and they join well with solvents. Of course, they are clear, for the most part, so you will have to end up painting them.
One advantage is that you can get acrylic in large sheets and also very thick - think 1.5" bulletproof “glass.” This could be an advantage when crafting a large building as 3/8 or 1/2" thick acrylic is quite heavy - it will make for a strong building that will not blow away in a storm. Thick acrylic is not cheap, but you can usually find cut-offs stacked in a bin at most plastics supply places that they sell by the pound. I use a lot of 1/16 and 1/8" nominal thickness stuff and usually pick up a few pieces of the really thick stuff every time I go to the supplier for making jigs and what not.
my $0.02
Brian
Acrylic is Plexiglass, right? I don’t know how people work with that stuff, I’ve had no luck with it. It’s a pain to cut it with a saber saw (only tool I have), and it splinters.
Ray Dunakin said:Usually I score a line with a sharp knife. Place the acrylic between two boards and snap it off. Breaks off pretty cleanly needing only a little light sanding to smooth things a bit. Of course, this does not work well with 3/8inch and above. But I have used this method with acrylic smaller than 3/8ths very successfully. Ralph
Acrylic is Plexiglass, right? I don't know how people work with that stuff, I've had no luck with it. It's a pain to cut it with a saber saw (only tool I have), and it splinters.
Yeah, 3/8" thick plexiglas is not the easiest thing in the world to cut, but a good sharp carbide tipped blade (if you do a lot of plastics cutting, there are blades with a special tip geometry/grind that do a fabulous job, but $$$$) in a well-tuned table saw will cut even the 1"+ stuff like butter. You will still end up with score marks on the cut edge, but if that is objectionable, a QUICK pass or two with the flame from a propane torch will smooth it right out.
Brian