Where to get styrene

[Anonymous]

Styrene is extremely cheap, with the price for plain, smooth styrene getting ridiculously expensive if cut and sold in smaller pieces. You might be interested in going directly to a source of bulk plastic that sells direct:

http://www.usplastic.com/
Click on: "Sheet/Rod/Shapes" in the blue menu box
Then click on the "Styrene" link.
Click on "High Impact Styrene Sheet"

Large sheets (40"x70") at cheap prices. 020 Thick: $4.66 ; 040 Thick $9.92 / sheet.

I'll be ordering a lot of this to use for profile boards on my new layout as well as tons of scratchbuilding projects.

Wayne

[on30francisco]

Most larger arts & crafts stores carry styrene. I get mine either at Michael's or Pearls. These two stores have a huge selection of styrene sheets and shapes and are much cheaper than the LSHs.

[der5997]

Rick: I seem to remember an article much as you describe from when we lived in Spruce Grove AB. That would be over 5 years ago. Does that fit the time frame? Anyway, I'll see if I can track down some smoked whatever it is and play around a bit. I've at least one high rise mocked up in card. The other tall buildings may be grain / feed facilities. Truro NS has several of these, and I've freelanced something along those lines. One of the things I'm appreciating about N is the ability to get fairly large structures on the layout without taking up the entire room.

[BruceJob]

Check your yellow pages for a local plastic distributor. They probably stock styrene in large sheets (4' x 8') and cut to size for customers. I know its a big piece and you might think the price is high, but on a price per square inch basis, you'll be way ahead of what you'd pay at a hobby retailer. You might even talk them into letting you take scrap for free!

Bruce J.

[Anonymous]

DER,
I don't know how contemporary you want your buildings, but MR had a good article, which is sitting on my to do stack of MR's at my work bench. I can't remember it right now, but if you can locate it, I highly recommend it.

For example, at my LHS, there is a smoked piece of rectangular plexiglass or something; I'm not really sure what it is. But using the article from above, I know I can use wood for the sides, cut the smoked what ever it is into two pieces, and I have a high rise in the making with dark windows. Run strips of styrene down and across the structure front, to add the "floors", add styrene to the sides (on top of the wood) to give cement sides and your in business. My local LHS guy wants a $1.50 for the smoked whatever it is - he thinks it junk!

[der5997]

Great tip Gerry, thanks. And Rick you are quite right when it comes to special shapes (and much else besides judging from your multi-posts to these furums :-) ) I'm cost sensitive to styrene for my new layout since I've got to hide two levels stacked in a corner with a cityscape of tall buildings. These are represented by card mock ups right now, but will have to be modelled some day. Hence the need for a cheap source. Actually it's three levels that are stacked there, but the lowest one is already hidden, so no styrene needed for that one!

[gerryleone]

Originally posted by Scottydog

There are two different types of styrene, cellular and expanded beadboard.

Pop -- I believe you're talking about Styrofoam, not styrene. Styrene looks like thin, hard "plastic" sheets.

Another place to look for disgarded styrene sheets is record stores -- the dividers between CDs (and LPs) get replaced often and it's good styrene.

-Gerry

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