Good Plastic Resource? (USA)

Hey Guys,

I found this plastics site, [www.usplastic.com] and I figured that they are are a good plastics resource for the US. I don't know how the prices are, but they look ok to me.

What I was wondering is that I understand that nophead has been able to get reasonable success by using a cutting board as a sacrificial stage. Is there any suggestions one may have about how thick the sacrificial plastic cover should be? I'm thinking 1/4", but if thinner or thicker is better for some reason, I would be greatly appreciative of anyone who had some reasonable input.

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Jay

I'm not sure that "sacrificial" is what Chris(nophead) is doing with his cutting board. I get the impression that he scrapes off the print and reuses the board.

I've bought several things from USPlastic, mostly PTFE and had good experiences with them.

Yes I use a polypropylene chopping board which seems to come 10mm thick. I think that that is because PP is quite flexible. I also tried HDPE chopping board which is only 5mm thick and much more rigid. The PP worked best because the HDPE board tended to warp due to the localised heat from the object. Maybe it could be glued down but PP doesn't seem to suffer in the same way.

Yes the board is reusable over and over again if you get the temperature of the first layer and the z offset right. Mine has damage due to my extruder spitting out its nozzle but I haven't bothered replacing, or even turning it over, yet.

PCL (CAPA) doesn't seem to stick to it, possibly because the temperature is too low, so I may switch to MDF for that.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]