Where can I get LED Diffusion Acrylic sheets in any size?

[billtubbs]

Anyone know where I can get LED Diffusion Acrylic sheets in larger sizes than the 12" x 12" sheet from Adafruit: https://www.adafruit.com/product/4594? Where does Adafruit get this sheet from?

I found this supplier in the US but their sheet only comes in 1/8" thick (3 mm):

• TAP Plastics, Chemcast Black LED Acrylic - https://www.tapplastics.com/product/pla ... _sheet/668

I need 1/10" (2.5 mm) to fit this 20" x 16" frame:

• Nielsen Shadow Box Frame 100 - https://www.framedestination.com/nielse ... e-100.html

Alternatively, if anyone knows where I can get an aluminium frame that fits 1/8" glass that would work.

thanks

[adafruit_support_mike]

Acrylic sheet comes in two forms: cast and extruded. Cast acrylic sheet has a relatively wide tolerance on thickness.. as much as +/-.010" (+/-0.25mm). Extruded sheet has better tolerances, but costs more.

There are many plastics distributors.. Tap, Regal, Interstate, etc.. and you can probably find at least one in any reasonably large city. Their bread and butter trade is advertising substrates, but they can order anything in their catalog from a central warehouse if they don't keep it in local inventory.

And when in doubt, McMaster-Carr is the Maker's friend:

https://www.mcmaster.com/sheet-stock/

They have a broad inventory and ship quickly.

[billtubbs]

There are many plastics distributors.. Tap, Regal, Interstate, etc..

Thanks. As far as I can see only TAP Plastics have the black LED diffuser (3mm thick).

I'm not sure whether the Adafruit sheet is cast or extruded but I guess it is probably extruded.

I was hoping to find the source where Adafruit gets it from so I can order a larger sheet.

[adafruit_support_mike]

I'm afraid our supplier contracts forbid sharing source information with third parties, but we work through the distributors too. Our orders aren't nearly big enough to warrant special production.

[billtubbs]

Okay thanks. I'll try contacting all of them.

[billtubbs]

I think I have figured out what is going on. TAP Plastics and Regal both supply Black LED acrylic sheet in thickness 0.118" (3.00 mm). However, I contacted TAP and they informed me the tolerance of their sheet is +/- .015” or +/- .381mm.

0.118” - .015” = .103” = 2.62mm

Also, I contacted someone who actually bought some of this sheet from TAP and they said theirs was actually 2.61 mm. So it seems 1/8" (3mm) is the nominal size but the shipped product is actually variable and sometimes 1/10" (2.62mm) ...

Is it possible that Adafruit came up with the "0.1" / 2.6mm thick" description based on an actual measurement of your stock rather than what the specification from the supplier says?

[adafruit_support_mike]

I'm fairly sure we get extruded sheet with a nominal size of 2.5mm.

We do work with a lot of European and Asian suppliers though, who use metric as their default.