Where does everybody get their acrylic or corian material in the Dallas area? And what type of acrylic should I get that’s right to cut or etch on the laser ?
I have bought plastic from Johnson Plastics [a long while back].
A more complete list can be found here: https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Plastics_Suppliers
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Allied Plastics, E&T Plastics, Regal Plastics. Allied will cut down to smaller sizes. Cast acrylic comes in more colors, and is best for engraving. Extruded acrylic is cheaper, and has a more consistent thickness.
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Cast acrylic will etch the best on the laser.
https://www.alliedplastic.org/
They’re terse, parking sucks, hours suck, but they know their stuff and their prices are competitive.
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yep, I tend to buy from regal after having issues with johnson plastics.
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Regal will also cut with a $25 minimum cutting fee and $60 an hour. They are much more friendly in my experience than Allied, and Allied has screwed up my orders before and just told me “tough luck” so I am willing to pay a few bucks more to get good customer service.
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Regal has 4ft by 8ft sheets of 1/16 inch extruded acrylic for $50, and 1/8 inch for $70. They have great customer service (ask for Eddie Watson).
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I’m with you. Always had a good experience with Regal and not with Allied
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I’ll let others speak to the “where” and I’ve bought from several. No bad experiences with any of them.
But will chime in to say that extruded acrylic etches very poorly BUT it leaves very nice flame-polished cut edges.
Cast acrylic etches beautifully and the cut edges are decent but not as pretty as extruded ones are. Etching is particularly pretty if done in reverse on the back side of your piece.
One or the other also ends up with stress points in the cut edges that will fracture in a nanosecond if wiped with solvents including alcohol, resulting in little shiny crack lines extending in from the edge a few millimeters. It’s pretty unsightly. I want to say it’s extruded that does this.
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Is one of them stronger then the other? (Extruded versus cast)?
I’ve been thinking of making a plastic frame for a 3D printer so it’s going to need some strength.
How well does acrylic hold up on the sun ?
Assuming you mean in the sun (light) and not on the sun. 
Acrylic is fine in the sun. It takes a very long time to damage from UV light like a decade or more. No special coating or anything. It’s inherently UV resistant.
Nanoseconds.
Yes you are correct… lol. And thank you