Let’s get this out of the way in which to start with. Plexiglass is a model identify. Like Kleenex or Band-Aids it’s typically substituted for the identify of the product. Kleenex is a model of tissue, Band-Aids are a model of sheer strips, and Plexiglass is a model of acrylic.
When most individuals consider acrylic, the very first thing that involves thoughts is sturdiness. In comparison with glass, acrylic is nearly unbreakable. When a framed piece is prone to be moved round loads, acrylic appears the apparent alternative, and when the merchandise is to be shipped, it appears a necessity.
It could come as a shock to be taught that if UPS or FedEx break the glass in a framed piece and smash the paintings, they might not reimburse the market worth of the paintings. As a substitute, they might provide to reimburse solely the worth of the objects used to create the work; ie, the paint, the paper and the glass, a major lack of potential worth. Acrylic will assist to keep away from this catastrophe.
But, having mentioned that, in a single respect acrylic is extra fragile than glass; it’s simply scratched. Even simply rubbing a crumpled up paper towel throughout the floor of acrylic may cause mild floor abrasions. Because of this, a mushy fabric is suggested when cleansing it, both a cotton rag or a specifically constituted paper towel like a Scott Wyp-All, which has the feel and really feel of cotton. As well as, plastic cleaner should be used to scrub acrylic, by no means glass cleaner. All of which makes it bit extra concerned to scrub than glass.
However there may be some excellent news with regards to cleansing acrylic. Acrylic is often bought clear. It comes with a protecting plastic or paper masks over it, so when the masks is peeled away, the acrylic is as clear because it’s ever going to be. Glass, however, is often soiled when bought. It normally has a coat of mud on it which requires repeated and rigorous cleansing to take away.
All that cleansing has different implications as effectively. Unbeknownst to most framers, wiping a dry paper towel repeatedly throughout the floor of glass builds up static cost. Static cost is the perpetrator that causes mud and lint to cling to the within of your glass. In the event you’ve ever had the expertise of inspecting a glazed and framed piece previous to placing it right into a body, discovering it suitably freed from mud and lint, after which loading and securing it into the body solely to find, upon turning it over, that there are mud particles clinging to the within of the glass, static cost is the issue. To eradicate it, both keep away from wiping the glass to dry – depart it moist and let it dry the remainder of the way in which by itself – or, higher but, put money into an anti-static brush. Brush the glass as soon as with the anti-static brush to eradicate the static cost earlier than loading the glass into the body.
Acrylic is even worse than glass with regards to static cost. In truth, static cost is the one largest disadvantage to acrylic. Fortuitously, nonetheless, the issue is well solved by utilizing an anti-static brush proper after eradicating the protecting masks. This takes out the static cost with out requiring the acrylic to be cleaned with an anti-static plastic cleaner, a course of that appears pointless given the truth that the acrylic is already clear once you purchase it.
Now that we have addressed the one largest disadvantage to acrylic, we must always tackle its single largest profit. In comparison with glass acrylic is remarkably light-weight. With bigger items, say 24″x36″ and bigger, glass could be dangerously heavy, inflicting the body to bow beneath the burden. Not solely that, however glass could be harmful to deal with in these bigger sizes, threatening to flex and snap. Acrylic is most well-liked when framing bigger sizes.
However the troublesome fragility of glass offers it a minimum of one benefit over acrylic. Glass is comparatively simple to chop. Lowering glass to measurement is a straightforward matter of scoring it with a Logan glass cutter and snapping it cleanly on the rating.
Image framing grade acrylic, however, is near the 1/8″ thick. At that thickness it’s indistinguishable from glass in a body, however its thickness makes it a wrestle to attain and snap. Thinner acrylics can be found which could be scored and snapped, however they’re undesirable for image framing as a result of they give the impression of being plasticky within the body. The best solution to minimize image framing grade acrylic is with a desk noticed. Depart the masks on and run it by means of the noticed. It cuts positive with a regular desk noticed blade.
Oh, and one final thing. Acrylic is dearer than glass. Since acrylic is a petroleum primarily based product, it’s inclined to grease worth spikes. As with gasoline, when the price of a barrel of oil goes up so does the worth of acrylic How To Polish The Edges Of An Acrylic Sheet?, however when the price of a barrel goes down, the worth does not fall commensurately, which suggests you’ll at all times pay extra for acrylic.
Relating to worth and ease of slicing, glass beats acrylic. However with regards to sturdiness, cleanliness and lightweight weight acrylic wins each time. There are professionals and cons to glass and acrylic. Relying on the scenario one could also be most well-liked over the opposite.
Logan Graphic Merchandise is the world’s largest producer of mat cutters and movie framing instruments. Their weblog provides sensible recommendation on quite a lot of matters associated to image framing. Go to the weblog How To Polish The Edges Of An Acrylic Sheet?