Clear plastic to keep fingers off tabletop display

Inspired by Chris Green's plastic glass thread, I'm asking about suitability of plastic sheets for a slightly different purpose.

Later this year, I'll be involved with a public display of stuff which will be on table tops 36 inches above the floor, around 14 - 16 feet long. There is a need to prevent little fingers poking, so plastic glass along the front, about 12 inches high, is envisaged. Last time, some years ago, I had access to some panels 1 x 8 feet, but only about

1/8th inch thick. They worked, but were a bit floppy, so 1/4 inch thick is probably the way to go. I suppose I'm looking for an 8 x 4 sheet that the supplier will cut into four of 1 x 8, which I can drill to mount along the front of the tabletops (which are 1/4 inch ply framed with 2 x 1).

Brilliant ideas?

Reply to
News
Loading thread data ...

Without even checking the price of 1/4 inch it may depend on how much money you're prepared to spend.

1/8 inch would probably do providing you stifffened it at both top and bottom in some way.

The easiest would probably be timber/hardwood moulding/profile of some kind fixed with double sided tape. You'd probably want some sort of finish/protection to the top edge in any case, unles you're going to pay for rounded and polished edges as well.

A bit more complicated would be making your own strips, forming 1/8 grooves using a circular saw or router in a board and sawing it off as you go. Which could then just slot over the plasic.

michael adams

...

Reply to
michael adams

'Sneeze guard' is a good search term. There are some on ebay, maybe too pricey.

I would imagine there are catering equipment suppliers who would hire such stuff.

Cheers

Reply to
Syd Rumpo

Acrylic comes in 3050mm x 2050mm sheets, so you can probably work out some way to cut that to an appropriate size. If you ask a supplier for another size they'll cut down a big sheet and may charge for wastage, so best to know what size they're cutting down from and ask for something that makes efficient use of the big sheet.

6mm is probably what you want - the thickness isn't to very tight tolerance so it'll likely be somewhere between 5-7mm.

The going rate is about 200 quid for a 3x2m sheet, so it isn't cheap.

Acrylic also scratches. So perhaps polycarbonate (more scratch resistant) may be a better fit, but I don't know the pricing.

Also, find an industrial plastics supplier local to you. People with fancy websites tend to charge more, and you don't want to be shipping this.

Theo

Reply to
Theo

Acrylic tends to be expensive. How about a dozen lengths of bare 1.5mm cable spaced about an inch apart and plugged into 240v. Should stop them after the first time.

Reply to
Andrew May

There used to be little metal brackets available from shop fitting companies for this very purpose. Thre slots corner pieces all sorts of thicknesses and lengths in black and a silver colour I wish I could remember the name. Of course I suspect you want a cheap option and this they most certainly are not. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

In message , Brian Gaff writes

Thanks Brian. That immediately brought to mind the counters in Woolworths, back in my childhood :-)

I certainly remember the chrome brackets, into which slotted lengths of glass. No help to you, I realise, but a Google image search reveals a Woolworths counter divided by glass strips, holding all manner of bread rolls. The ones in my memory held toys.

Reply to
News

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.