Plastics Suppliers

 & Styrene Prices

You need Styrene plastic to build a Styrene Droid! While there's a list on the Wiki, I've included a more extensive list here based on a discussion of styrene suppliers and cost on the R2 builders Yahoo mailing list. The Styrene price information will go out of date quickly, it was valid around 9/15/2010, so consider it a snapshot of the variation that happens in any industry. Many of these vendors also offer other types of plastic and adhesives for gluing plastics together (ie Weld-On)
In the table below O/P indicates if the vendor offers on-line (web) pricing or only phone pricing. Some suppliers have an on line quote process as well but my experience getting a response was not good. That may be because a 2 sheet order is smaller than they would like to handle.
Most vendors deal in 4'x8' sheets. Some only supply smaller 2x4 sheets since that is the largest size that UPS will carry. [One vendor said UPS will take 4'x4' but another said no when I questioned it].
The table lists $/sqft to attempt to normalize for different sheet sizes.
Where a Shipping cost is given it is for the equivalent of full 4'x8' sheet purchases [ie, 4x 2'x4' sheets] shipped to my location (Jackson, NJ - zip 08527). Some vendors have minimums for line items and total order value. Vendors that only sell 4'x8' full sheets frequently charge a cutting charge. Some vendors are willing to cut small orders at no cost or for a single cutting charge, others impose a per cut fee which can make buying from them unrealistic. 

notes:
1: Price quoted is for .030 (no .040 in stock at time of quote)
2: Price quoted is for .080 (no .125 in stock at time of quote)
3: Price quoted is for .100 (.125 not stocked)
4: TAP Plastics does not stock Styrene
5: Cost estimate for local pickup estimated at 20mi/gal and $2.50/gal
6: There are other eBay suppliers, material available varies as most sellers are disposing of excess material.