Questions, answered by the people who cut it

Both weld, both shrug off most chemicals, and both are what we build containment from. The difference that usually decides it is temperature: polypropylene holds its strength further up the range and is the usual choice for warm process liquids, while HDPE is tougher at ambient and below and takes knocks better. If you know what the tank will hold and roughly how hot it runs, tell us — it is a two-minute answer on the phone and an expensive one to get wrong at fabrication.

Cast acrylic weathers well and stays clear for years without yellowing. Polycarbonate is far more impact resistant but needs a UV-stabilised grade for outdoor use — untreated polycarbonate will haze and go brittle. HDPE and polypropylene are fine structurally but will chalk and fade unless you pick a UV-stabilised grade, which is worth asking for on anything permanent. Tell us the exposure and we will point you at the right grade rather than the cheapest sheet.

Cast acrylic is polymerised between glass moulds in batches, which gives it better optical clarity, more consistent properties and cleaner machining and laser cutting. Extruded acrylic is pulled continuously through a die — cheaper, slightly softer, more consistent in thickness, and better suited to thermoforming. For machined or laser-cut parts cast is generally the better sheet; for vacuum forming or budget signage extruded usually wins.

Acetal (POM) is the stable, precise one — it machines beautifully and holds dimensions, so it suits gears, bushes and anything with a tolerance on it. Nylon is tougher and quieter but absorbs moisture, which means it moves dimensionally in wet service. UHMWPE has the lowest friction and the best abrasion resistance of the three, which is why chute and hopper liners are made from it, but it is not for precision parts. Describe the load and the surface it runs against and we will tell you which we would use.

We cut to ±0.1 mm. Tell us which dimensions are critical, and whether the tolerance has to hold across a stack of parts, and we will confirm that against your drawing at quote stage — a sawn panel, a routed profile and a laser-cut acrylic edge come off three different machines, so the critical dimension is worth naming rather than assuming.

Yes — drilling, corner radii and edge finishing are all available as add-ons when you configure a cut, and they are priced into the line rather than quoted separately afterwards. If your hole pattern is complex, send a drawing and we will work from that instead of a description.

Yes, and for anything that is not a plain rectangle it is the better path. DXF, DWG, STEP and PDF all work, as does a clear photo of a dimensioned sketch. Send it through the contact form and we will quote the finished part rather than the sheet it comes out of.

Yes. Sheet, rod and tube are all cut to size across the engineering plastics range — HDPE, polypropylene, polycarbonate, nylon, acetal, PTFE, UHMWPE, PVC and foam PVC, plus cast and extruded acrylic.

Setting a machine up for a cut costs the same whether the part is small or large, so small cut-to-size orders carry a setup fee. It is $35 ex GST at most, and it is charged once per order on the cut-to-size material — not once per part. It falls away as the order grows: flat at $35 below $50 of cut material, tapering from there, and $0 once the cut-to-size material reaches $85 ex GST. Full sheets, rod and tube bought uncut never attract it. Your cart shows the exact figure and how much more material would remove it.

Most of our customers are trade and quote in ex-GST figures, so that is what we display, always labelled. GST is broken out as its own line in the cart and checkout summary, and the inc-GST total is shown beside the ex-GST one before you pay. Your tax invoice shows both.

Yes — if you order regularly, or the job is large enough that the online price is not the right number, get in touch and we will sort out account terms. Volume discounts apply automatically on some lines and are shown as their own row in the cart when they do.

CNC routing, laser cutting, vacuum forming and plastic welding are all in house at our Gold Coast workshop — so welded tanks, bunds and ducting, formed trays, covers and housings, machine guards, routed profiles and cut-outs. If it is made from sheet, rod or tube, start by sending the drawing.

Dimensions and which of them are critical, material and thickness if you know them, quantity and whether it repeats, any edge finish, holes or radii, and the delivery suburb so we can quote freight with it. Drawings in DXF, DWG, PDF or STEP are ideal. The more of that you give us, the closer the first number is to the final one.

That is most of what we do. Describe the job — what it holds, what it hits, how hot it gets, whether it lives outside — and we will tell you what we would use, including when the cheaper sheet is the right one. You get a fabricator on the phone, not a call centre.

Cut-to-size and fabricated parts are made to your measurements, so the making time depends on the job and what is on the floor that week. We do not publish a dispatch guarantee we cannot hold to on every order. What we can be exact about is the freight: your cart quotes live carrier rates with the transit time shown on each option, and we dispatch from the depot nearest you rather than always from Queensland. Ring us and we will give you a real date for your job.

Anywhere in Australia. We hold stock and dispatch from a depot in every capital city, so a fabricator in Perth or a council in Hobart is served on the same terms as one in Brisbane — the freight starts near you rather than near us. Rates are quoted live in your cart once you enter a suburb and postcode.

Yes — choose "Pick up" in the cart instead of delivery and there is no freight to pay. Collection is from 13 Distribution Ave, Molendinar QLD 4214, Monday - Friday 7:30am - 4:00pm AEST. We will email you when your order is ready rather than have you guess.

Warm soapy water and a clean microfibre cloth — that is genuinely it. Avoid glass cleaners, ammonia, methylated spirits, acetone and paper towel: they will craze, fog or scratch the surface, sometimes months later rather than on the day. Leave the protective masking on until the part is installed.

That is the protective masking, and it is doing its job right up until installation — leave it on while you drill, cut, handle and fit the part. Peel it afterwards. On anything that will sit in the sun, peel it sooner rather than later: masking left on outdoors for months can become difficult to remove cleanly.