Black plastic for panels

[greenstar]

I have scavenged sheet plastic for small panels from various sources, such as the cases of TV's, but one source seems more useful. There's a window replacement business round the corner, who don't mind me raiding their skip, mostly for firewood. From there I have some black rectangular section guttering from which I have made several serviceable panels for small boxes.
1. Roughly cut to length.
2. Clean - don't let mud etc get embedded.
3.Apply heat from hot air gun and using hands push more or less flat (hot).
4.Cut panel roughly to size.
5.Flatten again between two boards with weights or a vice.

It's not posh, but I feel the appearance is good enough, despite the original creases being visible with possible flaws and stretch marks. The section I have makes panels almost 9 inches wide and any sensible length, so has potential for larger projects.
Not sure what material my guttering is. It becomes rubbery with heat, like a butyl rubber sheet.
Tony.

[G6Tanuki]

If they have scrap sections of square PVC rainwater pipe - grab a few of these too. It's relatively easy to make up square wooden 'bungs' for the ends. A while back I built a LCD digital meter into a six-inch length of such pipe which looked rather professional (I sprayed the end-bungs silver for contrasting effect).

[dseymo1]

Another useful scrap material is aluminium / foam composite 'sandwich', used by signmakers. Easy to work, light and with a nice finish (in varous colours), it's ideal for panels etc. The nature of its primary use means that decent-sized offcuts can be obtained.