TAP Plastics

I work in the trades and as a Boat Manager. I took in a cockpit table from the boat and had them reproduce it from new materials. They were very reasonable and worked with me on the price, did a great job with a fast turn around. I looked like a champion with the new cockpit table.. . Thanks TAP!!!

I broke a piece in a old frig and since I couldn’t replace the part I thought I could try fabricating the piece using TAP Plastics. Came out beautifully and was dirt cheap. Love this store!!!

I’ve always heard of TAP Plastic! The first time I stepped inside TAP Plastic, I fell in love. Like a little boy in a toy store
I like how the workers are not super attentive, they’ll let you roam around so you don’t get bothered. I actually approached Rik after he was done helping another customer
I came in looking for a solution to my Photography/​Videography need. I took out my phone & showed a picture of my toys that I put on my iPad’s screen as a clean, reflective surface
Rik showed me a material call Acrylic, he showed 1/​16″, 1/​8″ & P-​95 (which is glossy on one side & matte on the back)
When he asked me for the dimensions, I said 30×40. He gave me a quote that made my eyes wide open. He allowed me to take the estimate so I can think about it. He also showed me the scrap pile. I eventually left the store and while sitting in the car for a moment, I realized 30″ by 40″ is freaking huge. Luckily I have an IKEA tape measure w/​me, after looking at the dimensions, I realized at home, I measured 30 cm x 40 cm LOL!
So I went back inside, looked for Rik, he gave me a new quote. I also asked him if the numbers I have him made his eyes pop open. He said «no», he’s heard people in the past that wanted huge sizes
Anywho…I went w/​P-​95, Black Acrylic, Glossy/​Matte, rounded the corners to ½″, they were done in less than 10mins, I couldn’t be more satisfied!
Rik has excellent customer service! I love it when people talk to you like a friend!
(Friday, December 11, 2015)

We had two mid century floor lamps that were missing their diffusers and a vintage Christmas tree holder (it lights up and spins) that was missing the color filters. The people at TAP plastics were beyond helpful making suggestions and getting the appropriate measurements for circular cuts. They had the pieces cut same day, amazing!

The store is clean, well-​arranged, and offer variety of products, but horrible employee. There are two workers who were giving me service. One of them is female with glasses, and the other one is bald white guy with red beard. The female worker was nice and answered my questions. Then, I asked that guy some questions for the pricing. He was nice for the first few conversation. Once I asked him back to clarify things up, he said «did you even pay attention to what i said».
What an idiot. If you do not know how to give service, you better pick up trash on the sidewalk.

This might be one of my favorite stores. Came here to get to know some different types of materials for a shed that I’m working on. Great location, much preferred over ordering large sheets of plastics online. Make sure to check out the scrap bin!

How To Loose a Business
Don’t even bother! I came in to the store to get a plastic sheet. As i walked in two workers were behind the around the counters. No «Hello», no greetings of any kind. Just doing their own thing. I walked around and came over to the counter. An older, somewhat bald gentlemen behind one of the counters continued talking to his coworker, completely ignoring me. Then he came over. I told him that i need a piece of plastic and it would be nice to get a color of the plastic similar to what i have on top of my car and asked him to help me choose. Right away, he rolled his eyes and made a face as in «what else does this guy want from me!». His response: we don’t match colors, we only sell colors we have. I asked if there is a way to bring the samples closer to the car to compare. The answer: No, it’s glued (and then lifted the samples right off without any issues). Then he came to the door, looked outside at the far-​away-​parked car and said «I’m not leaving the store» and «I didn’t see anything on top of any car».
Well, if you are in the business of loosing customers, that’s exactly how you would act. I don’t know what this guy’s deal is, but you should not be allowed to talk to the customers this way.
Stay away!

So I have this idea for a device, I looked online and couldn’t find it anyplace. After some Google searching I seem to be at a loss, it may not exist.
So I start thinking of a design. I need plastic. Being a Bay area kid TAP is ingrained in my mind from years of commercials. I’ve never ever been in one until today.
This place is amazing. It’s a plastic castle in the sky. They have a scrap bin, I found a small acrylic scrap epithet more than enough material for $ 2. They had some of the other things I needed for my project as a bonus. They speed me how to cut the plastic by scoring it (super easy) explained how the glue (solvent) works.
Also as a bonus I found some plastic polish I was looking for. This place had a lot of stuff. If you need resin, this place has every different kind you could need. That’s my next project.
The staff is super cool, they demonstrated something for me.
Got my nerd badge for checking in, hurray for my nerd badge! I probably should have gotten that a long time ago.

Thanks for the help picking out supplies for doing some surfboard ding repair with a rookie to fibreglass. Much appreciated.

Called to see if they provided vacuum forming services and they did not but the guy who answered the phone was very nice. He even gave me the number to another company he thought might.

They have anything & everything plastic you’d ever need! Lol. I need something framed annually & they consistently have the exact match for the frame I’m looking for. They are pretty pricey I must say, but the quality is really good. Off street parking & nice employees are a big plus too.

I just needed a piece of plexiglass to put over a window for childproofing. Could not have been easier to get at TAP. I parked in their lot, walked in, talked to someone immediately, they were very helpful, custom cut and drilled the piece for me, I paid $ 25 and I was out in 10 mins. Amazing.

There just aren’t words to say how much I appreciate having the Professionals here at TAP to help with any job large or small. As the owner of a local laser cutting business, you might think I see them as competition. Quite the contrary, with people like Edgar and everyone else to help me, I consider them my partners.

Excellent service, all sorts of things you can’t find anywhere else in the city, and the scrap bin provides access to all sorts of sheet good remnants at about half-​price.
Plexiglass is surprisingly expensive, so helpful staff who are willing to help problem-​solve, precise in their cutting, and knowledgeable in their craft is a huge benefit of shopping here.
Frankly, if you’re not in a rush, you can find much better prices online, but in a pinch, I’m thankful for TAP.

The store itself has a pretty nice supply of things you really cannot get anywhere else, like drill bits for acrylic, fancy polishes and adhesives capable of bonding polyethylene, and their scrap pile is a treasure trove of material if you stop by to check it regularly, but if you actually need to TALK to anybody working there for any reason – whether it’s a simple cut order or a more complicated fabrication quote – you’d better enjoy dealing with smarmy dickheads who believe they’re too gifted to be working in retail despite the fact that that’s mysteriously where their skill sets have landed them in all the years they’ve been a part of the workforce. I don’t know any of their names, but I’ve been in at least a dozen times, and in my experience, the younger girl (yes, there is just one of them) is generally the most helpful, and the tiny little bald dude is the snottiest and most worthless. If he’s the only one behind the counter just come back later because all he’s going to do is make up excuses to cover all the holes in his knowledge of the materials he’s not good enough to do much of anything with. Even if you know exactly what you want by both its official name AND the specific brand name that they carry, he’s going to struggle to find some way to make himself feel superior by insisting that you omitted a nonexistent magic industry term that he absolutely has to hear before he could possibly have any idea what you’re talking about, and if you don’t know that term then you really shouldn’t even be bothering him in the first place because he’s got a lot of important conversations to have about all the parties he gets invited to behind that counter. Even if you manage to eliminate every last speck of ambiguity from your request, he’ll move on to quibbling about numbers. «Well you said you wanted a ¾″ sheet and we don’t have ¾″ sheets, we have 19 mm sheets. There’s a difference.» Come back the next time and ask for the 19 mm sheet instead and he’ll flip-​flop the other way and call it ¾″ or 29/​32″ or whatever the hell else he can think of to avoid doing any actual work.
Once push invariably comes to shove and you find your own goddamned sample in the tray to wave in front of his pruney little gnome face, he can’t actually remember more than one dimension at a time and he has no idea how to use a computer, so he’ll make you repeat your measurements over and over as he struggles to convince his rapidly aging eyes to focus on the pricing tables in his little book. God help you if you need a tool or appliance you saw on their website but can’t find on the floor because he doesn’t know what that is, what’s on it or how to look up a SKU. His default response is usually «well maybe if you can come back with a printout of what you saw I could tell you where it is.» There’s a computer right behind him and it has internet access, he’s just an asshole.
And if you do need fabrication work done, there’s very little they can actually do here. The list tends to change from visit to visit depending on who you end up talking to, but they suck at line bending, they suck at welding, they suck at routing and they suck at polishing. Maybe their laser engraving is top-​notch – I’ve never used them for that – but you’ll be far better off going to a shop run by a person who actually makes things for a living rather than the village idiots who weren’t good enough to get hired at Lowe’s.
Their prices are also insane. If you don’t need it today, you can almost always do better online, even after you add in the shipping. It’s also worth noting that all of their polycarbonate is made by Bayer, the father of Zyklon-​B.
But that scrap bin… It’s great.

Sadly, it looks like these folks have done what so many American companies have, which is to buy the cheapest junk products to sell to enhance their level of profit. I picked up a piece of plex yesterday, and it was so cheaply made that it has taken 3 hours to remove the toilet tissue thin paper covering the faces of the plex. Normal plex paper comes off in one or two pulls, but this 30×32 has taken hours because the paper is so cheap that you can only remove a postage stamp size at a time. I called and was told I could bring it in and replace it — with exactly the same product. So they make more money on your back. Need I say more?

I have been going to this TAP for several years. I’ve found their customer service great and technically competent. I’m always asking for odd things for my sculptures and theTAP staff are understanding and helpful.
This TAP is tuned into projects whether they are for your home or business. I understand they supply a lot of plastics and custom cuts and some fabrication to tech shop people around the corner and to many creative art students and designers.
TAP carries a vast assortment of plastics and some carbon fibre items too. I’m attaching photos of some of their odder offerings such as solid core clear plastic tubes in bright colors which are black light sensative as an example. Few places carry this stuff so if you want an edge for your art work or your art degree consider using some of this stuff in your projects you will not find most of it in any art supply store.

I’ve come to TAP Plastics for multiple projects, it’s time for a review. I’ll just say that customer service reps are a real hit or miss here. Here are the guys I’ve worked with so far.
Scott: Super helpful. I always go to him for my laser engraved labels. I’m literally in and out within 10 minutes with piece of mind that my designs will work out great. (⁵⁄₅)
Kiowa: Tends to be a little quiet., but once you get him going, he’s really helpful. I went to him after I had to deal with Mike… he made sure that all my plastic pieces were smooth and we built the pieces on the spot (without glue) to make sure it would fit in my container. He noticed that I had a little gap, so he replaced one piece with another 1/​8″ thicker. (⁴⁄₅)
Mike: I literally wander around the store now waiting for someone else to get to the counter when I see Mike there. He won’t help you measure a thing… that way, he can cover himself if it doesn’t work cause he’ll just say it was your fault. And apparently you have to clarify every last bit with him. I had acrylic cut that was very rough… he bluntly told me «well, you didn’t ask to smooth it»…he also charges a ridiculous price for everything…$ 90/​hr for gluing my pieces of plastic together? And that he needed 3 hours for it…$ 270 dollars for gluing plastic pieces together in 90 degree angles? WHY DID I GO TO COLLEGE? (⁰⁄₅)

There’s much more to Tap Plastic then just plastic!
I cut down an IKEA Billy door to fit an IKEA Expedit shelf unit and needed the plexiglass to fit the cut down door. I took the door to Tap and received the most awesome customer service. Left the store with a perfectly fitting plexiglass that the Tap employee helped me install in the door; for a very reasonable price. And there’s parking in the back.
Thank you Roy for your patience and service. I’ve also used the Tap store in San Mateo; always great service and VERY interesting products.

It you are a crafty do-​it yourself-​er and have not been to TAP, you should check it out. I’ve used TAP Plastics on many projects in the past for work, but this time I contacted them to make a custom piece for our home.
We designed a custom shade pendant for our dining room and I wanted to order a diffuser for it to soften the light. I faxed over my requirements and it was ready the same day, within a few hours.
I love the efficent service and always keep them in mind whenever the situation arrives where you just need something custom. Because you never know when you’ll need something that doesn’t fit the standard sizes that stores offer, or something that they just don’t offer like replacements for glass in frames, custom storage inserts or solutions or replacements for cabinet panels and windows.
Do it yourself!