TAP Plastics

I went there with my son to buy materials for a school project. The salesperson David was great, giving us valuable advice on what to buy and the most cost effective way to implement the project.
Overall it was a perfect shopping experience!

Came in to get a few pieces of plastic that would fit on a metal cart. We picked the thickness, told the guy our measurements, and it was cut and ready to go in about 10 minutes! They even had a little nice waiting area with free coffee and their YouTube channel playing for some entertainment. Good, smooth experience!

Great customer, they cut what you ask for, perfectly. I wish i can give 10 stars

If you need anything plasticin any shape and color TAP Plastic is a place to go for. I didn’t realise how convenient this store is. They are more expensive than Internet obviously, but they have pretty much everything on their’ shelves. All people who work there are very nice and knowledgeable.

Great fit, good making worth the cost! Recievwd it on time. Would surely recommend it!

This place was a bit difficult to find, but that was the only negative thing I can think of. The staff was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. I mentioned displaying some statues and the staff person working pointed me in the right direction. There was a whole section on displays for sports and other collectibles. I would have never known if not for the staff. Overall the experience was great because of the customer service.

I wasn’t expecting this place to be so huge. They got everything you would need to make your project awesome. I needed something done ASAP and David and the guys helped me as much as they could in the short amount of time. They were super friendly and accommodating. I called other tap plastics in the area and they weren’t that friendly or needed two weeks notice.

I came across TAP while looking for acrylic for a project. I started looking at the big box stores only to realize they didn’t have the size I needed, nor do they do custom cuts. As soon as I walked in to TAP I knew I was in the right place. Bing was able to give me the recommendations I needed to finish my project and also gave me some insight as to how to work with acrylic. To make a long story short, due to my inexperience with this material I made a huge mistake and I ended up back at TAP only to be reassured by Bing that they could help me fix it and make things right. Sure enough I was called the next business day and told my plastic was ready for pick up and it was perfect! TAP plastics and the personnel there are top notch in my opinion, especially Bing!

Came in to check this place out since its local. They have 2 different thicknesses of acrylic/​plastic discs in every possible diameter size. Started off with the smaller sizes to try to use these discs in perfecting the edges and frosting on the cake when stacking them into tiers. Will definitely come back for the larger sizes once I can get the hang of it.

Excellent customer service and fast service. David took the time to understand our needs and provided several good options. We waited no more than 5 minutes to receive our «cut to order» plastic strips.

Their service is very awful they promised to do a job and they never did. They didn’t even call me they waited till the day that I was supposed to pick up my pieceto tell me that they couldn’t do it awful service terrible customer service.

This is a review for Eric and Dan at TAP in Mountain View.
Eric was incredibly helpful working out dimensions on a worksheet to help make a custom plastic frame for a control panel was working on. He and Dan were also able to fit me in at the very end of the day so that I could rush back, install it in time, and look great in front of my client.

I always love this place. Super helpful, knowledgeable, friendly staff. The prices are a bit high, but if you need plastic materials and supplies same day, it can’t be beat.

Ultimate had a good experience and they were pleasant, but a bit pricey, and I had to return to the store once.
I got a piece of plexiglass cut for my fireplace opening during the winter. It was about $ 50 and I gave them precise dimensions. They cut it within 5 minutes and I was on my way. Unfortunately the precision of the cut was off and it was too big by ¼ inch. I went back in the same day and 2 min later they finished the trim and this time it fit.

TAP is a great place to buy containers at good prices. They offer an amazingly wide variety of plastic tubes, boxes, and jars. If I want to pack everything into a carry-​on bag on a flight, I can find the smallest containers I need at TAP. For example, they have 2-​oz clear plastic bottles, meeting TSA regulations, for 35 cents.

So, I know TAP Plastics is the best around.
Nobody questions that, but this is the first time I actually went in with an OmniGraffle diagram and said «hey, I have this idea… can you do this?» (My idea: hopefully, a ½ price coax antenna window passthrough, typically sold for $ 30 – 50, depending on connectors).
The Mountain View store was easiest for me, so there I went (easy parking too, btw).
When I got inside, Bing greeted me and asked what I was looking for and immediately started asking relevant questions: I’m sticking this piece of plastic in a window to pass-​through antenna connections, so I need it to be weatherproof and UV resistant. Polycarb, we decided.
My diagram was pretty lame to be honest; I had used offsets for the outsides of the holes I wanted instead of saying where I wanted the centers to be and how big. In about 2.5 minutes, Bing worked out what I wanted where and had sketched it up for the cutter. He went back to see how long it’d take and the cutter said «20 minutes» so I stuck around.
20 minutes later, I had the piece I sketched and it was only $ 14.64. Add in the antenna connectors I already had (another $ 6), so I got a window antenna coax passthrough for under $ 21 (vs $ 30 – 50).
I’ve now been home to fit it in the window and it’s an exact fit. The two 5/​8″ holes I wanted exactly accomodated the coax fittings; the 1/​8″ holes for the random wire antenna turned out to be too small to thread the wire through but that’s my fault for measuring and not adjusting (and it’ll be easy to route out with a round file to accomodate the wire).
Measure twice, cut once, folks. And go to TAP Plastics, because they do it right and they’re the experts. They’ll even do the math that you didn’t for you.
Be sure and check out the scrap pile near the front door, there’s lots of good hunks of raw material there for cheap. They also sell raw, powdered glow in the dark media and some pretty darn good medium-​to-​small clamps for cheap.

It’s hard to believe that this place has been on Castro street for so long until you need a piece of plastic! They have it all, and if they don’t, they can surely make it custom for you.
Where else do you go if you need plastic???
Great store and staff that is knowledgeable.

Its a shame that a cool store like this should have a bad attitude and poor customer service. Especially from the older gentleman who I assume is the manager.
People aren’t kidding about the cold responses here. It was my first time there, and I had no idea how their business worked. I asked the older gentleman a question regarding whether they’d be able to cut plastic discs in any color and size? Larger than the ones they displayed? I had a cold response, «What size you want?» I said «20 inches in diameter.» He said, «Yeah.» Then he stared at me like he wanted me to place an order right then and there. After I said I’d have to get the specifics on what I needed done, he walked off like I just wasted his time. Not a, «Well if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask any of us.»
I’m a shy person, so it takes a lot for me to even muster the courage to bother someone for information. And its not what a person does, or even what they say. Its how they made you feel that makes a difference. At least the girl there was nice.

I won’t use this location again under this management and here’s why.
I ordered a product that they carry and was told that size sheet would come in about 12 days. Okay no problem, I paid the deposit. Two days later I get a message that my order was in. To be sure there was no problem, I called to confirm that this order — which was supposed to take twelve days is now in? The person on the phone says «if we called you then the order is ready». Okay, I thought it a bit cold but who cares about bad attitude if you’re getting what you want. The order was not mine and I’ve waisted three billable hours on these people. My client’s not happy either. So no second chances. I’m done with Mnt. View Tap Plastics.

I’m no plastic connoisseur, so when my bill came out to 127 for three sheets of acrylic my jaw dropped faster than panties on your honeymoon… not to mention, if I’m going to be balling like spalding on some PLASTIC during these economic hard times where plastic sheets are no longer at the top of everyone’s «to buy» list [sarcasm], I would think the man behind the counter would be courteous.
No no, that would be wishful thinking. He was simply trying to herd me along…
«Can you move aside while deciding how big of a sheet you want?»
O RLY? Those are not other customers buddy, those are my friends waiting for me to get my whack acrylic and get out of your store.
Its seriously a joke because there really aren’t very many other plastic distributors where I can buy quarter inch acrylic (and I bet Tap knows this) so they don’t feel the need to provide customer service. Nonetheless, I guess this is the cheapest plastic around (cheap plastic — the buzzword oxymoron of this month now). Pretty snazzy spot downtown in Mountain View… surprised a plastic store would have such a prime location…
Oh well, check my picture of what I made with my quarter inch thick acrylic… its for my senior capstone design project.