This is about aluminum extrusion information. I looked into the cost of using aluminum extrusion to build a CNC and found that ITEM Int'l (itemamerica.com) cost between 20-40% more than 8020.net (or futura ind.) cost. However, ITEM has more parts and accessories and is considering as being better in quality and etc. Essentially, ITEM is better in qualify and selection, but 8020 is better in cost savings. My plan is to buy the aluminum extrusion beams from 8020 since it cost less and buy the accessories (e.g. bolt joining accessories, etc) from ITEM. Does anyone know if this can work? That is to mix and match from two different manufacturers. This is of course verifying that the aluminum extrusion beams are of exact (or close to it) dimensions. I believe I read about mixing and matching from alt.machines.cnc but would like to ask anyone here. My first CNC project became a little more difficult since I am trying to optimize performance with saving cost which requires a good balance between performance and cost.

Thanks,