I saw a few other build threads and thought I'd start mine as well. I won't post pictures of every step since I'm pretty much doing what has already been done. I'll post pics of things I do differently, mods, etc. as I go.
Today marks Day 1 of the build. Over the past few days, lots of boxes have been arriving at my door and I've been collecting things from Home Depot (mostly tools). Today the metal came from speedymetals.com. Cost was about $145 shipped and it took 6 working days to arrive. I had ordered all the parts custom cut to length. Custom cut parts have a length tolerance of +.125/-.000, while stock lengths (12", 24", 36") have tolerance of +/-.25. I didn't want the parts coming in short, so I paid a few extra bucks to have them cut to length and save me time.
First, I unpacked all the metal and wrote down the part numbers on each of the pieces. Almost every single piece came in at the high end of the tolerance (+.125), with the exception of one part (Momus part number 16), coming in .125 short (less length than what I had ordered). I was going to call and have this replaced, but after looking at the plans it seems that I'll be okay with a shorter piece. The other piece for Part 16 came in at the high end of the tolerance. So right now, the two pieces for the two Part 16's are .25" different in length.
I was kind of bummed that I got material on the high end of the tolerance. I'm now going to have to review the plans and figure out which pieces are critical to keep the lengths as stated in the plans. More importantly, if there is more than one piece required for a particular part number (such as part 16), I'll have to determine if it is okay if each piece is slightly different length than the other(s). I think this will save me time from actually being a perfectionist and cutting each piece to the exact length stated in the plans.
Another note about the metals from speedymetals: It seems the thickness of each piece is slightly thicker than as stated. For example, .25 thick stock is measuring approx 5 to 10 thousands thicker. I don't think this is a big deal but thought I'd mention it. It is definitely not a close tolerance on the thickness as the metal is mostly extrusion. Also, be ready to get your hands dirty as the metal is not cleaned prior to shipping (again, no big deal to me, I think this is typical).
That's where I left off tonight. If anyone here can think of which parts are critical in length, or which parts MUST match in length, please post.
That's all for now. I'm pretty excited to get going with this project.