I am in the early design stages (or is that the "dreaming" stage?) of building a new machine, and I ran into a problem I need help working out.

I would like to use 8020 extrusions because of their cost and rigidity. However, I got stumped thinking about how I would mount a motor through the FACE of an extrusion. I was thinking of using a belt drive system, and the motor would be oriented perpendicular to the axis of travel, unlike a screw driven system where the motor would be mounted in-line with the axis of travel.

If I was using a solid material, like MDF, I would simply drill a 3/4" hole partially through the face with a centered 1/4" hole all the way through. I would seat a skate bearing in the 3/4" with a 1/4" shaft coupled to the motor passing through the 1/4" through hole. The motor would turn the shaft, which would have the pulleys on it, and the bearing would support the shaft while allowing it to rotate freely.

8020 is not solid, and although I haven't tried it yet, I suspect that if I tried to drill a 3/4" hole on the face of the extrusion I would not end up with something solid enough for a skate bearing to seat into. Am I wrong?

If seating a skate bearing into the face of 8020 won't work, does anyone have a suggestion on how you would support a drive shaft the passed through the face of 8020?