[andycorleone]

Hi, I'm starting a new project to make a 3D camera Rig, I need Cutted Aluminium Profiles, Angles joints, etc. could someone please point me in the right copany to buy them as cheap as possible.

this is the kind of Rig I want to make



more info and pictures:
DIY 3D RIG


Thanks

[TAProwler]

This material is extruded AL and it is made by several manufacturers.
8020 seems to be the most popular and the cheapest place you will probably find it is here:

http://stores.ebay.com/8020-Inc-Garage-Sale!

They have the hardware too!

R/Todd

[jimmyaz]

I am trying to rebuild a new cnc router out of these as well... but they are quite more expensive than I expected.

Well, the material itself isn't to bad, but the pre-cut labor and buying from their distributor price are higher.

I was wondering what do you use to cut them to get straight corners? How can you drill the 90 degree angle to get the anchor screw they use?

[TAProwler]

I saw on a build thread here that one fella was using a good carbide tipped Diablo blade in a compound miter saw to cut the 8020. You probably have to feed it slowly, but it should give a nice clean cut.

Not sure which anchors you mean, but I would think that even a simple, cheap Harbor Freight drill press should do the trick for 90 deg drilling.

R/Todd

[jimmyaz]

Hi Todd,

They called it Anchor Fastner

80/20 Inc. - The Industrial Erector Set®

[Treischl]

You can also try Automation 4 Less. Unlike the EBay Store, you can specify the length you need. The problem I had with the EBay Garage sale was the precut lengths resulting in a lot of leftover material. If you pay attention, you will notice that the EBay garage is actually charging you for the cut on the short lengths. Sheesh. As far as I am concerned, if someone charges you for the cut, you should be able to spec the length you want. They also have the connectors, etc.

[andycorleone]

thanks you for all the replies that exactly was I was looking for

[AssassinXCV]

You can also try Automation 4 Less. Unlike the EBay Store, you can specify the length you need. The problem I had with the EBay Garage sale was the precut lengths resulting in a lot of leftover material. If you pay attention, you will notice that the EBay garage is actually charging you for the cut on the short lengths. Sheesh. As far as I am concerned, if someone charges you for the cut, you should be able to spec the length you want. They also have the connectors, etc.

I got similar garbage from one of the industrial plastic shops near me; went to buy some UHMW to make a spindle mount, $10 for the plastic, $5 just to do one cut on their tablesaw that was close(but more material ofcourse) to the length i wanted. How can they charge for cuts when you're just buying the material? You dont see hardware stores charing you anything to cut rope to the length you want.

[TAProwler]

That is an anchor fastener counter-bore and that, done correctly, will take a little more equipment. They, no doubt, put those in with some sort of milling machine. Any local machine shop could also do it for you, but it will cost you something.

If you want to do it yourself you'll need at least a drill press and an appropriate bit. The easiest would be if your drill press was big enough to hold whatever sized endmill that you will need to make those counter-bores.

It looks like the two sizes of the counter-bores are 9/16" and 13/16". Find an endmill or some other type of flat bottom cutting bit that you can chuck into a drill press that you have access to and cut away.

< DISCLAIMER> I have never tried this, I have now idea how it will work - I'm just thowing it out there as an option to consider. If you need to go real low budget (and I wince as I say this) - get yourself a new (correct size) hole saw and chuck it into whatever you've got that will go roundy-roundy (at least a decent small drill press). Make the cut until the hole saw stops at the correct depth. Then you'll need a dremel or something to hollow out what is left inside the hole saw kerf. The problem with a hole saw is that it has a small drill bit that "leads" the hole saw and it will leave a hole in your 80/20 below the depth of your hole saw cut. The hole saw will also tend to "grab" into the aluminum if you don't keep the hole saw perpendicular to the cut.

Practice plenty on junk stuff before you try to cut into your table pieces.

BTW - 80/20 has the machining specs in their catalog on page 566-567.

Hope that helps. R/Todd

[zool]

Most material suppliers, lumber yards included, use cost accounting to determine how to price materials and services.

A company's total cost of operations fall into two broad categories:

1. Fixed costs which are expenses that do not change as a function of the activity of a business, within the relevant period; or, in accounting terms, costs not included in "cost of goods sold". Examples are: Cost of real estate and equipment [interest on loans], insurance, taxes, salaries, employee benefits, rent, utilities, ongoing periodic maintenance.

2. Variable costs which are a direct function of production volume, rising whenever production expands and falling whenever it contracts. Examples are: raw materials, packaging, and labor [wages and benefits] directly involved in a company's manufacturing process.

In asking for services, beyond the direct cost of the materials, a person is moving from one cost category into another. Or, there is a cost of ordering, receiving and stocking materials, then there is the costs of changing the form of the materials, in the cases above notes, cutting or machining.

The reason the example of cutting a piece of rope in a hardware store is not reasonable to be included in the discussion in that there are no additional costs that can be readily segregated from fixed costs. This is a case of a clerk taking a knife [ever see a hardware store guy without a multi-tool on his belt?!] and removing a section of a rope from a reel. When asking to have a piece of UHMW cut, this takes a readily identifiable tool [table saw or like], which takes space to operate, needs servicing, has a blade that is consumed a bit with each use, and having an employee provide a service that is specific rather than general.

There is also the concept that by machining [changing the form] of a product for a customer, the firm is saving the customer the time and cost of doing that machining themselves, therefore they have added value over and above the cost of the materials, and, in a rational economic world, the customer would recognize the value of that service and be willing to pay for it.

If firms did not recover as many costs as possible, then the firm would cease to exist [costs would exceed income] and the consumer would be left with fewer choices, and in turn, as the remaining firms would experience an increase in demand, they would raise prices to what is known as the equilibrium price.

Equilibrium price refers to a condition where a market price is established through competition such that the amount of goods or services sought by buyers is equal to the amount of goods or services produced by sellers. This price is often called the equilibrium price or market clearing price and will tend not to change unless demand or supply change.

And at this point, no doubt, everyone would like me to stop!!

Whether anyone agrees with any of this or not is not what is being conveyed. This is just the way it is in a "market based economy".

[AFAIK]

andycorlene, have a look at kjn ltd they sell the profile and all the extras, they also cut and are based in the UK.
KJN - Suppliers or Aluminium Profile and Accessories

[frige]

MiSUMi Global Site

for you in the UK:
Aluminum Frames | MISUMI, the catalog company of Mechanical Components for Factory Automation. eCatalog

I never bought any extruded aluminum, but did a lot of research. This place had great prices and great selection.
-frige

[jetblack]

andycorlene, have a look at kjn ltd they sell the profile and all the extras, they also cut and are based in the UK.
KJN - Suppliers or Aluminium Profile and Accessories

I would recommend KJN as I have used them before. They are very experienced and helpful and also provide a cutting service

[brtech]

Nate at finelineautomation.com has a nice technique for doing butt joints (where a cut end joins a side of extrusion with T-slots) on 8020. He taps the cut end, and drills an access hole in the outer side of the joining extrusion opposite the tapped holes. Then he uses a button head cap screw in the Tslot which threads into the tapped hole, using the access hole to pass a hex key through to tighten the BHCS. This is a very low cost joint which anyone with a tap and a drill can do, and no expensive fasteners.

It's also easy to assemble - you prethread the BHCS into the cut end, slide them on to the T-slots, align and tighten.

[Riceburner98]

I use that method all the time building 8020 frames at work.. It's way stronger than angle brackets, assuming your cut end is perfectly 90*. Plus you can't see the fasteners, for a cleaner appearance. (especially if you use the T-slot plastic covers / inserts)

Just wanted to note that unless you have a REALLY good drill press and vice, using an endmill in a drill press to make holes for those counter-bore fasteners is a bad idea. Before we got a Grizzly knee mill here at work someone bought the correct sized endmill for them, and I (stupidly) attempted to use the drill press once for it. It's nowhere near rigid enough - chatters like crazy which rips the hole to hell, and the endmill will try to pull its way down into the aluminum as well since it's a drill press spindle made to resist upward forces, not downward. A GOOD drill press may not have as bad a time, but a cheap one isn't great.

[jimmyaz]

I use that method all the time building 8020 frames at work.. It's way stronger than angle brackets, assuming your cut end is perfectly 90*. Plus you can't see the fasteners, for a cleaner appearance. (especially if you use the T-slot plastic covers / inserts)

Just wanted to note that unless you have a REALLY good drill press and vice, using an endmill in a drill press to make holes for those counter-bore fasteners is a bad idea. Before we got a Grizzly knee mill here at work someone bought the correct sized endmill for them, and I (stupidly) attempted to use the drill press once for it. It's nowhere near rigid enough - chatters like crazy which rips the hole to hell, and the endmill will try to pull its way down into the aluminum as well since it's a drill press spindle made to resist upward forces, not downward. A GOOD drill press may not have as bad a time, but a cheap one isn't great.

Do you have any picture showing how to drill such holes? I do have a manual mill (3in1 machine)...

What worry me most is how to cut a perfect 90degree cut.

[Riceburner98]

You mean the holes in the side for screws that go into the tapped ends? No pictures unfortunately..

I usually just set the 8020 piece on edge in the vice on the mill, drill a 1/4" hole through, then mill a 3/8" (or 7/16") counterbore down to the flat bottom of the T-slot. Then you can insert a 1/4-20 SHCS through the hole(s) into the tapped end of your mating extrusion.. If it's a piece that I've cut to length myself (typically on the bandsaw), I'll throw it in the vice and skim off the end of the cut to make it square / 90*. If you had a good miter saw with a nice carbide blade you can get nice 90* cuts. A chop saw with an abrasive wheel; not so much..

[CNC Lurker]

I use that method all the time building 8020 frames at work.. It's way stronger than angle brackets, assuming your cut end is perfectly 90*. Plus you can't see the fasteners, for a cleaner appearance. (especially if you use the T-slot plastic covers / inserts)

Just wanted to note that unless you have a REALLY good drill press and vice, using an endmill in a drill press to make holes for those counter-bore fasteners is a bad idea. Before we got a Grizzly knee mill here at work someone bought the correct sized endmill for them, and I (stupidly) attempted to use the drill press once for it. It's nowhere near rigid enough - chatters like crazy which rips the hole to hell, and the endmill will try to pull its way down into the aluminum as well since it's a drill press spindle made to resist upward forces, not downward. A GOOD drill press may not have as bad a time, but a cheap one isn't great.

Actually it's easier than that because you do not need to counterbore anything. Instead I just used a 5/16" drill bit for the allen wrench clearance hole, and use a button head cap screw.

You can't see the drilled hole in the pic, but you can see me sliding the 80/20 extrusion on after screwing in the SBHC screw.

As for buying 80/20 extrusion, I don't think anybody has gotten a cheaper price on pre-cut purchased extrusions than what I paid to build the FLA-100.

[Riceburner98]

Nice! I think I used the SHCS method because I wanted to be able to fully remove the screws if necessary, and for some reason I like to practically stand on my allen wrench when I tighten my screws and I've stripped the BHCS's before doing that. I don't know why I like them ridiculously tight, I just do.

That's a really clean and easy way to do it, and a perfect picture to show how it's done. That would have saved a few hours of counterboring on 80 holes! Not to mention not having to use 2.5" long SHCS's in the 3" extrusions..

[zool]

On many bolts today, on motors, t-slot extrusion, rims, frame assemblies, it seems the evolving practice is to snug the bolt and then turn one-quater [1/4] turn.