[daddywoofdawg]

I'm thinking about build a cnc and have available some Series 30-3060,Would this be strong enough for a 2x3' wood cutting cnc router? what size for a gantry?

[lavani]

FYI:
Before planning/designing any CNC machines using 80/20 extruded aluminum, one should look at the specification. Recently, I have purchased 80/20 2020 aluminum to build my CNC machine and found that pieces I've received are not perfectly straight. Pieces are bowed and my CNC table is off. According to 80/20 team, they are within provided tolerance of straightness. T-profile specification for straightness / flatness and beam deflection are two different things. When you order 80/20, your pieces are not guaranteed to be straight, but it will be within tolerance, which is 0.0125 inches/foot. Don't waste your time if you are looking for accuracy. I do not recommend any mass production using 80/20 Inc. Extruded Aluminum.

[RicknBeachcrest]

There have been many successful builds documented on this forum, using extruded aluminum, myself included. Not all extruded T slot aluminum is the same, so your question is difficult to answer. I would suggest that you take some time and research this forum. All the answers are here, you just have to look.

Good luck.
Rick

[BalloonEngineer]

While I found the similarly sized extrusions (80mm x 160mm) I used on my router to be very straight and stout, you may need to be be creative in how you use the extrusions. Mounting guide rails may reqire a straighter surface than the extrusion provides for example. There are some threads here where cold rolled steel was used to provide a flatter surface. In my case, this was not necessary, but I was not able to align the extrusions of the bed perfectly even though they were individually very straight, so i attached wooden ribs to the extrusions, standing proud, and milled the ribs flat to attach the spoil board to a perfectly flat and stiff understructure.
Many people have successfully used such extrusions to build their routers. For the size you are discussing, the 3060 extrusion would probably be plenty stiff enough to use as a gantry. Generally the criticism about extrusions is the cost, but if you have them available - use them!

[wizard]

I'm thinking about build a cnc and have available some Series 30-3060,Would this be strong enough for a 2x3' wood cutting cnc router? what size for a gantry?

If you have it available and it is in good condition, it is hard to beat free. I don't generally recommend aluminum T-Slots for a number of reasons but a big one is the cost of the materials so if that is out of the equation then You can put it to use. The only real question is do you have enough to build a rigid frame? If not it may pay to sell the material and buy something different.

Given that I wouldn't use this material either way for the gantry beam as see it as a bit magical for such use. The only way it might work would be to laminate three or more of these extrusions together and face it with some tooling plate. If you read my other threads I suspect the major weak spot on most DIY machines is the gantry beam, so my preference would be to see you use something entirely different there.

Other wise you could easily make the rest of the machines frame from this material. Do take a conservative view on how all the pieces are bolted together though. Use plenty of angel braces and gusset plates to supplement the normal bolting approaches for 80/20. For a 2 x 3 foot machine you will end up with a serviceable, if light weight, frame for your machine. Keeping the machine small just leverages the material you have at hand.

[BalloonEngineer]

Details matter. 3060 extrusion is 3 x 6 inches. 30-3060 extrusion is only 30 x 60 mm.
Pay attention to wizard and ignore my prior comment- I was thinking the larger extrusion is what the OP had available.

[jahnj0584]

Keep in mind too its a lot easer to bend a 2020 piece then a 80 160! ALL the CNCRP builds just use extrusion.