Official Luthiers Forum!

Has anyone on the form used Aluminum T-slot extrusion from 80/20 Inc. for linear motion. Looks like material that will work and cost a lot less than linear bearings and rail. The system does a lot more than just linear motion. They advertise "The Industrial Erector Set" and I believe it with all the items they sell. I have seen a homemade CNC machine made with this material.

What I want to use it for is a sliding resaw fence. I was wondering how well the material held up under use and the tolerance of the linear motion.

Thanks ahead of time for any information you might be able to send my way.

Ken

Ken,
I haven't used 8020 but their rails would probably work for your resawing needs. There are some very nice DIY linear bearings you can put together cheap with rollerblade bearings which can match up to the 8020 channels or ride on the angle. Google will find a bunch of examples. If you want to step up in precision and price there is a place nearby you in Salisbury, NC which has the best deals going in linear bearings and track:
http://www.automation-overstock.com/
Great folks to do business with. I'm making a redneck version of the Jointmaker Pro saw from some of their sets. Other friends have upgraded their HarborFright X-Y sliding vises with them.

Mark
(in Concord...just up the road)

I love 8020! If you can make their scraps work they're not even that spendy. I made my binding router cutter deal out of 8020 extrusions and some linear slides. Just hung out on ebay or their website for a while, waiting for the right sizes to show up. Didn't even have to ut anything. Works great. I've got slides on three sides and it is good and tight. If you had longer slides or a pair of them, I bet it would be really snug. Because they have channels on all sides, you can shim one side to keep the adjacent slides snug against the channels.

Having not actually ever resawed anything, I think it'd work great for that.

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

Thanks for the info. I have gone ahead and ordere the extrusion I wanted along with the "DIY" materials needed for the linear motion that I want for my resaw fence. Will post pictures in the future once I get things set up.

Ken