Page 004. The frame
Most of the frame is made from this stuff. It’s an aluminum extrusion marketed under the name “8020″. You can buy seconds on eBay from an outfit known as “Garage Sale”. Just search for “8020 garage sale” and you should find a huge list of this stuff. I got mine there and liked the quality and the service just fine. They’ll even cut it for you. Most of my frame is 1-1/2″ x 1-1/2″ inch. This particular extrusion comes in regular and “lite”. I got some of both. Next time I’ll just get the light weight. There are several reasons: it works, it’s cheaper, it’s cheaper to ship, easier to cut, a regular square nut works in place of the special nuts marketed for this product. They will work in the heavier stuff too but you have to grind them a little. If you’re going to build I would recommend you just go straight to this stuff. The joining plates might be another story. You might actually save money making your own. I don’t remember for sure. So compare first.
The hole in the middle is ready to thread with a 5/16″ x 18 tap. No drilling required. The legs on my table are 36″ long.
These 3/8″ threaded rods provide a means of bringing the frame into square and keeping it nice and rigid. Reasonably cheap and very effective. The downside is that they become amplifiers for any resonance. So I need to buffer that when I get around to it.
