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80/20 Aluminum T-slot Building Systems – Build your Idea

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121–130 of 147 posts

Re: 80/20 Aluminum T-slot Building Systems – Build your Idea

#122
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you looking for https://www.fischertechnik.de/en/ Things like https://www.amazon.com/fischertechnik-Creative-Box-Basic-Plu... And while many of the kits are "you can build this"... the interesting stuff is at https://www.fischertechnik.de/en/simulating - things like Training Factory Industry 4.0 24V with PLC connection board https://www.fischertechnik.de/en/products/simulating/trainin...

I have piles (4 boxes!) of Fischer Technik in my garage that belonged to my father. He always loved it as a prototyping toy, and thought it to be a much better system than LEGO - which it probably was for construction, but not for kids randomly playing with stuff. I'm not really sure what to do with it all these days...

Make your own rail guided marble run and use it as the skeleton. And while they do make their own ( https://www.fischertechnik.de/en/products/playing/profi-dyna... ) you could use it as the structure behind https://youtu.be/kPguktA674w

I'll also suggest a "random stuff behind you" for video calls. Rube Goldberg machines.

Re: 80/20 Aluminum T-slot Building Systems – Build your Idea

#124
post #82

In Japanese hardware stores last year I spotted a new type of aluminum extrusion called "G-fun" by the "SUS" company, which is vastly superior in terms of rigidity and interconnection options: https://g-fun.jp/ However, I can't find it anywhere in North America.

That cross section looks like an …

Re: 80/20 Aluminum T-slot Building Systems – Build your Idea

#125
post #82

In Japanese hardware stores last year I spotted a new type of aluminum extrusion called "G-fun" by the "SUS" company, which is vastly superior in terms of rigidity and interconnection options: https://g-fun.jp/ However, I can't find it anywhere in North America.

This looks amazing. The range of connectors is fantastic too.

I wish I could read Japanese instead of clicking random things though.

Re: 80/20 Aluminum T-slot Building Systems – Build your Idea

#127

If 80/20 is new to you, then you might also be unfamiliar with its steel channeled cousin, Unistrut. https://www.unistrut.us/ Unistrut is used extensively in the US to build support structures for electrical switchgear and process equipment. You can get grades suitable for outdoor and corrosives exposure. Unistrut is the Kleenex term, there are a number of work-alike / fit-alike systems. Then for round tube, there is…

I love the Kee Klamp system (or just 'steigerbuis' as we call it here in NL). I built furniture with it in the past, and also a bicycle caravan ( https://www.theredpanther.org ).

If you have a hood welding hood with forced air, EMT is fairly easy to weld with a gas shielded MIG welder. Makes very rigid structures.

Re: 80/20 Aluminum T-slot Building Systems – Build your Idea

#128
post #2

I've been looking at aluminium extrusion videos on youtube for the past half-hour trying to work out how the dies have a circular void in the middle. Turns out it's a second die (called a mandrel) that locks into the main die (called a cap), and the hot pressurised aluminium flows around the mandrel then forms back into one piece as it goes through the cap.

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Re: 80/20 Aluminum T-slot Building Systems – Build your Idea

#129

When I was a teenager I used to improvise prototypes at home with those generic Meccano sets (small prototypes where the stifness of extrusion frames wasn't needed). Is there any modern equivalent? If I look for Meccano nowadays it seems to have gone the way of Lego, where you only have prescribed construction sets, haven't found generic parts sets. Is there any modern equivalent of Meccano for such an application?

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