Mine was around $300 for a 4'x4' build. I went to a local scrapyard/recycler and had them do rough cuts for me. My beams weren't very square either, I angle grinded and filed them to something close, but I feel like I need to go back at some point with a rough-grit sander like you did and get them perfect.
I'm at $400 for a 4x5ft with two more base pieces than what you have. All cut to length. This is a local business and my only source otherwise I had to order. Which would have cost a bit more.
One thing I had to consider when picking my steel was how much oversized I needed my cuts to square the edges, I rounded up to the nearest inch which for the standard sized PrintNC was 2 x 3ft and 4 x 5ft bars, which gave me plenty to make rollers and spares. I squared the edges of my frame and gantry tubing which I believe helps a lot with the 3d printed drill guides as well as squaring the frame accurately. Also a significant portion of the cost was prepping and painting the steel. Great detailed video about this important step in the PrintNC process. Look forward to the rest of your build!
@@WoodworkingBusinessmen go with accent colors of your logo. You can find any color filament and I powder coated my steel silver as a neutral color that matches well.
Yep. Verify everything when they're cutting your steel. The guy grabbed 3 lengths off the 3.2mm x 6meter pile. Cut the first which just happened to actually be 3.2mm but while I was standing there looking at the other two I noticed one was marked as 2.3mm. So he admitted it was wrong and then grabbed the third and put it on the chop saw. I asked him to double check it as it also looked thin. Yep. It was also 2.3 mm. So two out of three were incorrect because someone put them back on the wrong pile. Also his cuts are all not square just like yours. Thanks for the HQ videos man. It's helping a ton.
Curious to know if one could use Aluminium Rectangular Tube Box Section such as 6082T6 or 6063T6? I guess it is much more expensive but easier to sqare the edges, but not sure if it would provide the same rigidity -maybe that could be overcome by getting a thicker guage. Hoping someone who has metallurgy knowlege can chime in.
@@WoodworkingBusinessmen They are local where I live, I can walk in and pick what I want, its an open warehouse. Really cool people here in the Kent Wa location.
I don't know for sure, there are formulas for figuring that out though. However, most of the rigidity of a tube comes from its cross sectional area, rather than from the thickness of the walls. That's why he got a 2x4 tube for the gantry, rather than going with a 2x3 with thicker tubing. You would get more resistance to crushing with thicker walls, but it tends to be more effective to get larger tubes for more rigidity
Excellent points, Evan. Jason, you also introduce more mass (specifically with the gantry). More mass just means more stress on the stepper motors and components. But could help with vibration dampening.
Before getting steel cut verify to what degree they'll guarantee the accuracy & squareness of the cuts they make. Some places will be super accurate, some won't. Normally it'll be a +/- X on the cut length but many don't state how square their cuts will be so be sure to ask if you're having steel pre-cut to length. And ask if you can pay extra to have the ends ground square, often they'll be able to do this but it will obviously cost more.
I spent $327.62 on metal in the Midwest, USA. What did it cost you?
That is a lot! On East Coast locally, a 2x3x3/16 inch 22 ft long piece of steel tubing is $88.
Mine was around $300 for a 4'x4' build. I went to a local scrapyard/recycler and had them do rough cuts for me. My beams weren't very square either, I angle grinded and filed them to something close, but I feel like I need to go back at some point with a rough-grit sander like you did and get them perfect.
I spent $40+VAT(%18) for 60x80x3mm custom cutting included (Turkey)
I'm at $400 for a 4x5ft with two more base pieces than what you have. All cut to length. This is a local business and my only source otherwise I had to order. Which would have cost a bit more.
£168 ($207) for 100x50x5 box
One thing I had to consider when picking my steel was how much oversized I needed my cuts to square the edges, I rounded up to the nearest inch which for the standard sized PrintNC was 2 x 3ft and 4 x 5ft bars, which gave me plenty to make rollers and spares. I squared the edges of my frame and gantry tubing which I believe helps a lot with the 3d printed drill guides as well as squaring the frame accurately. Also a significant portion of the cost was prepping and painting the steel. Great detailed video about this important step in the PrintNC process. Look forward to the rest of your build!
Great points! I'm still contemplating the color scheme of my CNC...any suggestions? 😄
@@WoodworkingBusinessmen go with accent colors of your logo. You can find any color filament and I powder coated my steel silver as a neutral color that matches well.
@@Mitch3D Great idea!
The is brilliant! A lot of well paced and very valuable information. Very excited for this series
Thanks for following along!
Nicely done! Great details on those important foundational bits that are so easy to gloss over!
Thanks for following along John!
any details on how flat/straight the rectangular tubes are?
Looks awesome man! Looking forward to the build!
Thanks! I've appreciated your videos on your PrintNC build as well!
Yep. Verify everything when they're cutting your steel. The guy grabbed 3 lengths off the 3.2mm x 6meter pile. Cut the first which just happened to actually be 3.2mm but while I was standing there looking at the other two I noticed one was marked as 2.3mm. So he admitted it was wrong and then grabbed the third and put it on the chop saw. I asked him to double check it as it also looked thin. Yep. It was also 2.3 mm. So two out of three were incorrect because someone put them back on the wrong pile. Also his cuts are all not square just like yours.
Thanks for the HQ videos man. It's helping a ton.
Maybe some of the shop guys aren't as attentive to the details as we are for this project?
Curious to know if one could use Aluminium Rectangular Tube Box Section such as 6082T6 or 6063T6?
I guess it is much more expensive but easier to sqare the edges, but not sure if it would provide the same rigidity -maybe that could be overcome by getting a thicker guage.
Hoping someone who has metallurgy knowlege can chime in.
Should not x-gantry be more rigid in Y direction rather than in Z?
Metal Supermarkets is awesome for getting metal for small ot large projects.
I've only used them once (as seen in this video) and my first order was completely wrong. YMMV.
@@WoodworkingBusinessmen They are local where I live, I can walk in and pick what I want, its an open warehouse. Really cool people here in the Kent Wa location.
Awesome! Sounds like a much different experience than mine here in MN.
How much rigidity would you gain going up to 1/8" side wall steel, or even 1/4"??
I don't know for sure, there are formulas for figuring that out though. However, most of the rigidity of a tube comes from its cross sectional area, rather than from the thickness of the walls. That's why he got a 2x4 tube for the gantry, rather than going with a 2x3 with thicker tubing. You would get more resistance to crushing with thicker walls, but it tends to be more effective to get larger tubes for more rigidity
Excellent points, Evan. Jason, you also introduce more mass (specifically with the gantry). More mass just means more stress on the stepper motors and components. But could help with vibration dampening.
God I love all the maker/engineering parts of UA-cam, it's the only place where comments on videos are real, interesting discussions!
This was fantastic! Why not just weld?
So... The square pipes for the x axis should be perfectly parallel. Dunno about the Z axis. Surely one could get that milled to spec for cheap.
If you have a place nearby that would do it for you, all the better!
@@WoodworkingBusinessmen Or if you work at one, its free ;D
Tolerances from left to right of +-0.04mm should be achieveable.
@@julianweiser9985 even better!
What size cnc are you building?
You will still need to square up the steel if you cut them yourself...something to keep in mind, its never perfect enough off the saw.
Great point!
Before getting steel cut verify to what degree they'll guarantee the accuracy & squareness of the cuts they make. Some places will be super accurate, some won't.
Normally it'll be a +/- X on the cut length but many don't state how square their cuts will be so be sure to ask if you're having steel pre-cut to length. And ask if you can pay extra to have the ends ground square, often they'll be able to do this but it will obviously cost more.
Great points. Squareness is huge - I spent a lot of time fixing mine!
Definitely hotrolled, coldrolled has too much internal stresses.
For this project, does it matter that much? I'm curious.
I dont even wanna know how many thou in variance there is across just one of those steel tubes