While on holiday I’m sure I was reading a thread about enlarging the wings of the struts then chamfering them and siliconing them to the rails for extra rigidity.
For the life of me, I have searched with search, and just browsing, but can’t find the post.
It seemed like there was merit to this idea.
Was the idea to increase the wing size by 2x the thickness of the strut material and chamfer at 45degrees?
If I remember right. It was @DougJoseph that chamfered his struts to make them wider and @SupraGuy was doing the silicone. But I could be wrong on both accounts so if I tagged the wrong people my apologies
Yeah you are right! I just came back after finding it through google search
I used silicone, but did not chamfer the struts. Chamfering can allow you to make the struts wider and reduce the gap between the strut and the tube, but filling it with silicone makes that unnecessary. The silicone between the steut and tube seems to produce a measureable reduction in the ability of the gantry to twist. Whether this results in a more capable machine is open to debate.
Yes, that’s exactly what I did. I increased both the top and bottom by the thickness of the strut plate, and chamfered at 45 degrees. Thus, overall height had 2x of the thickness added onto it. This only helps with looks and perhaps helps to prevent chips/saw dust from making in into the inside of the gantry. Of course if your gantry is wide open that’s not a lot of benefit. Dan’s approach with the caulking could potentially increase effectiveness of the strut plates.
I may try combining both ideas for both potential benefits.
Thanks for the clarification.
I just went and found a post where I mentioned it previously, and confirmed that the above is correct. At least I think I’m not forgetting anything.
Here’s a link to that post, which includes pics.