It’s really heavy duty. Can serve for structural uses. Often used in garage setups to suspend things, including heavy things, even allowing sliding suspension and movement of fairly heavy things, by use of bearing-wheeled “trucks” that run inside the C-channel grooves.
The Unistrut is a structural member that is able to support loads in a variety of industries. The Unistrut has a high tensile strength, which means it is strong enough to support more than one-ton structures . Its weight and span also contribute to its strength.
A Unistrut is a channel that is standardized for structural support in the electrical and construction industries. The channels are usually made of SS GR33 and have inward-curving lips that provide stiffness and a place to mount interconnecting components. They are made of corrosion-resistant materials, are lightweight, and have holes drilled in their base for fastening. This material is used in structures that require large lengths of curved walls, and can be fastened to the structure.
The Unistrut P1000 channel has an inturned edge on one side that connects to the channel. The edges act as guides to align the Unistrut channel and nut. The nut’s teeth engage the inturned edges of the channel. The resulting “box”-like configuration holds the sides of the channel together, which helps prevent deflection. The spring nut ensures the nut will stay in place.
The structural strength of Unistrut channel depends on the type of load. For example, when a Unistrut member acts as a horizontal beam, the steel is made of steel coils and bars that are case-hardened to resist rust. The nut’s strength is determined by the type of load that it bears. When acting as a horizontal beam, it must support the weight of the load on the beam, and the width of the beam. The section should have a high beam-load capacity.
In addition to the metal components, Unistrut also produces steel members for a variety of applications. These include construction, manufacturing, and many other industries. The metal components of Unistrut are available in three different gauges and in varying sizes. For example, a 1-inch-wide section can support a 20,000-pound load. Another type is the 13/16-inch-wide version.
The Unistrut series is available in several sizes and gauges. The 1–5/8" and 1–1/4-inch series of metal channels is suitable for light-duty applications. A single-inch-wide Unistrut channel has a higher loading capacity. If this is not enough, the company can provide customized designs to meet the specific needs of a building owner.
Unistrut’s metal components provide the structural strength of the system. The steel components are designed for use in a variety of industries, including construction, manufacturing, and more. A single piece of Unistrut is typically two-thirds the size of the entire structure. A single-piece is approximately the same as a single-inch-wide unit. When a Unistrut is used as a vertical beam, it must be bolted into the channel at the top and bottom.
The Unistrut is a structural member that is able to support loads in a variety of industries. The Unistrut has a high tensile strength, which means it is strong enough to support more than one-ton structures. Its weight and span also contribute to its strength. When the system is installed, it is able to resist the impact of heavy objects. So it’s easy to use, but it can’t be installed on a non-unistrut wall.
In the store there is a mention of a LR4 beta testing. If you can wait for a few months and it is not too urgent, you might as well wait (no telling when it is done, though). When I got into the MPCNC, I had already bought a hardware kit for the Burly but waited for half a year for the Primo to be released.
@KR4N1X — Philipp is correct. One consideration regarding whether to go with LR3 versus either waiting for LR4 or doing LR3 and then upgrading to LR4, is that you like the hidden belts mod, which in its current state is expressly for the LR3. I am part of the beta test team. I have committed to doing the beta as stock with no mods, but I do have full intent on working toward a new version of the hidden belts mod that works on LR4. Just be aware that it does not exist yet. I am confident it’s doable.
LR4 is still in early Beta stage. This is an unknown at this point, as is when it will be released.
It is likely all new printed parts, some amount of different hardware, and maybe different size rails. The benefits of the transition from LR3 to LR4 have not been quantified yet, so if you are looking to have one soon, I would stick with the LR3.
Mike’s answer is spot on, and the other thing I would add, is a couple of us in the beta test group, ordered LR3 kits, in order to build the LR4 beta, because it’s main difference is a few more screws or more of a certain size. An LR3 kit is real close to being able to be an LR4 kit.
Nothing with the LR4 will be ready to use for unistrut or hidden belts. That will take modding after the fact. That being said I have never used the belt mod Doug has or found it needed in my scenario. Every user wants things a little different. And until you use one its hard to know for sure what you will want or really need differently. Most of the time it is suggested to build it stock first. Then after you use it a while and get the feel for things you can decide what you want different
I get that, I just know my woodworking skills are lackluster, so I prefer to have failproof ie metal mounts where possible, going straight to unistrut as soon as the torsion box is cut and built, will be stock on the floor long enough for that and maybe the gantry plates
That’s what’s nice about the LR. You don’t have to have a perfectly flat table. There are plenty that people mount to doors and run. Guys are laying a sheet of MDF on the floor and mounting it to that so they can use it to cut their table out. You don’t have to rely on perfect craftsmanship for this.
My table is built on top of cabinets and is no where near flat. But once the LR is on top and I get the beam level and square, I take a surface my spoilboard down and that makes it flat to the LR and it works great!
For my work to mount the Lowrider v3 to the unistrut, I remixed its v3 rail blocks, and then drilled and tapped M5 holes in the metal strut, so that I could attach the printed rail blocks directly to the metal stretch.
While I am initially doing the beta test without any mods, my intention is to eventually (after the beta) repeat that (above) approach on my final, post-release LR4, because my full-size table is based on the metal struts, so at some point, some remix of the new v4 rail blocks will hopefully go that same direction.
An alternative to having tapped holes in the metal strut, because tapping in the steel can be challenging for some, would be to simply drill larger holes, a.k.a. clear “through” holes, and then use nuts (reach into the opening of the C channel to hold a nut in place for the screw in the rail block to go into).
There is also a thing called a “rivet nut” that can be dropped into an even larger drilled hole and then a drill-powered threaded-screwing action causes it to compress and grip tightly onto the metal (of the strut, in this case), as it actually has its built-in nut threading sticking out on the other side of it.
