Currently scraping together a full sheet LR4 and making it all much harder for myself by trying to reuse stuff I have on hand instead of buying new. I’ve salvaged/stole (not really!)/bought (fail!) pretty much all the bits now, except for the rails.
The dilemma is that common conduit sizes in the UK are 20 and 25mm. 32mm nominally exists but not from any local electrical suppliers (at least not unless I want 100 lengths!). Plus I already have a bunch of 25mm conduit on hand (fulfilling my secondary challenge) so was wondering if I could get away with using it for the Y rail? Should be plenty of rigidity coming from the table, I’d have thought, and as I understand the design using smaller O/D shouldn’t affect it? I may be misunderstanding.
Secondarily, any reason I should buy lengths of 32mm galvanised conduit rather than going to the local metal merchant who stocks 30mm O/D x 1.5mm ERW Tube? The latter will be much cheaper, and as I read the discussion here 30mm is just as good as 32mm for our purposes.
Appreciate any and all advice, and looking forward to getting it put together!
I wouldn’t try to use the 25mm tube for the Y rail. Ryan changed the bearing angles and spacing so you are much better off using the correct sizes. And if you can get 30mm much cheaper than 32mm then I would go with that as it is a supported size.
Yeah I get what you are saying, but coming from the LR3 that used the smaller tube I can tell you its a big upgrade. And sounds like you have a good use for the smaller tube now
I ended up getting 30mm mild steel tube from FH Brundle at £19 for 6m and they cut it for me too Delivery would have been expensive, fortunately I live minutes from the Ilkeston branch.
However I do wish I’d got conduit instead because it’d be galvanized and I wouldn’t have thought to myself … “Hmm, this is going to rust. I should maybe paint it.” This probably has gone without saying so far. Do not (once again do not) do this - or if you do, don’t imitate my crap job with a rattle can, might have been okay with black etch from a proper spraygun if I’d been able to get in the booth at work. Cue much sanding to get it back smooth enough to not snag the bearings Doh!
I bought actual tool wax, but you could just buy a cheap wax candle and rub it on the steel and it works great.
Of course where I live it’s super dry, so it tends not to be a huge problem.
The topl.wax is good for table saws or the lime where thr e protected surface needs to have material slid on it. The candle wax is less good there. The rails have bearings in contact, so the wax is good.
Delivery would have been expensive, fortunately I live minutes from the Ilkeston branch.
Doh!
yeah…