One of the many topics regarding getting tubes in Europe.
I am in the Netherlands and I can’t really find proper galvanized steel pipes with the correct diameter.
A local store sells the following two stainless steel tubes and cuts them to size for me:
25,0 x 2,0 mm 316 stainless steel
25,4 x 1,27 mm 304 stainless steel
I’ve only really worked with 3D printers and lasers in the past and an issue with stainless steel on those machines is that the LM bearings create dents in the steel overtime. I know the lowrider doesn’t use LM bearings and I wondered how regular 608 bearings affect the stainless steel in the long run. Is stainless steel a solid pick for the lowrider or should I look for other materials instead?
I think that the consesus is that there’s a limit to how thick the tubes should be. If they weigh too much, they’ll create a sag across the gantry and slow things down. I think the 25.4 version would be the most suitable - but both will do great. I would take the price into consideration, since both options seem useable.
I think there’s low probability for wear on the steel tubes. I know there’s talk about this on 3d-printers with dry gears wearing out the rods, but I think the MPCNC is a different game.
I use 25mm welded steel tubes on my lowrider 2 as it was cheap and widely available (I believe I paid 60 euro for 6 meters). I feared they would rust pretty quickly but after a year that is still not the case.
I only noticed the bearing rollers get a bit dirty, but that is easy to clean and actually no issue.
I would suggest to take a look here for cheap galvanised tubes:
and maybe ask kindly @Ryan if he could make some redesign for either 21,3mm or 26,9mm. (I seem to remember smaller would be better for LR3).
