I found a local source here in Miami Florida, that does stainless tubes mainly for boat railing, which was crazy expensive, I talked to the guy and he said he has a 1”OD 16 gauge which I believe is .0625, that isn’t polished, brushed finish, quoted me $50+tax, and will cut it for me. I’m doing the full-size for 4x8 on the calculator provided, says I need the 58.89 x 2 rails and 12” x 4 for z. I bought 2x4 for frame, I haven’t built the frame so I can adjust that to fit properly by the specs on calculator. Weighed my self with the gantry and router was about 5 lbs, told him it weighed 8, he said it shouldn’t bend with the 16 gauge , any thoughts on the 16 gauge being sufficient. It is stainless. Also I have 2 400mm lead screws should I go bigger on the z rails or just cut the lead screws down. I don’t plan on cutting anything bigger then 1” wood. Rather see others experience with longer z rails.
I think you’ll be fine with the 16 ga. That’s only 2.5 thousandth’s less than .065 Ryan specifies, and that’s pretty much negligible.
I built my Lowrider with .058 wall tubing, because I had it on hand.
It works just fine, but it is less than full sheet width (~31" cutting width).
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