Re: 8020 fastener question
 

We procured this locally at Bayou Steel, but it also seems to be available at OnlineMetals.com.

Re: 8020 fastener question
 

80/20 has a nice catalog. You might find a connector specifically made to do what you want. Just a note; they have American and metric sizes which can cause problem if you try to mix.

Side note: previous mentor bought metric bolts. 5 years later, I'm still finding metric bolts and tossing them out to prevent them from destroying our American sized nuts.
Dave

Re: 8020 fastener question
 

i know 8020 has those brackets, but for what we are doing, it would be over 200 dollars in brackets, or just 40 dollars in the c-channel gusset. We don't have much money.

Re: 8020 fastener question
 

Stroke of good luck, turns out we do have c-channel of that size in the workshop.
Question is, do you know how long each strip of channel should be to join the two 5 foot 1x1 8020, and keep it stable. It won't have too much stress on it, we are basically using this as our pit frame. I was imagining that we use 6 inches of channel per joint. 3 inches on each strip of 8020, is that enough?

Re: 8020 fastener question
 

That sounds like a good place to start. Try building one and testing it with loads and collisions about two or three times what you expect and see how it holds up. Threading a dowel screw or hanger bolt into the end of both pieces before putting on the c-channel would also help.