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Unread 13-11-2007, 15:48
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Madison Madison is offline
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Re: Cool Frame Ideas?

Quote:
Originally Posted by DeepWater View Post
Madison et al.

As far as using the connectors with standard 1" thin walled square tubing I really don't think it will work. The 1" square 80/20 QuickFrame tubing is specially fitted for the connectors. It has longitudinal ribbing inside that forms a friction lock with the plastic connectors. This is sort of the secret to the whole system. The internal dimensions of the QuickFrame tubing is slightly smaller (thicker walled than standard 1" thin wall box tubing) so if you try to insert a QuickFrame connector into standard 1" thin walled box tubing the connector will just fall out (too loose). The tubing isn't really that expensive though. IIRC the standard 1" QuickFrame box tubing was about $10-$11 per 12 foot (145") piece after the discount. They also have tubing with flanges on the side in different arrangements for putting panels in, etc. We purchased some but didn't really use the flanges much and often just cut them off to save weight.

One trick we found was to drill a hole in the end of the tube through into the connector and put a pop rivet in on any connectors you REALLY don't want to back out. This trick is rarely needed but is cheap (and light) insurance.
Ah, thanks. I was pretty well assuming we'd need to drill through the connector and bolt it since I don't trust anything that's meant to be a press fit, so maybe that would be enough to hold even a loose nylon connector in place. I'll order a handful and see how it goes, I guess, but I can't see going through the time or expense of ordering new metal stock; especially if it's already anodized and harder to work. Even with a bolt through each, it seems like this will be as light or lighter than our existing methods of joining tubes -- lots of rivets and joining plates. The really nice thing about these is that they'll save lots and lots of manufacturing time, we hope.
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