alternate construction for frame work

[mechanicalbrain]

I have been looking at using plastics for our frame this year but I'm having trouble finding a good supplier. if anyone has a good place to look or even a better material.... or anything interesting really feel free to post.

[Sachiel7]

Well, we talked with someone from Raytheon, I think, about their (I believe) fiberglass? materials. He was talking about the materials they produced. It sounded like they had the strength of aluminum but probably around less than 1/2 the weight. Some of the materials were stronger than aluminum. It sounded like they had it in bar, sheet, and various other forms.
Don't quote me on this one, it was quite a while back.

[mechanicalbrain]

yeah i looked on their website and saw nothing.

[Sachiel7]

Yeah you probably wont find much there, we met a personal contact who worked in that division.

[dwarvenwarrior]

We use extruded aluminum from IPS. The stuff is 28mm quad-slot. This is light weight, and very strong. The channels on the four sides allow easy attaching of components to the frame without drilling and tapping! This is also nice for fine adjusting linear-wise. It is about the same weight as angle aluminum, but far more versatile. There are many accessories available that fit in the aluminum for different jobs. We have been very happy with this supplier.

[Biff]

We have used square fiberglass for the last two years. It comes in 1" 1.25" and other sizes. We get it from Max Gain, a supplier for the Ham Radio industry http://www.mgs4u.com/fiberglass-tube-rod.htm. The wall thickness is .125" The 1" is about the same mass per foot as 3/4" thin wall Al. Fibergalss cuts very easily with a hack saw and drills best with pilot point bits. We use a vacuum cleaner to get the dust while cutting or drilling. It's very tough, we do put either spacers or 3/4" square ldp to back it where we bolt through, just being excessive.