Mechmate in Jasper, Indiana
 

As the freight truck drives down the street after dropping off 600lbs of steel, I am now fully committed to building a Mechmate.

I am essentially building a duplicate of the Doc Tanner configuration.

Cheers,
John

That sounds serious! :)

Gerald,
It looks like I fat fingered my angle iron. This is where you accidently hit the track wheel on your mouse as you are ordering and it changes your selection from say 2.5 x 2.5" to 2.0 x 2.0" without you noticing.

The net effect is that I have a lot of 2"x2" angle iron. In reviewing the plans, it looks like you really need 2.5" on the wide side of the rail. Please confirm.
(Somehow I see a lot of steel legged tables in my future, maybe some tressels.)

Cheers,
John

John, you have gotten my favourite angle iron, but sorry, it won't do for the rails - the screws will fall off the tip. :(

Steel or Al
 

Gerald,
I have now advanced as far as I can and now need to order the material for the rails. After practicing the cut down and angle grinding, I am now leaning towards the BWC rails. Would it be practical for me to switch to the structual Al? Or do you recommend stating the course? (I got OM 7.2 and 20 gear)

Cheers,
John

I personally wouldn't switch now, but then steel is what I am used to. Your choice. If you do switch, you will have to fudge your motor plates a little to make them fit. You could use countersunk screws through the motor plates into the gearboxes, so that the motors can swing slightly further down.