What are guys using this extruded aluminum for, something 3D printer related?
Can't speak for the architect, But I just need two lengths about 4' long for a custom mobile toolbox/pushcart I'm building for work. It doesn't have to be extrusion, I just spied the 2 lengths I had in my scrap rack and thought they'd be perfect, until I pulled them out and they're too short. Would be nice to mount accessories like lights and maybe a speaker/cupholder etc too and have stuff be modular and interchangeable. Would like to find a source to also make a SIM rig for racing/flight sim at some point too.
I know there used to be a bunch of extrusion companies up around Vaughn at one point, Not sure if they're all still in business, but I'm sure a few still are. Back around 2007ish I tried to get one to make us a custom die for a new (what I thought anyway) profile* and they came back and told us that they pretty much have that same one in stock for another customer, and they could run us a bunch of product if we committed to buy a whole run. Boss ended up not going for it (our company went TU shortly after anyway). Anyway....The had a website that showed a bunch of stock profiles, they ran regularly, and a call for quote option, but they also did custom and short run work too. I can't remember the name, and searches just now turn up nothing. It was something like Alumastrude, alumextrude, or something similar. I'm sure there are still a bunch around the GTA, and ecommerce being much better now than back then, I'm sure a few sell direct instead of paying that extra retail markup.
*One of those ideas I came up with that I thought was going to be a huge timesaver for us, but turns out somebody already beat me to the punch lol. I love "inventing" stuff that other people have already come up with. D. It was extrusion stock for clamp risers for destaco 202 toggle clamps. We always used 1x1.5" solid 6061, then drilled and tapped four 10-32 holes to hold the clamp down, and some 1/4-20 in the bottom to mount the block on the fixture bases. I though we could extrude that 4 hole pitch, and some for 1/4"-20 the entire length. Then just cut them off to the length we need, tap the holes, and you're done. Turns out somebody already came up with that (many years before me even). The chinese fixture component market is even bigger now, and you can get all kinds of modular stuff that we would have only dreamed of back then. Used to be if carr lane or EQ, didn't have something that would work, we made it custom. And we made a lot of custom stuff.
