8020 extruded aluminum for workbench?

[WhoWhatNow]

Anyone have any experience with using this stuff for workbenches? Doesn’t seem as much fun as welding a bench up from steel tubing but it may be faster and lighter for mobile benches. We used it for mobile benches for instruments at my last job and it seemed pretty good. I was thinking of using it for a bench to hold my Buffalo drill press with a 26” Craftsman roll cab built into to it. I have a nice 2” thick butcher block for the top. Any experience or opinions?

http://www.8020.net/

 

[ranger302]

This is great stuf, but it can get expensive if you are the one buying it.

 

[larry_g]

I've built a lot of stuff with 80/20, bosch, SKF, Ideal and others. If you use the proper weight and design your joints correctly then you can have some stout stuff. 80/20 comes in many different profiles so know what your doing. Also be aware that different brands of strut and fasteners will not always interchange. So if your ordering new then you will have few problems. If your ordering parts and pieces from ebay then you better know what you are doing.


on edit, if you design in a tool box be sure to allow for the connectors that will take room at the corners.
lg
no neat sig line

 

[bggrnchvy]

It's a pretty cheap way to prototype stuff, but home use would be rather expensive.

I used to use it alot at a past company for testing concepts. We had some laying around from a job I repurposed along with some 110vac fans into a cooling stand for the Xbox.

Unless you have quite a bit laying around I would just go a more conventional route.

 

[y20dth]

I've remember it always being refired to as "Bosch-Profiles". Is used a lot in constructing production lines in (automotive-)plants.
I remember it being really expensive, but having something like that in your garage as a workbench and stuff, really does look cool !

 

[bad_idea]

I can buy steel a lot cheaper than that stuff with a little scrounging around. Wood is even cheaper. I am far too frugal to spend the kind of money that stuff commands.

 

[Hephaestus29]

View media item 17020
You mean like this: These are aluminum decking bars that are used for double decking loads in a semi trailer & are very strong.

Before you question my design of the bench there isn't going to be a 3rd leg support on the bottom, that piece is just there to hold up the cross piece for the lower shelf which isn't even at the exact height it will be in the picture. I might even turn the legs the other way too.

You can find these at semi junk yards, & i've even found some steel ones also.

 

[blue dog]

I used the 80/20 stuff about 10 years ago for a commercial project building desks. It was easy to use. It was a good product and i had forgot about it until reading this.

 

[nerdstar]

im too planning on using the stuff on my bench when i finish my current job and get paid. pricey is an understatement but would be good for my light stainless jobs. In saying that ill only be using it for a jig table for my tig welding

 

[WhoWhatNow]

How everyone has described it is pretty much how I remember it. Easy, really nice, but very expensive. I had a buddy try to tell me it would be cheaper than using steel. I'm pretty sure he's on crack. Just for giggles, I'm going to price out two benches I want to build with this stuff vs. steel. This company sells seconds and scraps on ebay so that may be cheaper than going to a distrubuter. I'll post results when I actually get a few minutes to do it.

 

[nerdstar]

Ohhhh i miss read this post. What are people opinions of this for a Bench Top? for light weight stainless tig welding?

 

[iroc409]

Kind of old thread but I was looking at building a desk with it instead of wood. I'll probably just go wood due to cost (frame with glass top), but the 8020 would be neat. I've seen a lot of the stuff on eBay, and you can get nice chunks for cheap--good to know it's all different (yikes).

Anyway, some guy apparently thought he had a gold mine and was selling lengths of it for $.90 an INCH. He was also charging I think $30 per cut if you wanted lengths other than what he had (he said he didn't want to cut it).

His was a ton of it used, pulled from an office, and wasn't all in the best of shape.

I was finding 4' pieces for like $11 from 8020's eBay auctions, and that stuff I think is new (just cutoffs). He wanted almost $50 for used!

 

[blasto9000]

I JUST built a few items out of 80/20 for a friend... workbench, storage rack and workbench. The price for the "1010" series (1x1 inch) was comparable to plain aluminum square tube, around $18 for an eight-foot length. Shipping costs from 80/20's eBay store are reasonable. UPS service is a bit slow though; takes at least a week for my parts to arrive from a same-state warehouse.

What got us on the cost were the small parts; adjustable feet, hinges, paneling, etc. 80/20 is not as inexpensive as wood, but compared to similarly-sized aluminum square tube it's very economical if your design only calls for 1010 extrusions and basic connectors.