RBS/Beam

Description

Is this RBS/Beam significantly different from grid beam?

Sourcing

LaserCut-Made

Solid

You can make RBS beam from cutting 1/2" sheet with a laser cutter.

Hollow

You can make hollow square beams 1"x1" beams or 2"x2" beams from thin plywood sheet. Just cut long thin, dovetail-edged strips, 1" or 2" wide and glue them together.

Steel

United states

• Any construction steel supplier.
• McMaster Carr "steel structural tubing"
• Unistrut

Canada

• Any construction steel supplier.
• Unistrut

(This should be a table)

UK

• Any construction steel supplier. (Undrilled)
• predrilled?

Aluminum

United states

• Any construction steel supplier. (Undrilled)
• Unistrut

Canada

• Any construction steel supplier. (Undrilled)
• Unistrut

(This should be a table)

UK

Undrilled

Any construction steel supplier

(The same folk who sold you all your mendel rod.)

Dexion Speedframe

This is a high-strength shelving system made from cheap steel square tubes and unimportant but elegant interconnectors.

The tubes are a lovely 1" (25.4mm) square x 10 ft (3048mm aka '3m') long.

• Speedframe (1" square x 3048mm long) x 1 length

£20.00 per 3m length http://www.tradesystems.co.uk/acatalog/Dexion-SpeedFrame-25mm-Square-Tube-System.html?gclid=CO20puGvvJ4CFQQMDQodVCn5Cg

• Buy Used! Shelving outlives many a business plan, so check your telephone directory under 'shelving/racking'.

You may get lucky, and pay £10/3m rather than £20/3m. http://shop.instant-shop.com/stodec/category740226.html

• Used/offpbrand

http://www.richardsonsuk.co.uk/productdetails.php?product=74

New Zealand

<sbailard_> VikOlliver, steel and aluminum box section down in NZ, is it metric, or '25.4 mm'? <VikOlliver> Strangley it's in approx 25mm increments...

• sbailard_ is beside himself in surprise.

<VikOlliver> It's sold as 25x50mm box section but you know what they mean...

Wood

Warning

In North America, wood which is called '1x1' or '2x2' is actually smaller than 1 inch or 2 inches in cross section. This is unfortunate but legal. Speak to a lumber yard or other supplier about getting 'wood which is actually sized 1 inch by 1 inch or 2 inches by 2 inches'. They will be able to help you, possibly by setting up a small order correctly sized material with a local mill, which may be a quick job. (If you are a woodworker, this paragraph is obvious, and we apologize. And you have a table saw.)

Imperial

• 1"x1" or 2"x2"

Metric

18mm x 18mm or 44mm x 44mm (Metric)

Back in the our imperial days these would have been called 1"x1" & 2"x2"

Which should have been 25.4mm x 25.4mm and 50.8mm x 50.8mm now its shown as its true size in mm.

Wood Construction Debris

It's plausible that we can use Eiffel or similar to mill construction debris wood down to 1"x1". It's plausible that we can use Eiffel or similar to mill construction debris wood down to

• 1"x1" or 2"x2" (Imperial)
• 18mm x 18mm or 44mm x 44mm (Metric)

A common so-called "two-by-four" (38 mm x 89 mm, 1.5 inch x 3.5 inch) can be ripped and planed into two separate grid beams (each 38 mm square). Does it make any sense to do slightly less work, converting that so-called "2x4 board" into one beam that acts like those 2 grid beams permanently attached to each other, 38 mm x 76 (1.5" x 3.0") with a double row of holes on the 3.0" wide side?

Notes

• Nails - After checking carefully with a nail finder.
• Grit - Use a stiff plastic brush to clean off your wood. Stone pebbles will chip your saw blade.

Working Notes, ignore below this line

• Eiffel should be able to drill the beams for daughter machines.

Inspiration

• http://www.dalefield.com/mwes/history/eiffel_tower.html
• We need background material on 'Gridbeam', previously called 'The matrix building system for nomadic furniture'.