{"id":1231,"date":"2011-04-19T18:32:46","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T18:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/?p=1231"},"modified":"2011-04-19T22:22:21","modified_gmt":"2011-04-19T22:22:21","slug":"makerbeam-cheap-construction-rails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/19\/makerbeam-cheap-construction-rails\/","title":{"rendered":"MakerBeam: cheap construction rails"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

A while back Labrigger covered some sources for alternative mechanics<\/a>. Here’s a new one. MakerBeam is an inexpensive kit of construction rails aka T-slot bars. This would be a great thing to keep around the lab to construct various riggings. A $130 kit from SparkFun<\/a> gets you all this:<\/p>\n

  • 4x – 30cm beam<\/li>\n
  • 8x – 20cm beam<\/li>\n
  • 6x – 15cm beam<\/li>\n
  • 16x – 10cm beam<\/li>\n
  • 8x – 6cm beam<\/li>\n
  • 8x – 4cm beam<\/li>\n
  • 12x – outside corner bracket<\/li>\n
  • 12x – 45 degree bracket<\/li>\n
  • 12x – 60 degree bracket<\/li>\n
  • 24x – 90 degree bracket<\/li>\n
  • 1x – bag of bolts<\/li>\n
  • 1x – bag of nuts<\/li>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    The MakerBeam system’s best feature may be that the angle brackets are labeled with their angle in turns<\/a>, a somewhat less used unit than degrees or radians. It doesn’t really matter (1 turn = 360 degrees, obviously), but it quickly ignited an impassioned discussion in the comments of the product page. <\/p>\n

    Here’s an excerpt:<\/p>\n

    Haha, oh open source. Only you would do something helpful like engrave the angle in each bracket, but render it useless by using some obscure unit…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    (via<\/a>)
    \n    More Optomechanics Resources<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \n

    A while back Labrigger covered some sources for alternative mechanics<\/a>. Here’s a new one. MakerBeam is an inexpensive kit of construction rails aka T-slot bars. This would be a…<\/p>\n

    Read More<\/a><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14,31],"class_list":["post-1231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware","tag-construction","tag-equipment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1231"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1244,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions\/1244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}