Machine rebuild time - options...

[Jonathan]

That's ok if you have the equipment to deal with full lengths

Equipment = hacksaw (takes a while but it works), or get the supplier to cut it. The place I got mine from cut it without charging, and also gave me a load of free bits :). I worked it out so that each piece would fit in the car, then did the rest of the cutting myself to make sure it was accurate. If I recall correctly the 60x60x3 steel box section I got was £25 for 7.5m.

Sell the spare on eBay, it goes for lots there!

If you don't have a pillar drill, scribe, centre punch etc. then

Then get one ... you're not going to get very far in life without a pillar drill. Well... I wouldn't! Surely you would need both for aluminium or steel.

No I wouldn't 50x50x3 Ali is £35 plus vat + Del (Ali warehouse) for 5mtr and as of 2 weeks ago when I last bought some 50x50x3 steel box section was £21 for 7.5mtr. Inc Vat.! (Delivered thou it's only next village so don't count really. .Lol)

Also to get the same strength in Ali you'd need more than 3mm thick...so comparing like with like would make the difference in price even greater. Also I think Tom was comparing aluminium profile to steel box, and profile is a lot more expensive than box (though also significantly stronger for the same outside dimensions).

Two weeks ago... does this mean you've started the next machine?