I found steel to be more than that in 1 off's, it came down a bit if you bought 2 or 3 lengths.Maybe I'll shop around a bit, as I have nothing against steel except it's price for a 1st timer. I was pricing up for an 8x4 machine though, so was looking at a lot more steel and larger sections. Even then, I've heard of 2x3" steel box gantry's need beefing up because they were flexing when cutting wood.

Most people that build a machine, use it for a while and want to change it or make it bigger. So it doesn't necessarily need to last

Oh, and I built mine out of 12mm MDF LOL, it gets 3 or 4 hours use most days for the last 6 months ... the parts come out the correct size and everything !