FWIW, you can get find a subset of the 8020 stock at McMaster-Carr.
Go to
www.mcmaster.com and search on "aluminum frame".
Anyone on this forum who doesn't know about McMaster-Carr should. They are a great source for quirky nuts and bolts as well as raw materials like aluminum, plastic, steel, etc.
Tools are a bit over-priced as are some other items, but the selection alone makes it worth it.
I especially love them because for me, using their standard ground UPS shipping, I get stuff the next day. (...unlike, e.g. Woodpeck.com where I order something and it doesn't even SHIP for a work - those guys drive me bananas!)
Their prices on the 8020 stuff is high compared to the overstock sales on eBay, but they ship super-fast, and their shipping costs are rather low - so you might come out ahead if you just want a few small pieces. They also have everything available in 2', 4',6' and 8' pieces; no muss no fuss.
Funny, I've been lurking on these forums for a few weeks and was planning a sort of "introduction" post, and I guess this will be it! I just got a TS-75 + CT-33 a couple of weeks ago. I'm a hobbyist, but have overseen a couple of renovations in the past few years here in NYC (where I live), and I'm a very handy guy and have done a lot of different kinds of DIY things through out the years. I haven't had any space for any kind of shop (again, Manhattan... it's kinda rough!) and that's the only thing that's kept me from getting into woodworking and I resent the fact that I have to pay large sums of money to my carpenter friends to make me European-style (read: no fancy joinery) built-ins and cabinets that I'm sure I could make myself with the right tools and space and time... especially since I *enjoy* doing it myself and can find the time. The change came when my wife has just decided to open a retail store and the space she's renting is in a brownstone and includes a dusty, creepy, ill-lit, low-ceiling basement that she wants nothing to do with, so I've taken the liberty of commandeering the space as my new workshop, and with a 3 or 4 new florescent lights installed it's better - not good, but better! (I need to be careful not to make it too nice or she'll want it back!)
Annnyway.... this thread is appropriate since I am in the process of converting an old Ikea desk into a sort of cutting table based on the MFT idea. I've actually gone the opposite route from what Eiji et. al. have done: I'm making a table based around a DIY version of the guide-rail flip-up system and am not bothering with the holes (for now). I got some short (2') 8020 pieces for each side of my table to act as horizontal slides for my guide-rails. I used some MDF, some various sizes and shapes of aluminum (courtesy McMaster-Carr) and a some little nuts and bolts hardware and it's coming along way better than I expected and feels great (I've only put in about 2 hours on it and have only done one side - plan to finish tomorrow). I knew that if I got an MFT I'd want to install an Incra track and stop for the fence anyway, and I plan on eventually getting a router and LR-32 guide rail so I figured I get those things, and use them build this table and see how long it lasts me. I've already drilled a few random 3/4" holes in it to use for clamps in the MFT style, and I'm sure at some point I'll get a new top and route a grid in it (router will be my next Festool purchase).
I'll post pics soon.
To bring this all back home, I got the 1530 "Lite" extrusions (1.5" x 3.0") and the festool clamps DO fit in the slides, but there's a little slop. A slightly more narrow opening would be good. The 40mm extrusions are slightly larger (1.5" = ~36mm), BUT the slot size is an even 8mm which is slightly SMALLER - so I imagine they'd work better as far as fitting the clamps, but, being larger extrusions, they'd be more heavy, and more money, so I'd go with the 1.5" model since the slop in the clamp is a non-issue when it's tight and there's no way the clamp is going to pull out of the 1.5" extrusion's slot.
I'm curious if the 1"s extrusion - which has track opening size of 1/4" is too small - I keep forgetting to check the thickness of the clamps when I'm at "my shop". I have to say, the 1.5" tracks - even the Lite ones - seem too heavy for this application. They are obviously for industrial-type applications and they're super-beefy. I'd much prefer the 1" track if the clamps fit, though, as previously mentioned, I can't really see using the extrusions all that much with the festool clamps when you can just use the holes in the table, and I'd only be using them for my guide-rail system and maybe some other custom jigging-things.
Note that the MiniTec extrusions mentioned by someone in another thread looks really nice because it perfectly fits the 13mm nut heads on 8mm bolts. One thing that annoys me about the 8020 stuff is that standard bolts don't work in the track the way they do in, e.g. router-jig-style t-track- the bolt-heads spin in the 8020 track because of it's sloped profile. If MiniTec were more easily available (sold via online catalog one-off type sales like eBay and McMaster) I think I'd seriously consider them.
Cheers all,
Chris
