Where (else) to get square tube for granberg rails?

[Shawn Curry]

I have a 24" Granberg mill, which is large enough to handle 85% of the stuff in my woods. I figured I'd go with the smaller one, and wait to upgrade until I ran into something bigger. Well that day ended up arriving sooner than I thought: my sister and BIL had a 4' diameter walnut taken down this spring. I cut up the tops for them to use as firewood, and I'm milling the rest.

I'd like to upgrade to a 48" or larger. There's only 2 places that I know of that sell the rail kits to widen your mill - Bailey's, and Granberg themselves. Of course, Baileys was out of stock last I checked (or maybe the 'out of stock' thing is just part of their business strategy to ding you a couple extra times on the shipping? They ALWAYS split my order.) I emailed Granberg to find out if they had them in stock, but they have yet to get back to me.

I posted a want ad here looking for some, and @Jon1212 suggested that this very basic sort of aluminum extrusion could probably be found elsewhere, cheaper. I really liked that idea too, that way I could make them any size I want. I've found a few that might be workable, but I thought I'd ask here to see if you guys know of any.

Thanks in advance,
Shawn.

 

[mdavlee]

I never tried any but the 8020 aluminum can be had pretty cheap on eBay.

 

[BobL]

In Australia road signs are attached to posts using aluminium "Highway sign unistrut"
There are two types "regular" and "HD".
Regular looks like the Granberg mill rail while the cross section of the HD look like this.
It's a lot stronger that the regular and is what I used on my mills.
I also used it on roof racks for my van and a bunch of other stuff around my shop.

 

[groundup]

I use highway sign posts

 

[chads]

I used 80/20 and used a washer to make it the same height but don't really need washer as i never use the gauge to set height.
Chad

 

[Yellowbeard]

I looked all over for that stuff and couldn't find it. I ended up using this:

https://www.fastenal.com/products/r... ~|categoryl3:"602693 Extruded T-Slot Bars"|~

It was a LOT cheaper and seems to work fine. I also drilled it and use it for cross bars.

Whoops - just realized that's what people mean by 8020. So there you go.

 

[PhilB]

I use square nuts with a chamfer ground on two sides so 5/16 inch bolts can mount accessories on 80/20 series 15 rails. These nuts give a good purchase on the rails.

 

[mdavlee]

They have hardware kits you can get on eBay. I've got some 5/16" hardware that's for the 1.5" tubing.