I have been away from the DIY router game for a few year and have been very surprised by the number of routers both DIY and commercial that have been designed around the t-slot style aluminium profile. This simplistic building method, the availability of cheap ballscrews / rails, has inspired and motivated me to start my "one day" router build, again.
I did get dishearten after finding out the price for the profiles from one manufacture but another member on this forum posted contact info to AME Systems, their product was well priced and project was now back on track.
This got me think as to what else was out there so i did a far amount of searching and a few phone calls later i have the below quotes on some systems. I thought i would post my findings to help others. I am sure there are a lot more "profile systems" out there.
These are all based around a 30mm x 30mm light base profile with slots on each side. When using a 30x60 or 60x60 profile the holes in the 16mm and 20mm rails from LMB line up with the channels allowing easy mounting. Light was chosen to compare AME's prices with other manufactures as they only do a light profile. I have also included part numbers after each size
AME systems (Melbourne, 03 9574 8044)
30mm x 30mm (PN: 419.06) - $13/m
30mm x 60mm (PN: 419.09) - $23/m
60mm x 60mm (PN: 439.66) - $35/m
The price list on the website is dated October 2008 but is the current pricing. Why so cheap? They are lighter weight then all others (take this into account with your design) and the main reason for the cheaper price is that AME have the extrusions made in Australia for them. They own the dies and this reduces the freight cost that are associated with most other systems especially the ones out of Europe. The guy I spoke with on the phone was very helpful and he was only the website designer!
ITEM Australia (Melbourne, 03 9357 1075)
30mm x 30mm (PN: 0.0.419.06) - $23.70/m
30mm x 60mm (PN: 0.0.419.07) - $41/m
60mm x 60mm (PN: 0.0.419.09) - $65/m
60mm x 120mm(PN: 0.0.419.10) - $124/m
Again very helpful.
SES - Linear Bearings (Adelaide, 08 8283 4177)
30mm x 30mm (PN: 0.0.419.06) - $21/m
30mm x 60mm (PN: 0.0.419.07) - $49.50/m
60mm x 60mm (PN: 0.0.419.09) - $75.50/m
Not as helpful as the others. This was only a branch office where as the other i called the head office.
MayTec (Sydney 02 9999 0890)
30mm x 30mm (PN: 30-4F L) - $19.11/m
30mm x 60mm (PN: 30-6F L) - $35.74/m
60mm x 60mm (PN: 30-8F L) - $55.19/m
This guy was very helpful and very interested in the DIY CNC market. The DIY user, not just CNC, was an area that they wanted to get more exposure into.
80/20 Australia (Sydney 02 9838 9900)
I left these guys to last as they do not do a 30x30 profile in Australia.
40mm x 40mm Normal - $56/m
40mm x 40mm Light - $46/m
Notice how AME, ITEM and Linear Bearings use simular part numbers. Not sure if this is for easy cross referencing or they are on-selling the same brand.
All prices are ex GST (not sure about the GST on the 80/20 prices) and excludes any cutting charges. All quoted $2.50 per cut for the smaller profiles, some were $3.90 for the 60x60 and i think it was $4.50 per cut for the 120x60 ITEM profiles.
I hope that this info is useful to other members.
Gareth