Hey all! I'm new 'round these parts, but I hope I can help, and be helped by all the good folks in here. I'm working on designing my own fixturing equipment for my future shop. I need it to be cost effective, easily expanded, relatively mobile, modular, space efficient, low maintenance, rapidly setup, and rigid enough for frames and light forming work. In a phrase, I want a reasonable level of perfection in job production capabilities. Not too much to ask for, surely? So far, I'm thinking of using 2 to 3 inch round cold rolled 4xxx series bar stock to make a rigid frame to which I can mount, via fabricated clamps, bar and tubing mounted fixtures. This frame should be tiltable about its centerline, and should be four feel wide, and maybe eight feet long. My biggest problem at this point is determing loading maximums and minimum material thickness for the frame. If I can get away with lighter weight tubing, I would like to do that, however I want this thing to be reasonably rigid vertical or horizontal, with up to one and a half, maybe two tons of weight on it. Any advice?
