Chapter 2 - In which I buy steel rod, and break saw blades.

Most of the Pursa frame is made from M8 threaded rod, cut to various sizes. The axes are made from 8mm smooth rod.

I spent a good amount of time searching ebay for rod at a good price, and even went along to the local hardware store (where they only had the threaded rod, which was bent and at £2.99 a metre was too expensive). Last weekend a comment on Nophead's blog (don't remember which post, sorry!) sent me off to B&Q, where I found exactly what I needed (and it wasn't too bent either). I came away with 6 metres of M8 threaded and 3 metres of 8mm smooth. The threaded rod is shiny, so I guess its BZP. The smooth rod came up on the till as being made of iron, but I think it's actually steel.

I also picked up some 300mm hacksaw blades (thinking that the cheap one that came with the saw would break, which it did) and some Scotch/3M decorators tape. This will line the bed initially and hopefully prevent too much warpage.

I cut up the rods in a manner which avoided using long section of the 3 slightly bent rods. The short sections ought to be straight enough for what I need - they will mostly form the frame sides, and now they're cut up they don't look bent at all. The 8mm smooth rod seemed to have been bitten or snipped off at the ends with a large pair of cutters, leaving the ends non-circular. I cut these off before cutting the lengths.

Here it is, all cut up:

I still need to finish off the ends, to remove the burrs etc. Some sandpaper and some determination ought to do the trick. A comment on richraps blog about his X axis sticking made me take another look at the smooth rod. While it is mostly smooth, it does have some surface irregularities. I may go back and see if a light sanding will smooth it out a little. I think I'll probably use some lubricant on the rod as well when everything is up and running.

I ought to add that all the photos used on this blog and some more that didn't make the cut are up on my photobucket.