The Beginnings of a Frame

After some more research yesterday I ran across a post by Zach Smith who had suggested building the entire frame for one of these machines from metal rods and square tubing.  The idea came from the desire to find a method for making the frame that did not require any special materials other than what can be found at a hardware store (perfect!).  The current design over there at the reprap site basically requires the corner supports to be printed from another 3D printer, which I don't have available.  Or I guess you could always take the time to machine the block that looks more like a piece of swiss cheese, but this concept of using only stuff from my local Menards is appealing.  The square tubing allows rods to be run in two different directions because it is basically a whole bunch of 90 degree angles.  By connecting 2 of these together you get all 3 directions required for the corner brackets.  So I ran over to Menards, picked up some supplies, and then over to the shop to slice it up.  Here is the result of a couple hours or so of work

You can probably get the idea from looking at this.  The problem is that the whole thing is not braced so it can actually be more of a parallelogram than a square.  I am planning on using sheet metal braces to solve this problem.  Also worth noting is that I am going to be building this entire thing on the floor of my apartment room as my roommates weren't too fond of it taking over the living room.  There is a grand total of only about 25 square feet to work with which I foresee as a major problem.  It's either that or sell my bed and sleep on the couch....