Hi, I am building up a DIY router (not mill). For the linear guides, I am have purchased carriages from Ahren / cncrouterparts.com shown here.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48749

Basically, they are skate bearings arranged to ride on 3 sides of a 1/4 in thick rail. The assumption is that most people will want to run them on cold rolled steel, which is pretty readily available.

Most of my machine is Al, and it will be used irregularly, as it is only for hobby use. The garage gets a lot of condensation in the winter here, so I am concerned that the cold rolled steel strips will rust and look - well - rusty. I really don't want my wife to look at this thing and whine about it, which she will certainly do if it looks rusty. I am not convinced that cold rolled steel strips can be kept from rusting even with a light oiling, but that may be an incorrect viewpoint. Feel free to comment.

In any event, I am thinking about using instead 7075 or 7050 T6 aluminum strips, approx 1/4 in thick x at least 2 inches wide - could be 4 inches wide and not matter. Length - 6 each x approx 2 ft, 6 each x approx 6 ft, 3 - 4 each x approx 9 ft.

These materials rival the cold rolled steel for properties so I am not worried about that. I found a place that will extrude some for me to quite a high precision level - approx +/- 0.001 inch, but before I go through the bother, does anyone have something they want to sell ?

I suppose in theory I could use thicker material and have it machined down on the edges as well if that is more available.

Thanks