First post. I've been lurking here for about a year, though, basking in the obvious brilliance of others. I'm just planning my first CNC router, which I plan to use for woodworking.
When I was in at the bearing shop buying some skate bearings, I noticed they had these cool things called kee-klamps (www.keeklamp.com); great weld-free way to quickly build solid structures out of pipes. And it got into my head that this would be a great way to build the frame of the CNC router. I'm already using gas pipe for the rails, why not build the whole structure out of gas pipe? It should be very sturdy, and it would allow me to build it just with the tools that I have (basically a drill press, a router, and a few smaller tools).
However, the big problem with kee-klamps is that they're really pricey. But I found I could make my own by buying regular pipe fittings, hollowing them out with a bit sized to the pipe diameter, and then drilling small cross-holes, tapping them, and inserting set screws; keeps the price at about $1.50 per fitting rather than around $10 per kee-klamp.
Anyway, before I actually start throwing things together, I wanted to get some feedback from the much more knowledgeable people on here: if I were to try to build an all-pipe CNC router, what problems could I expect to encounter, structurally? Are there problems with using pipe that I wouldn't get in a more conventional build (say, MDF, or square pipe)?
Many thanks!