XE25 25 mm Construction Rail Accessories
Rails	Cubes and Brackets	Breadboard Mounting	Rail Joiners
Construction Tools	T-Nuts and Screws	Enclosures	Enclosure Accessories

Features

• High-Strength Plastic or Aluminum Cubes Form Rigid Connections
• Right-Angle Bracket Reinforces Corners
• Low-Profile Screws Fasten Cubes to Rail Ends

Thorlabs' XE25 Cubes and Brackets are designed to orient our 25 mm rails at right angles in two or three dimensions.

Construction Cubes
Our construction cubes create rigid corners and joints in 25 mm rail assemblies. The RM1G Counterbored Construction Cube and XE25W3 Quick Corner Cube, which are fabricated from anodized aluminum and high-strength plastic, respectively, hold up to three XE25 rails at right angles. In contrast, the RM1F(/M) Tapped Construction Cube is an anodized aluminum block that accommodates up to six XE25 rails.

Right-Angle Bracket
The XE25A90 Right-Angle Bracket contains two through holes that connect 25 mm rails at a right angle and can be used to brace a rail corner. The bracket is ideally suited for extending existing rail constructions into three dimensions.

Low-Profile Channel Screws in Corner Cube

Low-Profile Channel Screws
Our Low-Profile Channel Screws feature a shortened cap height, which is useful in situations with limited space. For example, in our construction cubes, standard cap screws installed in neighboring faces would interfere with each other. As shown to the left, low-profile channel screws leave the neighboring through holes clear.

Thorlabs' accessories for assemblies made of 25 mm rails include corner cubes and brackets, T-Nuts, low-profile channel screws, breadboard mounting accessories, and rail joiners. In addition, we offer optical enclosures, enclosure accessories, and "do-it-yourself" tools like taps, tap guides, and drill guides for home-built XE25-based constructions.

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Home-Built 90° Corner

XE25 Construction Techniques

Thorlabs' XE25 rails and components are the building blocks for many types of modular systems, including custom enclosures. For the most demanding applications, Thorlabs recommends the "direct connection" technique for forming right angles with rails, detailed here. All the construction parts shown in this tutorial are available on our XE25 Construction Tools page.

Step 1: Drill Side Holes

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Step 2: Tap the Center Hole, If Necessary

All stock and custom-length anodized XE25 rails have a 1/4"-20 (M6) tapped hole in the end of the rail. If you have cut a standard XE25 rail, or are using the XE25RL2 Raw Extrusion, you will need to tap a hole into the end of the rail.

For this step, you will need the 71598 1/4"-20 Tap (or the 71498 M6 Tap), the XE25TG Tap Guide, and the TW25 Hand Tap Wrench.

Fix the tap inside the tap wrench. Place the tap guide block over the end of the rail. The hole in the top of the guide will keep the tap square with the hole and minimize the chance of misthreading. Turn the tap to thread the hole.

Step 3: Attach Low-Profile Channel Screw

For this step, you will need a SH25LP38 1/4"-20-threaded (SH6M10LP M6-threaded) Low-Profile Channel Screw and a 1/8" (4 mm) balldriver.

Insert the screw into the threaded hole in the end of the rail, and tighten down partway with the balldriver. If you are making a three-way connection, you will need to thread another channel screw into the end of a second rail.

Step 4: Join the Rails

Slide the head of the channel screw into the channel of the rail with the drilled holes, so that the hex head lines up with the hole. Insert the balldriver into the hole, and tighten the channel screw. If making a three-way connection, repeat this process with the third rail, as shown in the figure to the right.

For increased stability, the corners may be reinforced with the XE25A90 Right-Angle Bracket.