Metal Remnants

Keith Foor said:
I hate asking a question that is most likely been answered twenty times on here but I will anyway as answers do change. I am looking for a source for metal remnants. I had found a place that sold boxes of cutoff ends by the pound. Boxes were 5 10 and 20 pound and were priced by the material in them. For a hobby guy, buying a 4 X 8 sheet of metal can be a bit of a pain. Finding scrap that's usable isn't as easy as it was in the past either. So who is YOUR favorite? Who typically will send you out reasonable pieces and not 20 pounds of 1 inch cubes of square tubing? I realize that there are some projects that will require the purchase of specific material by length but having something to play around with to get a feel for the operation of the machines and to test hand ground lathe tools against before trying to take a cut on a 40 dollar hunk of metal for a project would be a good thing. Online and central Ohio is where I am looking.

Thanks guys.
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I buy most of my material from Ebay sellers anymore. I recently discovered a seller of Fortal 7075 aluminum (stronger than some mild steels) drops who sells 20 and 30 lb. 'hobby assortments'. So far I've bought about 80 lbs and like the size assortments I've received. I found a freebie 12"x1" round piece marked "thanks" in the last batch. This stuff machines much easier than that gummy 6061 stuff too. There's also a guy on there called IndustrialMetalSales who I buy quite often from.

Today I just found a few good sized pieces of titanium on Ebay. :)
 
$1 a pound for scrap from the scrap yard must be the magic number. The one we go to uses that price for everything we ask about.

Should ask about brass and copper. :chunky:
 
Problem is the scrap yards I have been hitting don't have much any more, They clear it out about as fast as they get stuff in. I have actually watch them, The guy unloads a truck or trailer, then the yard starts loading and separating it into trunks for shipment. Never get a chance at most of it. And when we do, there is normally two or three people going through it.
 
I may someday be reduced to having to fish through a scrapyard, looking at various pieces of 'mystery metal' but thankfully I'm not there yet. But from your description Ken, they may not even exist as an option in the future. Guess I'd better stock up while I can.
 
I had the same problem aquiring stock, There is a machine shop close to me, about 1 mile away. One day I said oh heck, I'm going to go in and ask if they sell drops. Well, I lucked out, the owner knows my son somehow. Anyway I can have have all the drops that are in the scrap barrels for free, the'll even cut it to length's for me, Yeah, I know, I stepped in it lol.

Aluminum and brass I have to pay for unless it's in the scrap barrels. I bought a bunch of aluminum stock from them, He even call's me when they accumulate what he considers scrap. Being retired on a fixed income, it makes me verry happy. There was no way I could afford ebay prices when you included shipping, so If you have any shops nearby, check em out, the worst they can say is no.
 
I've been very fortunate, I have a friend that is the sales manager for a large steel company. Pretty much anything I need in the way of bar stock, he finds me a renminment and sells it to me for buying his lunch! Dead stock items also make their way to my place once in a while. Of course, I have to drive over 250 miles round trip to pick it up.
 
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