Material Pricing - UGH!

Chip Monkey

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It was years before covid that I last purchased materials, and am still floored by the soaring prices of metals. Luckily I have a modest stash accumulated thru the years and I barely toss a scrap if it's bigger than a postage stamp.

Anyway, it really stinks for people buying materials for the usual home projects like die holders and fly cutters, when it's cheaper to buy the complete part from any of the usual Asian distributors. Frustrating, annoying, and disappointing for sure.
 
I wanted to stock up on some more sizes this year, but not at these prices. Metals prices appear to have peaked and started to decline at the production level, so I’m waiting until there are declines at the retail level before buying again.
 
I've pretty much bought out my surplus metals dealer. I've got another dealer that has some round old stock they are selling cheap. I just keep buying as much as I can afford.
 
It sucks for us small job shops too. Customer wants a project fabricated. You price the materials and the customer has a heart attack.

Yup, I did a small project for a customer a couple weeks ago. It weighs about 20 lbs., $500 just in materials, SS, aluminum, plastic. That did include two laser cut SS parts. I was a bit shocked when I added up the material cost.

We buy a few thousand lbs. of SS and aluminum / month and our raw material (when we can get it) cost has gone up about 75% over the last year.
 
My source at work dried up when I retired. We had a large machine shop and anything in the dumpster was free, the company was bought by a Brazilian conglomerate, and wouldn't even sell the scrap to employees, pity.
 
I'll be looking to buy about 240' of W12x14 in a few months. I sure hope prices come down somewhat!
 
Give these guys a look: https://stockcarsteel.com/
They were way more reasonable than every other metal supplier, way cheaper than my local guy, so much so that even with shipping I was saving a bundle.
Guys,
A 3.5" diameter X 24" long is $112 from stockcar steel.
I bought the same material from online metals at $278.

(6061 aluminum round bar stock)

You bet I'll check out stock car steel!!
 
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