Sources of METALS for your stockpile for projects?

HMF

HMF

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Hi Guys,

Where do you guys get metals to use on projects?
Brass? Bearing Bronze? Aluminum? Cold Rolled Steel? Drill Rod? Stainless? Cast Iron?

Everyone must have a favorite source- what is it?


Thanks!


Nelson
 
Locally, RHW metals covers most of my alloy and carbon steel needs. Otherwise Energy Alloys out of Houston does my round bar in the larger quantities and sizes, with trepanning and ejector drilling as needed.

EMJ, Trident, and Castle are mostly aluminum and brass/bronze alloy suppliers.

BeCu Alloys up in Wisconsin for beryllium Copper, almost exclusively. Owner is a personal friend.

I have lots of sources, but you guys don't want my vendor list. ;)
 
Shadow, I could probably pick out everything I'd ever need, and he wouldn't notice it was gone!

In Seattle, Metal Shorts and Online Metals (I can pickup there, 10 minutes from the house!)
 
Car parts and drops from jobs that I did. Friends that work in fab shops ect.
Paul
 
I've found reasonably good prices on 360 brass from Enco sale flyers, particularly in comparison to local sources or other online retailers. I wait for the 10% plus free shipping code to stock up.
 
I've used http://www.onlinemetals.com a couple of times on a small order. They furnished MTR's like I required, and were pretty quick, and I thought reasonable on pricing, considering I was buying a few feet only.

I've also grabbed guides from printers, David. Good straight stock.
 
Most of my metal comes form scrapped power tools. Aluminium tables from skil saws, shafting and parts from planers, nuts bolts and fasteners in metric, fine and coarse imperial.

We have a local industrial supply, that will hose you royally for new stock, but when I look at having stock shipped in, it is often better to pay the bandits you know.

There are a few oufits in Vancouver that I can order in the specailty stuff from.

Walter
 
I get a lot of my materal for playing at the local scrap yard and I have a deal with
a machine shop to go through there crops from time to time.
Anything that has to be a spec material I get from local industrial supply house.
 
I use very little salvage metal. I don't have an easy source, or the time to scrounge. I do keep an eye out for deals, and I try to keep enough stock on hand to make just about anything I might want at a moment's notice. My home shop time is precious, and the cost of materials seems trivial by comparison. Maybe that's partlyt because in the guitar shop, I'm using materials that are REALLY expensive, hard to find, and need to be stored for long periods to "season." You know, like rosewood, ebony, ivory, and exotic inlay materials. Because supply can be cut off at any time, I try to keep at least ten years ahead of need on the stuff that's prone to supply problems. (Now, with the CITES and Lacy Act issues, I wonder if ten years is enuf.)

Here are my faves:

Aluminum (6061) - cheap and easy to get

Brass (360) - least expensive, machines well, looks great, etc.

Tool Steel (O-1) - machines more easily than W-1. Great for tool making

Stainless Steel (303) - machines way more easily than its cheaper counterpart, 304.

Steel (1018) - least expensive, good strength, and readily available at local yard. I use mostly cold-rolled.

Leaded Steel (12L14) - it saws, turns, mills, threads like a dream. Rusts like crazy, so you gotta watch its uses, and it's not a strong as other alloys. I use it a LOT. It's what I use to make the shank of my JACK the GRIPPER tools. I cuts twice as fast as 1018.
 
Where I live out in the SE Idaho tatter fields there is lots of irrigation wells and the pump shafts are 416 SS and other misc. which the local motor shop lets me scrounge for $10 a load, I picked a 9 inch Delta disk belt sander that all was wrong was the motor in the last load:cool:
Got one load of shafting about 6 ft long by 1" thru 2" about 8 pcs. + lots of drops up to 5" dia :grin:
Motor /pump shops are a good source and they use lots of stress prof and SS.
 
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