Sourcing metal for projects $$$$

GunsOfNavarone

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So just a setup here, I'm new to working a Lathe/mill...though I have worked in sheet/plate for sometime.
I'm lucky enough to have a Metal Supermarket nearby. I've purchased my metals there for over a decade. I've never bought squared/blocked metal before and holy crap! It is expensive! I am making some velocity stacks and I want to do the lathe test shape (barbell) to check calibration/twist on new lathe. I paid $128 for 4' of 2.25" x 2 .25" aluminum stock! Wow! I always check for remnants when I'm there, but what is a better place for real fabricating materials? Is there a cheaper quality for metals (ie not rolled versus cold roll) I realize we're not dealing with rolled metals here. There are so many kinds of aluminum as there is steel, is there a more affordable quality? I'm not making space shuttle parts...
 
Greetings, i also deal with M.S.M. for some of my metal needs. But i also check out the local scrap metal dealer on a regular basis, the deals too be had are so much cheaper.
 
I bought 12" of 2 1/2" diameter aluminum for 7 bucks at the scrap yard recently.
That price does not reflect the times I looked there and did not purchase anything, or the gas.
These days my time has little value.
 
Unless you are buying larger quantities, >500 lbs, Metal Supermarket is not a bad place to buy, but they are a bit expensive (about 2x over the wholesalers). I normally buy from Coast Aluminum, but buy bar lengths, and normally at least 1000 lbs per order. The rem room at my local Metal Supermarket is well stocked with the thicker aluminum plate pieces so when we need small quantities that is our goto place. We also have another local retail metal vendor that sometimes has some good deals on rems. The wholesalers want to sell bar lengths and charge a lot for cutting.

Onlinemetals is another good place to buy. https://www.onlinemetals.com/

For small quantities McMaster is another option.
 
For *aluminum*, BuyMetal.com has the best prices of any online metal supplier. I did a comparison of about 40 places a few months ago and they came out on top. They have a fixed $15 flat rate ship change which kinda sucks if you need one tiny piece, but is amazing for anything over a few pounds. Poor UPS lugged 80 lbs of aluminum to my doorstep. There were several other close ones, but I have good luck with these guys. It arrives FAST too.

Their steel selection is more limited (still good prices), but they sell in fixed quantities so you end up buying $200 worth of material. If you need a lot that is fine, but don't expect to get a good deal on a 6" piece.

Edit: The statement above only applies to their 1018 and 1045 cold rolled steel. They have all kinds of sizes available in many flavors of Stainless with no minimum order. Decent prices I think, but I don't buy stainless as often.
 
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There are a few ebay sellers with aluminum drops at good prices. The smaller size pieces get free shipping as well, usually less than 3ft long.

Metal Supermarket is a good local source in the remnants side anyway. If they have what you want, the prices are close to online pricing. Small quantity cuts are reasonably priced as well.
 
When I need a small piece for a project, I tend to watch ebay; compared to the online shops, the pricing is usually much better.
If I'm getting something in larger quantities, it's usually my local supplier and local pickup as their shipping typically add 20-40% to the cost.

I have a regular job so getting time to visit the local supplier is often difficult as is getting to the local scrap yards, so I try to stock up on materials I commonly use.


Edit: "small" is subjective, I've ordered materials upto about 5' long and upto about 70lbs/package through scrap yards on ebay.
 
someone beat me to it but I buy most of the material I need from ebay. sometimes you type in what you are looking for and the right stuff is listed. I recently bought 6"x 1/4" x 6' for less than 20 bucks. just hit it right that day. also look at steel suppliers yard they have remnant piles that are cheaper than regular prices. my local has steel for .75 cents a pound. If you can use steel then look at auto salvage yard for old axels good steel but you don't know what it is.
 
I've never thought about ebay...I'll check it out along with buymetal and Coast. I always pick up 75 to 150 lbs of metal when I'm fishing through the remnants at metal supermarket, but if there is something you need specifically, it's not terribly likely you'll find it there. Plate isn't too big an issue, but these blocks of metal are new for me. They say because e of tariffs, aluminum, more than the others is going through the roof. For instance, I bought a sheet of aluminum....from the remnant area, 2.2 lbs for 8 bucks (cash price) if it wasn't remnant, it would have been $12....that's in the world of a nice cut of beef range!
 
just a word of caution. even MSM branches have wildly differing prices. Since it's only competitor went out of business, the prices have risen to about 4 times their price level from a few years ago. Now 4140 is over 10$ a pound at MSM here (!). For one project I started in January, it was cheaper to buy a whole 24' stick of 1/2" 4140 than buy the 3 feet I needed from MSM. For a 6" piece of AL or brass, they can't be beat.

Our remnants bin here is pure robbery.
 
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