Where To Purchase Steel Stock

Go to a welding/fabrication shop and ask where they get their stock from.

The place I use will even plasma cut shapes for a couple of more bucks. Saved me a ton of time when I was making my arbor press bolster plate.
 
Funny.... It turns out that I have a friend who owns a welding shop and I never thought to ask him. We fly RC model airplanes at the same field and have known each other for years, but I sort of forgot what he did for a living. He has exactly what I need and will be happy to sell it to me for a good price.
 
Ask your local welding shop about drops. I stopped in ours to buy some and the rack was almost empty . They said they just took a load to scrap and price was so low they didn't get much. Next time they said they will call me and I can pick out some stuff I want.
 
You can always check with your local machine shop to see it they any material in the short rack. It could stock off the butt end where the roller mill has massed it down the end/beginning of the bar.
 
fixit said:
In those quantities I would would check out local "fabricators" & beg them for some drop offs. Take a dozen donuts, they buy a lot in small shops.
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And do take the time and invest a few extra bucks to buy the good ones! If you don't know the best donut shop in town ask around on Facebook. (Or actually talk to humans in person? That's still a thing, right? Funny how often that's the last option to occur to me anymore.)

Glad you realized you know someone. Start there and when he doesn't know just ask him for names of shops that might have it. I have hundreds of pounds of steel from a shop where I worked. Some were factory reject pieces (alignment of holes were just out of spec), while others are bizarrely discarded perfectly good stock of perfectly good and usable size. It is insane how much great material is thrown out by metal and wood shops every day.

What is really sickening to me is my nearest scrap yard who has an entire part of the yard that is off limits to scaven, er, buyers like me. They have building-size mountains of brand new, flawless industrial scraps. Coils of flat bar hundreds of feet long in different metals and grades, most particularly aluminum. For some reason there is a clause in their contract with the local manufacturers they buy from which states that it can not be resold to anyone. One guy said he thinks they don't want other companies to get cheap metal from their waste. Another said he thinks it's a liability thing. Like someone is going to make something out of that scrap and it would somehow come back to that manufacturer after it fails? Probably the case, but how in the world would they be found liable? If you buy a car from its second owner and it fails somehow can you sue its first owner? It would either be a matter of your own fault, the fault of the person who sold it to you without properly disclosing something, or the original manufacturer (in this case the mill, before the manufacturer who scrapped it).

Sorry, had to rant. :(
 
intjonmiller said:
And do take the time and invest a few extra bucks to buy the good ones! If you don't know the best donut shop in town ask around on Facebook. (Or actually talk to humans in person? That's still a thing, right? Funny how often that's the last option to occur to me anymore.)....snip....... :(
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Once in a while around lunch time, I'll go by KFC and pick up a bunch of their "Go Cups" and take them by my friends machine shop. I get royal treatment! Raw material, phosphating, you name it, works everytime! Of course, they hit me up at times for taps, end mills, grinding special tools for them, too!
 
coffmajt said:
See if there is a metals supermarket close to you. They will cut to length and sell small quantities == Jack
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Their prices are insanely high I only buy from then when I'm desperate.
 
I buy stock from www.onlinemetals.com. Sign up on their web site for email notifications and wait for the 10-20% discounts.

I buy steel locally from Alro steel (Michigan based). They have a surplus store right next to Harbor Freight in Lansing, MI! Wow, buy a piece of junk from HF and go next door for the stock needed to make it work right!

We also have a metal recycler in town (Padnos Recycling). They have used angle, plate steel, aluminum and will band saw/torch to length. Price is $0.24 per pound for steel and $1.25 per pound for aluminum. I've visited a couple of machine shops and BS'd with the machinist. Not only learn a few things but also get access to a few pounds of shorts in back. You may have similar local outlets.

Bruce
 
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