Cost of steel

[joes_427_vette]

I just bought some new steel cutoffs for 40 cents a pound. June 1 the yard said new steel rose 13.2% and looking at another 3% in july. Even at home projects seem costly. I would venture to say the equipment lines are also adjusting their prices plus the shipping.

 

[ampsucker]

just bought a 20' piece of rectangular tubing sized to fit in the stake pockets on my trailer (1.5"x3.5"). that plus a nice piece of 3/4"x2"x10' solid billet and i was out the door for around 55 bux. that was at a place that sells only iron for projects and the billet was a drop from the their "bargain" area. i felt like a did ok compared to other places i've shopped.

sometimes i use things we have laying around. i've slowly been consuming a pile of 2" well pipe. we had about 600 feet in 20 foot sections. good for lots of things if you can get it cut right.

i also ran across some actual 2"x4" tubing (too big for the stake pockets i found out later!) that the owner of my local lumber yard was using to build a barn at his house. he had some extra and sold it to me for 1.50 a foot. i ended up paying just under $30 for those four 4' sections which i will now put to good use on a different project.

i once had a welder friend of mine tell me he turned down a free pile of angle from a busted up boat dock. said by the time he figured his rate plus cost of gas to cut it up and haul it home, it was cheaper for him to buy the stuff new. that was about 5 years ago, but prices were already pretty steep back then, even. it really is getting pretty crazy, now.

i would love to find a good local salvage yard that had decent prices on older american steel.

amp

 

[mc faulkner]

New steel prices have gone up in New England by 35% since Jan 1 2008, and we are being told to expect another 10% increase in the next 30-45 days. If you do not need full lengths of material or full sheets - your best bet, as others have suggested, is calling local welding and fabrication shops for material - i know we sell remanats and will cut material for people, if we have it in stock, and sometimes we will special order material - we often can sell it to end users, make a small profit and give them a better price than buying direct.

 

[Aguanga]

Two days ago I paid $1/pound for remnants (flat bar HRS). I believe angle and tube was 1.10 or 1.15 for HRS. They also charge a few bucks for cuts, but I'm usually able to find something close to what's needed and save my remnants for the next project as well. This pricing is SoCal (Riverside).

 

[RobJ]

It's been a couple months now but last time it was still $.55#. This is not always drops or cut offs. The steel might be a little out of spec, rusted or bent. Things like buying some 12ga 1x2 rec tubing in 24' lenghts is a score.

16ga 1" and 3/4" type square tubing it's almost best to buy new. Good clean steel for just a little more. I have a CC LB truck so I always like to buy as long as possible.

They from time to time have the drop or cut off stuff. Depending on what it is it can go fast. But if you find a piece that has a slight bend, it's all yours. most of the time they do not like to cut a small piece from a larger piece. Every now and then in flat stuff. It's always a surprise on what they have. When I was building my sled style trailer(for the tractor), I got brand new 5" light weight channell for scrap price. It has worked fine.

 

[3RRL]

I hope you mean .55 and not $55 /lb.

Ooops ... right.

 

[Jimmyb33]

RobJ,
Do you have any good sources in the Houston area? I've got a couple of projects and really don't know where to find good scrap. I'm a little East of Houston but will spend a little gas to get a good deal!

Thansk!

jb

 

[RobJ]

I go to SSS Steel. Triple-S Steel Supply Company The salvage yard is open from 8-12 on Saturday. You can check out the locations on the link. The main one I go to is near Jenson and the north loop. Get there early for some Shipleys!! Plus it can get crowded on Sat.

Only other one I go to it Rose Steel. They moved a while back and I have not been to the new location. It wasn't bad either. SSS have everything new! All sizes shapes, etc. The scrap yard is what you see is what you get.

http://www.rosesteelcenter.net/index.php

 

[Jimmyb33]

Thanks RobJ... I was planning on going by SSS near Hobby Airport. probabily will try to find some scrap places around here but will end up buying there. I'll check rose too.... Thanks again!

jb

 

[Renze]

we bought a PTO driven street sweep, which started its life perhaps 40 years ago as a Gustin hay tedder. It is at least 3rd hand, as the guy we bought it from, bought it "as is" which means he didnt do the conversion.
My brother bought it for 75 Euro, and it was just a pile of scrap with a fairly new 400 Euro street sweep rotor included

2 or 3 weeks ago i started building a new frame for it, as the tedder frame was rotten away, broken and bent. Now i use the angle gearbox and sweep rotor to build a new one.

For the front main beam and 3pt A frame, i used a 5" pipe from a utility light pole, that a friend of mine needed to get rid off at the local boy scout yard.
The side frame rails are of an old self loading hay wagon, i threw away most, but kept the nice and strong main frame tubes.
The rear crossbar is a leg from a 6 ton pig feed silo. I just bought some light tubes to make a support for the gearbox.

I buy a lot of used machinery, for lets say 250 Euro, scavenge the hydraulics (has anyone noticed the cost of hydraulic hoses these days ??) use the valve blocks, cut out the shafts and sprockets, nice lengths of steel profiles that can be cut out without wasting too many grinder disks, wheels, hubs, pivot bushings etcetera.
Then when the good parts are stripped, the old machines still hold their value because the price of scrap is so high these days

My motto is, keep your eyes open (for bargains) and your wallet shut


At work i do engineering and most of the raw material purchasing. I try to standardise as much as possible to standard materials for trailer crossmembers, because when i buy them per lengths, we pay about 4 euro per meter, and when purchased per bundle (66 lengths, in case of tube 60x40x3mm) its about 3 euro per meter. Buying in full bundles saves about 25%