AlanB
Elite Member
And even with all the deals in the world, it is still best to sometimes just go buy new, or completed, then to try and fabricate it all yourself.
The cost of metal what to do?
- Thread starter SCRich
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bobodu
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2004
- Messages
- 960
- Location
- Whitley County,In.EIEIO
- Tractor
- Farmnought.Gravely Model L,Gravely Model LI,1941 Clinton two wheeler
AlanB said:
Good one!!! LOL
Ummmm.......you WERE kidding...right????
Renze
Elite Member
My neighbor is a pure bred scavenger, and his favo quote is: " youve either gotta keep your eyes open, or keep your wallet open" 
He's very right.
I bought a self loading 3pt hitch feed dosing bunker, for 250 euro last year. I also bought a flail shredder for straw, with the intention to join both into a big bale shredder for our 30 horses (of which 15 of people that rent a stable at our place )
Right now i have different plans, i also wanted to build a bush hog (in Holland there arent any second hand ones available, only light duty pasture toppers but no brush cutters) but i decided to replace the straight blades of the swath chopper/spreader for the optional heavier cupped blades, so i can use it as a brush mulcher. The feed bunk i put on the internet again, because i dont have enough time either.
On this dosing bunk, with a self loading comb, conveyor and loosenign drum, there are 2 hydraulic motors, 2 very nice cylinders and a few meters of fairly new hydraulic hose. If i had to buy those hoses new i'd be spending at least 400 Euro. Then there is the spool valve block, sprockets and chains, a few meters of usefull tube steel and there is a couple of 100 kg of scrap steel, which is worth about 14 cents per kilo right now.
When i bring a car to the wreckyard, the rear axle and complete front end with transaxle is saved for later, there is allways a use for a good axle with a commony available tire and rim size.
When i put old wagons to the scrap, i cut off as many tube and profiles as i can, they allways come in handy.
When you keep your eyes open for bargains, you can save a lot of money against buying new, or buying at the wrong time, because then you'v got to pull your wallet open.
And IF you have to buy new, have a look around. The average farm dealer sells steel for 3 Euro per kilo, where i buy it from my boss (in exchange for a couple of unofficial saturday working hours) for wholesale purchase price, which is about 1 euro per kilo.
The heavier the beam, the more effort i take to save a small length from a cart of scrap i sell. I just take my time to cut out the usefull pieces and sell the rest for scrap even though i cant wait to start on the next project when i am cleaning up my workshop inbetween projects.
with a bit of creative thinking, you can also use components of old machinery in your new stuff.
Or build a subsoiler, you can use pieces of heavy truck leaf springs as chisels, spring steel matches the wear resistance of manganese steel, though manganese or borium or hardox, is lots more expensive than mild steel, especially if you buy at a local hardware store.
He's very right.
I bought a self loading 3pt hitch feed dosing bunker, for 250 euro last year. I also bought a flail shredder for straw, with the intention to join both into a big bale shredder for our 30 horses (of which 15 of people that rent a stable at our place )
Right now i have different plans, i also wanted to build a bush hog (in Holland there arent any second hand ones available, only light duty pasture toppers but no brush cutters) but i decided to replace the straight blades of the swath chopper/spreader for the optional heavier cupped blades, so i can use it as a brush mulcher. The feed bunk i put on the internet again, because i dont have enough time either.
On this dosing bunk, with a self loading comb, conveyor and loosenign drum, there are 2 hydraulic motors, 2 very nice cylinders and a few meters of fairly new hydraulic hose. If i had to buy those hoses new i'd be spending at least 400 Euro. Then there is the spool valve block, sprockets and chains, a few meters of usefull tube steel and there is a couple of 100 kg of scrap steel, which is worth about 14 cents per kilo right now.
When i bring a car to the wreckyard, the rear axle and complete front end with transaxle is saved for later, there is allways a use for a good axle with a commony available tire and rim size.
When i put old wagons to the scrap, i cut off as many tube and profiles as i can, they allways come in handy.
When you keep your eyes open for bargains, you can save a lot of money against buying new, or buying at the wrong time, because then you'v got to pull your wallet open.
And IF you have to buy new, have a look around. The average farm dealer sells steel for 3 Euro per kilo, where i buy it from my boss (in exchange for a couple of unofficial saturday working hours) for wholesale purchase price, which is about 1 euro per kilo.
The heavier the beam, the more effort i take to save a small length from a cart of scrap i sell. I just take my time to cut out the usefull pieces and sell the rest for scrap even though i cant wait to start on the next project when i am cleaning up my workshop inbetween projects.
with a bit of creative thinking, you can also use components of old machinery in your new stuff.
Or build a subsoiler, you can use pieces of heavy truck leaf springs as chisels, spring steel matches the wear resistance of manganese steel, though manganese or borium or hardox, is lots more expensive than mild steel, especially if you buy at a local hardware store.
AlanB
Elite Member
bobodu said:
No, I was not.
Everyone has to weigh it out for themselves, but depending upon your particular circumstances it may or may not be best to build it all.
I would like to consider myself a decent fabricator, but when it came time for the dump trailer for the business, even though I have been slowly accumulating the parts over the years, when I priced out the additional parts I would need to buy, and compared that too the cost of just going and buying a dump trailer that was immediately useable, I went to the trailer sales place and handed him my money.
Now when it came time with the same trailer, that I wanted the barn doors instead of the drop spread tailgate, I looked at what it would cost to have someone else do it, or to buy it, and looked at what materials and time would cost me, and did that job myself.
IF you have TIME to scrap every project together with discount or salvage materials, that may be great. I guess I am just offering the counterpoint that sometimes, mass manufacturers buying in bulk, assembling multiples of the same item, and cost effectively distributing them, may make it a lot more practical for me to just BUY something then to BUILD it.
I did not build my tractor nor my trucks either.
bobodu
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2004
- Messages
- 960
- Location
- Whitley County,In.EIEIO
- Tractor
- Farmnought.Gravely Model L,Gravely Model LI,1941 Clinton two wheeler
AlanB said:
I WAS KIDDING!!! Geez.....
But then again...I do build my tractors and trucks.
Renze
Elite Member
AlanB said:
On the other hand, when you build your own, you usually build something up to your own standards. Most box blades e.g. i've seen advertised on this page, are flimsy things that i'd twist or break in a matter of minutes, if i used them the way i use stuff that i'd built myself.
OP
SCRich
Silver Member
bobodu said:
It all depends I guess. If we all were a professional welder, worked at a junk yard or was involved in some part of the industry as a profession and had contacts yes we could probably build a lot of these things. Me for instance having been in the 2-way radio business for almost my entire adult life and received a soldering iron and Simpson Volt meter for by 8th birthday can go into my garage right now and build a police/fire/dpw radio SYSTEM in probably less than a day. I got antennas, tower sections, repeaters, mobile radios and even a couple of portables.
I have built up a stock of Motorola radios, once we move to the property maybe even before the tractor, ATV, front gate will have them all set up. Many commercial farmers have paid good money for that, all I got to do is open up a few boxes. The same goes I guess for others here, with 2 or 3 days in the garage you can probably have a box blade welded up just with what you have. In these cases it is CHEAPER for all of us. Now if I had to purchase all of that plate, or you had to purchase all of those radios we would never be able to do it!
I guess my best bet will be to find auction houses that are open on Friday and Saturday nights and search for scrap metal yards. I start building another garage to hold the metal along side of my electronics dump.
Most of the time, it doesn't matter what it is...implements, furniture, anything...you can't buy the materials for what the finish product costs. I guess it's because the people who manufacture these things have the economy of scale to get the materials for way less and the experience to build them with far fewer hours of labor than you will spend. This isn't always true but most of the time it is. New steel and aluminum are astronomical in price. The last steel I bought was $1.50 per lb; 6061 was running $4-6 per lb. Used material is the only way you can come out.
But, there are times when the available product is just not exactly what you're looking for. If you can look at something and say "this would be just what I want IF it had this particular modification" you might be better off to buy one and modify it or build from scratch, if you can get cheap material. BTW if you do this, you are well on your way to being a real engineer. Not necessarily a book-learned kind, but a real one. One of my professors once said a real engineer, upon seeing something for the first time, immediately starts to think about how it can be improved.
Other times, you may just want to build a MOAC (Mother OF All Contraptions) just to see if it can be done and how it will turn out. Mad Dog's Mother of all PTO Log Splitters was such a project. I wish he'd have finished it.
But, there are times when the available product is just not exactly what you're looking for. If you can look at something and say "this would be just what I want IF it had this particular modification" you might be better off to buy one and modify it or build from scratch, if you can get cheap material. BTW if you do this, you are well on your way to being a real engineer. Not necessarily a book-learned kind, but a real one. One of my professors once said a real engineer, upon seeing something for the first time, immediately starts to think about how it can be improved.
Other times, you may just want to build a MOAC (Mother OF All Contraptions) just to see if it can be done and how it will turn out. Mad Dog's Mother of all PTO Log Splitters was such a project. I wish he'd have finished it.
Yeah its expensive alright,,,,nice to do little things though,,clothes line posts,grills,welding tables,metal saw horse,coat hanger things,,etc,and fixing things or improving them some to your needs,things like that that you need but can't really buy what you want as good anyways.
Good to help out your neighbors if they need it,,it will pay off big time sometimes that way.
But you can't compete with a company thats making things for a profit generally,,like kingkutter for instance,,,
on the other hand,,if you got a few hundred bucks to spend on steel,you can get some real satisfaction from making something and it will generally outlast even your kids,,,plus,it'll be one of a kind,,kinda like that credit card commercial,priceless!! thingy
Good to help out your neighbors if they need it,,it will pay off big time sometimes that way.
But you can't compete with a company thats making things for a profit generally,,like kingkutter for instance,,,
on the other hand,,if you got a few hundred bucks to spend on steel,you can get some real satisfaction from making something and it will generally outlast even your kids,,,plus,it'll be one of a kind,,kinda like that credit card commercial,priceless!! thingy
bamatoolmaker
Silver Member
Make friends with someone at a commercial fab shop.You should be able to buy drops and such from them at scrap prices.