where to buy steel

[Brimstone10x]

I go to a few diffrent places, just depends . lowes metal rack ,expensive but convenient , weldin shop next town over, race car fab shop, but my fav is the scrap yard ,they may or may not have what you want but at .25 cents a lbs its the cheapest buy far.

 

[JB4310]

I go to a few diffrent places, just depends . lowes metal rack ,expensive but convenient , weldin shop next town over, race car fab shop, but my fav is the scrap yard ,they may or may not have what you want but at .25 cents a lbs its the cheapest buy far.

Oh yeah I forgot about the junk yard. we have one nearby, you can find the coolest stuff there. At one time it was totally out of the question to go in there, but lately it's just pass at your own risk, and it is a little risky poking around in mountains of scrap

But well worth it!

JB.

 

[dstig1]

They said the stores themselves are franchises. The web site is corporate-owned. So corporate wants to get an extra slice from stuff they sell through the web site. The store itself isn't much - basically a small front office with 2-3 guys in there and giant warehouse behind with racks of everything and saws and shears and whatnot to cut pieces. I can't imagine any smaller front-office overhead for this type of operation. Someone has to keep track of the orders and payments...website or not.

 

[Soundguy]

I go to a few diffrent places, just depends . lowes metal rack ,expensive but convenient , weldin shop next town over, race car fab shop, but my fav is the scrap yard ,they may or may not have what you want but at .25 cents a lbs its the cheapest buy far.

we have 2 metal supply shops 2 towns over.. 1 is a 25m drive, the other is 35m.. have a scrap metal / surplus shop that is about 35m away as well.. but burried in the middle of an old industrial district.. so takes a bit to navigate too.

the salvage shop has better metal prices by far.. but is the hardest to get to. the closest metal shop gouges you a bit in that if you puy a non standard size, they charge you for the entire piece, plus a price per cut.

thus if you buy, say.. a 4x5 sheet of 1/8.. that starts life as a 4x6 sheet at their shop. you pay the 4x6 cost, plus a cut cost. if you got a 3x5.. you'd pay 2 cut costs. IE.. pay more.. get less.

last time I re skinned a section of loader bucket I ran into that.. I asked if I could have the cut pieces since I paid for them.. NOPE! last time I've dealt with them after that robery.

should have said I wanted the 4x6 piece AND 2 cuts.. theoretically wouldn't have cost any more and would have had 2 leftovers to play with..

that's why lowes metal rack sometiems gets my business, if I just need a piece of cold rolled or a quick piece of angle to finish up a job... pay more.. but is 5m away and convienient.

that one metal shop I mentioned that gouges. you can't get same day service, even on in stock metal. you walk in, pay, fill out a cutting ticket, then are given a time the next day it will be ready.. even if you ar ethe only customer and all the shop guys are standing around the door smoking

the salvage people will walk right out with 'salvage sized' blow torch with a 100' lead and light it off their cigar and cut stuff as you point at it. measur eit up and load it for you while you pay.

I TRY to use them when I can..

soundguy

 

[deereman75]

When I went to metal supermarket to get the top for my welding table, I needed a 24x36 piece of 1/4 inch plate. Since they only sell in 4 foot widths, I had to pay for 24x48. They cut it to the size I needed for free, and I got both pieces. I could see paying a little for cuts, but not paying for a whole sheet, and only getting part.

 

[Kernopelli]

I buy my metal exclusively at the salvage (junk) yard and at auction. The salvage yard sells most of it by the pound although they do have racks of stuff they sell by the ft. and sq. ft. too. Seems almost every auction I go to has some metal stock. Look for auctions that list metal working tools/machinery and you can bet they are going to sell some lots of misc. metal that go cheap.

 

[bearcreek paul]

If I can I buy it at the junk yard.It all depends though on your scrap dealer.My dealer is great just tell him what you want and he'll point you in the right direction.

 

[IMCA38]

Back in the day, we used to have a scrap yard that would let you roam their lot and peel stuff out for $.10 a pound.
I got a couple of large pieces of plate, and a slug of channel that came from some pallet racking for cheap. Some of that is now my welding table.
Unfortunately, that place has since changed hands and they don't let you do that anymore.

I have my best luck with a local metal fab/ supply place who puts their end drops on a rack by the back door and sells them for a somewhat arbitrary price. Whenever I'm in the area, I stop by and try to get some things that I think will eventually be useful. For example, I stopped by yesterday and got the following
10 pc of 1 1/4" x 1/8" square tubing, appx 25" long- $5.00
8 pc of 2" x 1/4" angle, appx 20" long - $5.00
6 pc of 1" x 1/8" square tubing, appx 28" long - $5.00
and 1 pc 3 1/2" x 1/4" pipe, appx 22" long- $3.00
They also had a large I beam, probably 8 or 10", between 5-6' long for $15
I immediately thought of a landscape pulverizer when I saw that, but I don't need one.

This place will also sell full sticks of whatever you need or if you ask, they sometimes have partials that they will sell, but of course, these are more expensive than the drop pile.

Also, I've had good luck picking up odds and ends at farm and acreage auctions.

I just keep a stash around and can usually make do with what I happen to have in the stash.

 

[JB4310]

I just keep a stash around and can usually make do with what I happen to have in the stash.

That is an awesome little stock rack, pretty well stocked too.

I have alot of metal, One thing I've noticed is the old steel seems to be so much better than the new stuff. any time I can grab a piece of old stock I will.

The scrap yard near me is right in the middle of an industrial area that is seeing many manufactures closing. They close up a tool room and bring it all to the junk yard. There it lies, gorgeous pieces of stock that would cost a small fortune if bought new, for sale by the pound at pennys on the dollar.

JB

 

[charlz]

I have a place that used to be a Metal Supermarket but got tired of the corporate BS and became their own company. As part of the non-compete he had to move shops and moved it all way across town which sucks because it used to be about 3 miles from work.

I have passed up a lot of cheap steel at farm auctions etc but now that I have a lathe and a mill I won't be doing that anymore. I have gotten an occasional good deal on angle, plate etc via Craigslist. Of course there are always people thinking that rusted pile of misc steel is worth more than new steel prices but then you find that guy who just wants to get some stuff out of the way.