where to find metal for learning stick welding?

[yomax4]

Most smaller fab shops, Muffler or body shops will sell you drop and scrap out of the recycle dumpster for pennies per#. Once you get to know them and you need tubing, expanded metal or plate, They may let you order to ship in with their steel delivery. Ofen even get their cost. That's how I get stuff I have to buy. Other than that, Steel centers often have a drop shop where they sell smaller pieces. Good Luck !!

 

[geblackwell]

When I was in college they handed us a piece of 1/4 x 1 1/2 x10 Inch angle iron. You started at the v in the bottom of the angle. Instructions where to keep welding until you filled the entire angle. When that was complete they assumed you could run a bead and then gave you pieces to weld together to test for strength.

 

[4570Man]

Seaton enterprise in Athens TN which is about 50 miles from you. One warning. Leave your credit card at home and only take the cash you can afford to spend.

 

[newbury]

Just leave galvanized alone!

 

[Big Barn]

One warning. Leave your credit card at home and only take the cash you can afford to spend.

This is probably good advice in general.

 

[Jstpssng]

I pick a fair amount of scrap metal up off the side of the road where it's fallen off from someone's vehicle or trailer.
Call me cheap but if it looks like something I can use, or heavy enough to throw in the scrap pile I'll stop. I would avoid bed rails and leaf springs though, as they can be difficult to weld.

 

[Fallon]

Just leave galvanized alone!

Google zinc fever... You'll get a bit paranoid about making sure you don't have any galvanizing near that weld. I tigged some at one point, no health issues (lucky breeze I think). But it goobered up my tig torch with splatter though. Cup & screen got plugged up.

I got a box of 4"x4" coupons in various thicknesses from a local fab shop, maybe 50lbs of steel. Not particularly square, but what I needed. I don't remember if it was free or a few bucks, but if the charged me it wasn't much. Mystery metal & dumpster diving can be good, but you may not know why things are behaving differently. Different alloys, contamination & corrosion can be problematic, or at least different enough to cause issues..

 

[PJSprog]

I work for a metal fabricator (tube fabrication). You wouldn't believe the amount of scrap we throw away every day. Hundreds of pounds, every day. Find a metal fab shop near you and ask them if you can pick through their discarded scrap. It's not likely any of them will tell you no, especially if you just want a few pieces here and there for welding practice.

Google search

 

[dragoneggs]

I work for a metal fabricator (tube fabrication). You wouldn't believe the amount of scrap we throw away every day. Hundreds of pounds, every day. Find a metal fab shop near you and ask them if you can pick through their discarded scrap. It's not likely any of them will tell you no, especially if you just want a few pieces here and there for welding practice.

Around here, the fabricators haul or have haulers sell the scrap to metal recyclers.

 

[PJSprog]

Around here, the fabricators haul or have haulers sell the scrap to metal recyclers.

We do that, too. However, I doubt they would decline a request for a few pieces. We don't. I asked my boss the same thing when I started learning, and he said, "Sure, take whatever you need. We get requests like that all the time from complete strangers." Frankly, there's not much profit from recycling mild steel. The cost of most of that scrap (offall) is already figured into the jobs, so it's not like the company is losing money by giving away a few pieces here and there.