Is there a good place in Plano / Richardson town to get my hands on some aluminum off cuts? I need some 6" dia aluminum rod and my inner cheapskate is having trouble spending $175 on 12" when i only need maybe 25% of that.
You can go to Metals Supermarkets in Plano. Sometimes they have cut-offs, but they aren’t a reduced price. They will just sell you the size that’s in the rack, at whatever the price/volume is.
However, they will cut to any size you want and sell you just that piece. They charged me $2 per cut, but that cut price might be dependent upon the size of the piece being cut.
If you go to their website, select Plano as the store, they will give you a quote without having to drive over there.
I was looking at them, but they dont have any aluminum that big right now, they only carry up to 4" on the shelf.
Does it have to be round? I might have some 6" square stock running around somewhere.
I suppose as long as i can chuck it up in the lathe it can be whatever shape.
I have two pieces of aluminum near that size.
5.023 x 5.250 x 9.500
5.648 x 5.250 x 9.500
The largest round stock you can make will be just over 5" in diameter by 9.5"
I don’t know what the application is, so will this work for you?
Its close, but my finished diameter is 150mm (5.9"). im making hub centric wheel spacers so i can mount my new wheels to my car. LEXUS-SPACER.pdf (121.0 KB)
Metals4You the last time I was down there had some drops about that size.
How thick? Buy plate and cut circles, will be cheaper and easier to obtain. 1 sf will make at least 5.9" rounds. Round Alum stock in 150mm isn’t going to be common or cheap.
Maybe ill give them a call then.
I was looking for 6" since its super close.
Remember, you need some stock to take off. I know we have plenty of skilled people around that .100 would be a country mile left to work with. I would cut the diameter a little bigger. You can always take away materials, more difficult to add.
As another weird thought, call (Doug) at CDC Surplus. You can never tell what he might happen to have sitting around.
I was thinking about heading there after work today just to see what hes got.
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