Seen in mrpete222 video #350. Enjoy.
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While I’m all for supporting small businesses, to have them ship something from all the way up in Wisconsin might get a little expensive.
There are plenty of metal supply options in the Dallas area without minimums, such as metalsonline and metals4u. Both are ~20 minutes south of the 'space on 35/635, and allow for will-call pickups. EX:
https://www.metals4uonline.com/steel-flat-bar-1018-cold-1x1-1_4th
We have a list of several local metal suppliers on the DMS Wiki:
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I was excited when I saw their items - small items in easy to use sizes; and a diverse selection. As a test I selected one small piece (1/2" x 1/4" x 6" aluminum, if I remember). I think it was about $2, which was very reasonable. I didn’t want the part but went into the checkout process to see the shipping charge.
$10 for non-expedited, non-priority shipping. Wow! Outrageous. That so grossly outweighs the benefit that I’ll continue to scrounge around locally.
As an aside, I needed a 12" piece of 1/2" x 4" aluminum plate recently and as it turns out the cheapest place was … Grainger! By about 25%. Probably because they have a stock item that was about the size I need, but nevertheless, 25% less is 25% less.
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Oh, right! I forgot about Grainger. 5 minutes north of the space, no less, and they can get things in stock at that branch within a day, usually. I keep forgetting they stock metal and some engineering plastics.
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Grainger does have a narrow selection - but if you get lucky and hit their sweet spot then it can be a good deal.
Metals4U is local (1240 Majesty Dr. in Dallas) and allows local pickup for things bought online. They do charge a modest handling fee.
Most of Grainger’s metal stock is either mostly in the Chicago area or is dropped shipped. At least that’s been my experience over the past 20 years shopping with them. I spend a lot of my company’s money there.
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There’s also metal supermarkets and yes amazon if you can believe just beat out all of them plus granger, metals4u and online metals when I had to get some 2” round brass and bronze that came in yesterday. Not in raw price but in shipping.
I pick up aluminum scrap for 1 dollar a pound .@ Lake June Scrap metal.
Sometimes I find what I am looking for.
11511 Lake June Rd
Balch Springs, TX 75180
An interesting option, not sure on shipping price, but their base prices seem very good and I’ll be giving them a try:
You can do small 1 quantitie piece -> huge quantities and will call all local so no shipping cost
OnlineMetals
Metals4uonline
Metal Supermarket
Calvin,
If you go to Onlinemetals.com and sign up, you can get emails that go give discounts. You usually get one at the beginning of the month that’s worth 15% off all month. Then several times during the moth you often get 20% or 25% discount codes that are good for 3 days. These are great if you know you have future projects you can get a good deal on the metal.
These are the discount codes I frequently post on Talk.
https://classic.onlinemetals.com/emailsubscribe.cfm
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Be advised that Metal Supermarkets are independently owned and operated and prices vary between locations. It is rumored that the Plano location has better pricing, but I can’t confirm that since I’ve only used the Plano location.
I went looking for 1/4" round mild steel for blacksmithing a while back. MetalSupermarkets the Plano location (MS for short) ended up being 7X more expensive than using an architectural metal supplier - namely Wylie Steel. That being said, Wylie Steel’s selection is pretty minimal: mostly round and square rod, round and square tube, and only in the most popular diameters. It also comes in full sticks (typ. 20’-24’). If you just want a couple of feet of material and don’t have storage space, some place like MS will be cheaper.
At Wylie Steel, if it is $X per foot, you pay for the feet you buy and 1/2 of the remaining feet in the stick. For example, if you want two feet of a 20’ stick which costs $5 ($0.25/foot), you page 2*$0.25 + 18/2*$0.25, or $2.75 total. Since you can buy the whole 20 feet for $5, I usually buy whole stick amounts, even if I just need a little.
MS is convenient, but not cheap. FWIW, I still use them: it’s still cheaper than Home Depot, and they have a wider selection of sizes and materials than Wylie Steel does.
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I just bought the following from Xometry Supplies, with free shipping because it’s over $50.
The same (similar, they don’t have 1.5x8 aluminum flat bar) order with shipping would be $130 on online metals:
$60 for custom cuts like that is completely bonkers. Their overall material selection isn’t huge, but boy is that price good.
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I buy a lot at Online Metals because it is only two miles from my home and I go within 3/8 of mile often. So everything I do is Will Call and save on shipping. I’ve bought a lot of proto-boxes of Alum, Copper, or Brass when I can get it with 25% off code. The pieces in there are 10"-12" and 50% off the piece size, then take 25% off that and it works out to 62% off.
For me it works, I get lots of random sizes and shapes. I think I have: 40lbs Copper, 60lbs of Brass, and 20lbs Alum. I really need to start making things and quit getting “good buys”
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