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Where do you buy metal stock ?


Anderzander

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I tend to buy my bits of metal for fabrication on eBay - but always feel there must be a cheaper option, but if I go to buy from local suppliers or fab shops it seems more expensive. Perhaps because they don’t know me and / or it’s a pain investing any time into low volumes.

Is eBay the answer or am I missing something ? 

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eBay can be great for small bits, it is where I get a lot of it.

For larger sections, sheet steel etc I use metals4u, which seem to have just about everything I have needed. Always been very good, swift delivery and helpful, crucially, their website actually works.

I'm certain it may be more than if I went and got it locally at times, but then I just don't have the spare day time to run around different yards and then find they don't have what I need.

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I've been lucky enough to have a metal supplier a couple of miles from where I work.

There are a couple of down sides to this though such as 
  1) They only sell preferred sizes, e.g. sheets 2mx1m, however, they are happy to cut it in the guillotine. Sometimes they do have off-cuts.
  2) Since they sell really only sell to the trade they open Monday to Friday so weekend visits are out


 

 

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Big stuff I either go to or get delivery from Aalco or ParkerSteel - for small sections you can chop it up in the car park to fit in the boot if you have to, but I also try to just throw extra useful stuff in to bigger orders and get it in one delivery - if the truck is coming anyway you may as well spend the few quid extra for a few lengths of inch box as it is always handy to have in stock and in standard 6m lengths it's dirt cheap.

Little bits / odd sizes I take the hit and buy on eBay, or if I happen to be passing a fabricators or other place that has offcuts/scrap I might enquire about exchanging some beer tokens for a few choice bits from the pile.

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It seems we all have the same issue with this. I used www.themetalstore.co.uk last time which is a competitor of the one fridge mentioned. It did work out more expensive than my local steel supplier but with the major bonus that they did free multiple cuts (90 degree cuts only)

 

That really saved me loads of time plus cutting discs and their bandsaw made a much better job if getting nice clean square cuts than me and a 9 inch grinder

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It is ebay for me these days. The last time I tried to get something from my local supplier it was no cheaper and I really struggle with picking it up during office hours. Also, it is always someone in the north yorkshire who has what you want for some reason. Main thing to look out for is postage; you need to make sure what you pay is reasonable, and that is where the suppliers differ.

Some has a fixed fee, which is bad for small amounts, but others have a sliding scale which is bad for large amounts.

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When I was in Surrey I used The Metal Store who weren't too bad on price at the time. In fact they were cheaper than a local steel company Pyramid Steel on most of what I wanted. But Pyramid Steel did have a nice skip of "offcuts" their offcuts were sometimes 6ft long :blink:. Mind you they mostly built buildings from what I could see so seems reasonable.

I placed a reasonable sized order with Dyfed Steel (2.7 tonnes I think in total) and whilst they were good on price they arsed around with delivery no end but I'll spare that rant.

I'm now lucky enough I can keep proper lengths in stock and sheet material and move them around with the JCB if required. Largely due to the delivery farces with Dyfed Steel I now get most of my stuff from Chris and Andrew at CLH Trailers who are only 10 minutes down the road. In fact just been down today to get roughly 10m of 50x50x3 box for some gates, plus they do a half day on Saturday although that's no longer an issue working for myself.

They'd previously offered to order in anything they didn't keep in stock (they now have up to 25mm sheets and a CNC plasma capable of circa 50mm cuts). I inquired how long it would take to get some 150x150x5mm box (4 lengths) added to their next order, they said oh we'll probably have it in by the end of the week. I didn't realise quite how much steel they munched through - apparently they normally average two steel deliveries a week.

Maybe we're just all friendlier down here in West Wales :SVAgoaway:

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  • 3 weeks later...

FH Brundle are great for a lot of stuff.  Hub-le-bas also for unusual tube sections.

Best bet is to find a local fabrication company - and just ask if you can buy some steel sections from them.  Anyone buying steel in decent quantities gets such a good price that, even with their markup / cutting charge it will feel like an absolute bargain compared to eBay.

Periodically, I've asked my local fabrication company for 1 length of every size / section they have in stock, cut into max 3m lengths.  That gives me enough to improvise just anout anything.  Because the order is of a reasonable size, the cost is surprisingly low.  I did have to build a shed to contain it all though - and use some of it to make the rack.

Si

Steel Shed.jpg

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