Where do you get your welding stock?

[lrrowe]

Soon I will be buying my first batches of steel; some channels, some round stock and some plate/sheet. I am asking my local welding friends where they get their raw stock and have a few answers. One of them is going to get with me so I can tack some pieces on his minimum $150 order (for low cost delivery). I will just pick some of this and some of that to build up some stock.

I have noticed on many photos here that the OP's have various batches laying around in the background. Where do our welders here like to get their material?
I am not asking specific city, address locations because that will not work here with all of us being scattered around the country (and outside too). What I mean is do you go to large steel distributors as a little guy, scrap yards, auctions such as farm estates, etc and so forth. It will be interesting to me, an newbie to welding, to understand the various options generally open to me.

[KCStudly]

Usually it's the local steel supplier. They'll sell any quantity to walk-ins or call ahead. It used to be that it was cheaper to buy a whole stick or sheet, than it was to pay the cutting fee(s) since they would sometimes charge for the whole piece anyway, so you get into the habit of asking for the drop, as well; but now they seem to have better control over their inventory and even account for their drops, so if you are flexible they can sometimes sell you a piece that is close enough to what you want w/o buying more than you need... if you ask them what is available. It all depends on the project and what material is involved. If you are looking for common sizes and shapes just buy whole sticks; they're not that expensive and are handy to have around.

Scrap yards can have clean mill run stock in inventory. After an industrial company goes out of business they auction off all of the tooling, equipment and stock inventory. Scrap dealers go to these auctions and will scoop up whatever they can for pennies on the pound, well below even scrap rates. A lot of these businesses have plenty of material stock on hand for fabricating and facility needs, so the scrap dealers end up with good clean stock, not just old junk. You might not always be able to find the shape or size you would use if designing and building to a specific need, but for the more common sizes and shapes you just might get what you want or at least something that can be made to work.

You can go to equipment auctions yourself and try to buy the same stock lots yourself, and you might get lucky and find a deal on a whole rack of stock, and be able to stock up your shop, but more likely you will end up having to take the good with the bad, which can be more hassle than it is worth. You are just as likely to be out bid by the guy selling stuff out piece part on e-bay (sometimes they seem to pay more than new prices for junk)... or by that very same scrap dealer.

Lastly, whenever you buy material for a project, you will usually buy 10 to 15/ct more than what you need, either because your cutting schedule doesn't fit full lengths or just "incase-ya" screw up. It is cheaper to buy a little extra than it is to make a second trip to get more, so over time you will build up an inventory of commonly used material. The trick is to scale what you keep as drops to the size and needs of your shop. If you are a hobbyist with small needs and little space there might be value in keeping small drops regardless of size. For a larger shop with more turnover that is constantly accumulating small pieces of scrap, it becomes harder to store and retrieve all of the little odd bits in an organized fashion. At this level a good rule of thumb is to scrap most everything under 6 inches in length, or even longer; and keep that on a separate "shorts" shelf so as not to clutter up your main stock rack. If you need a smaller piece you can pick something out of the constantly rotating scrap bin, or cut it from your vast and growing stockpile w/o getting buried in a twisted pile of interlocked junk. If you are a prolific wood worker you already know what I mean.

[halfdome, Danny]

I get my steel from the local steel supplier and sometimes a stick or two from http://metalsupermarkets.com/.
They have a store in your state.
1728 Arlington Road
Richmond, Virginia, 23230
Phone: 804-977-0577

Danny

[lrrowe]

Thanks alot KC.
This is good info and close to what I was thinking so it is helpful to have reassurance.
And yes, after working with wood, I do know what you mean about the small pieces. I save them and do end up going to the bin quite often.

[MtnDon]

1. I have a steel wholesaler that will sell anything they stock to any walk ins. That is if you will buy a minimum of a 10 foot length. Steel comes in 20 foot lengths. They will sell a half length as a minimum of any size in stock. Cheapest steel in town by far. They also will cut lengths for something like 50 cents a cut, but not to precision lengths. There is a second wholesaler but they are further away and I don't bother with them.

I don't mind buying most steel in 10 foot minimum lengths. Left over pieces seem to spawn other projects. Although I do have one 40" length of 2x6 x 3/16 wall steel tube I've been tripping over for 15 years....

2. Metalsupermarkets.com have a local store. I use them as a number two supplier. The local stock is good and they also sell other metals. They will sell any length you want, as long as they have it in stock. Somewhat higher in cost on a per foot / pound basis.

3. Lowe's, Home depot have limited stock in common angle, flat, rod and tube styles. Cost per foot is highest of all.


I've never found any local scrap that was not rusty or was not painted.


I save all the cutoffs but sell off what I don't want to keep as clutter every couple years or so.

[Dale M.]

Generally a "steel sales" warehouse.... Look in phone book.... Usually steel is sold by the pound and a full length is priced cheaper than a "cut" length (cutting charge).... Local place (here) will cut a 20 foot in half for free so you can transport it easier....

"Steel sales" warehouse will have best pricing over places like hardware stores and big box stores..... Generally the 4 ft cut length available at these retail stores are about 4X what the cost is at "metal sales"...

Most places I deal with do not have "minimum purchase" quotas....

I'm kind of a metal snob and like new clean steel to work with unless its yard art and rust is going to happen anyway....

Dale