by KCStudly » Sun Jan 31, 2016 5:35 pm
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.
KC
My Build:
The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie
Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
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