hi all. does anyone have any suggestions on where to buy metals online? i know about mcmaster-carr and onlinemetals.com, but they do not have what i need. i'm looking for some ridgid aluminum tubing, about 7/8" outer diameter.

thanks,
ben

Look in the advertiser section. or click here-
OnLine Metals (http://www.onlinemetals.com/index.cfm?affiliate_id=240)

Try carpenterdirect.com

Ben,

Online Metals has 7/8" Al Tubing in 1/8" wall. I just looked. I know that is not thick wall tube.
I recently purchased some 1 1/4" from them. To be honest the service was only fair; took them a while to send it out and the quality was alright but again not the best.

Chris

yeah, i've been to those two sites. carpenter's doesn't carry tubing, only rods, and onlinemetals only has tubing in 6061 aluminum, which is not ideal for me. this is for a RC helicopter tail boom, so i need a strong/ridgid alloy. 6061 is pretty soft, isn't it?

6061-T6 is labeled as aircraft aluminum.

NO NO don't use CNCadmin's link. Mine is better :)

ONLINE METALS (http://www.onlinemetals.com/index.cfm?affiliate_id=178)

6061-T6 is good aluminum alloy and as mentioned above aircraft quality, 7/8 x .125 wall in a two or 3 foot section would be quite rigid. How long will it need be?

Ken