Finding Hollow Bar Stock

[Japazo]

Hey everyone,

Ive been browsing the web for hours now trying to find a good supplier of thick walled hollow bar stock. They must be U.S. based or have a facility in the U.S. I am looking for aluminum as well as carbon and alloy steels.

An example of something I would like to find a supplier for:

4.5"OD 12L14 leaded steel, with an inside diameter of 2" or smaller.
or
3.25"OD 6061 aluminum, with an inside diameter of 1.5" or smaller.

Does anyone know of a good supplier of materials like this in the U.S.? I found a handful of companies in the U.K. that supply literally thousands of products like this. Does America not see the benefit of hollow bar stock extrusions or am I not looking in the right places??

Any suppliers that anyone can list would help. Those located in the southwest (Arizona) would be even better. Thanks for the help, hopefully someone has some clues!

[txcncman]

Well, your terminology may be a bit off. I think you are referring to tubing. Tubing dimensions are called out by either OD/ID sizes or OD/wall thickness sizes. Try Trident and E.M. Jorganson. Or call your normal material supplier and have them quote your needs.

[fizzissist]

You may find that it's cheaper to drill/bore raw solid bar stock than buy hollow/extruded bar...which you'll usually have to finish bore anyway.

[Japazo]

Well, your terminology may be a bit off. I think you are referring to tubing. Tubing dimensions are called out by either OD/ID sizes or OD/wall thickness sizes. Try Trident and E.M. Jorganson. Or call your normal material supplier and have them quote your needs.

Tubing is not an inaccurate term, but it generally refers to predetermined sizes according to industry standards. Hollow bar stock is used to specify a more non-standard set of products. I have asked a few of my usual suppliers and, while they do offer a few non-standard sizes, they typically do not carry anything as drastic as I explained previously.

What I find odd is that I can find numerous companies in the U.K. that offer exactly what I am looking for. They advertise "thousands" of different shapes and sizes. I can't seem to find anyone here in the U.S. that openly advertises materials like this.

@Fizzissist:
Yeah...that is what I am currently doing. I know for a fact that a local competitor is getting aluminum bar stock with the dimensions I listed above. As such, one of my customers is using him for most of his lathe jobs since he doesn't have to deep-drill and then bore his parts, probably cutting the machining time in half.

Anyway...I'll keep looking! Thanks.

[surfit]

Try http://www.tubeservice.com/ or send out barstock and have it gun drilled I use this company

Thompson_Gundrilling