Sources for Structural Steel

[ChrisJ]

Well I decided to weld a bench for my IH square column mill and incorporate a pan for flood coolant, drawers for tools and a splash guard all around the perimeter for coolant containment.

I found this website for a source of steel which includes prices on their website: Steel source
Unfortunately Utah is not near New Jersey, so I had to search elsewhere. Well, I figure at least I could use their prices as a guide line.

So I called around and could only find one place willing to sell a small order. I guess 400 to 500 lbs is considered small when they typically deal with 10K lb orders, even if I can pick the order up myself and not have it delivered.

I ended up getting charged over twice the price of the above web site's prices, and pretty much had to grin and bear it. Times a wasting and I got to get this mill converted and operational, and mounted on something.

So... for next time, may I ask, does anyone know of some metal supply houses in the New Jersey/Eastern PA area (or south end of NY) which will sell small orders and charge a reasonable markup of 20% or so and not 100+% markup?
Would very much appreciate a response if you know of any locations.

Regards
Chris

[mxtras]

Surely you have a local metals outlet that will sell you material by the stick....

BMG Metals is here in southern VA - I don't know if they are any further North than Richmond, though....google 'em, and good luck. From Richmond to NJ is about a 3 hour drive down 95, right? ....depending on traffic in DC, of course.

Scott

[sbrpollock]

One other thing:

Buy everything in twenty foot lengths.

Not every supplier does this, but I've seen a couple. When you call and only buy ten feet of something, they charge you for the cut AND for the whole twenty foot stick. There is a supplier about twenty miles from me where the price for a ten foot piece of angle iron is the same as the price for a twenty foot piece cut in half!

Keep looking, there has got to be a small supply house not too far away. Find an ornamental iron shop and ask them where they buy their stuff.

[ChrisJ]

I actually did buy the complete lengths (24' for the square tube and 20' for angle and flat bar), and had them cut them in half in order to transport on my full size pickup. It can't cost more than $5 a cut though, can it?
My order was four sections of 2-1/2"square x 0.120"x24'-0", one 20 foot 1-1/2"x1-1/2"x1/8"x20'-0" angle, and one piece of 2-1/2"x1/4"x20'-0" flat bar.
I thought this was a reasonable size order.
I'll keep looking, but I don't think I will ever find a discount metal place in my area like the one I posted in this thread.

Chris

[mxtras]

'Discount' and 'Steel' are no longer synonomous.

Scott

[ChrisJ]

I agree. I was actually referring to the above link's description, "discounted prices". I thought there prices were very reasonable considering how steel prices rose over the last 2 years.

Chris

[ViperTX]

One other thing:

Buy everything in twenty foot lengths.

Not every supplier does this, but I've seen a couple. When you call and only buy ten feet of something, they charge you for the cut AND for the whole twenty foot stick. There is a supplier about twenty miles from me where the price for a ten foot piece of angle iron is the same as the price for a twenty foot piece cut in half!

Keep looking, there has got to be a small supply house not too far away. Find an ornamental iron shop and ask them where they buy their stuff.

I believe that is industry practice. Once a piece is cut from a dimensioned piece it's a cut-off. Plastics industry does the same thing. I always ask what the normal size is and ask for the cut-offs.

[damae]

I'll keep looking, but I don't think I will ever find a discount metal place in my area like the one I posted in this thread.
Chris

Have you considered looking at the scrap/recycling yard? A coworker of mine routinely goes to the scrapyard and hauls out good 'cutoffs' and usable materials. And he's picky too, only DOM (drawn-over-mandrel) will do!

They charge $.30 a pound.

[ChrisJ]

Hi damae,

I have never been the scrap yard kind of guy. I would consider it if I had the spare time to do the searching, but time (spare) is very limited. I don't mind paying the price for new steel, I just don't want to pay twice the going rate because it is a small order.

My only introduction to a metal scrap yard was once. I took off all the old aluminum siding off my house and took it to the yard. Of course some of the siding was lifted by a drive by.
Countless times I found people searching my dumpster for scrap while I was performing a major renovation to my house. May be if they had asked it would of shown some class, however they just dove right in without asking. This left a bad taste in my mouth. Are people that desperate?

Chris