Finding Local Suppliers?

mike837go

mike837go

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Anybody have better ideas on locating local suppliers for metal?

There are plenty of online suppliers. Trying to google "metal suppliers" and my zip code turns up anybody that'll ship to my area.

I've been playing and working with various metals for 40+ years. I haven't had the training to know the terminology to place an online order. I wind up with a 20 minute phone call to get the order placed and some clues about the names/specifications of what I wanted.

What I really want is to visit a showroom or warehouse. Various materials on racks and pallets. Touch and heft the stuff. Decide what is (and is not) suitable and put it on a cart. Then pay for it and drive it home. Within the hour start marking it up for cutting...

How does one go about finding such places?
 
I don't know about metal suppliers in your area. Here, in my part Wisconsin they are known as heavy hardware suppliers. There is a showroom with tools, fasteners, tee shirts, sweat bands, etc. and an order counter. You go up counter and place your order. Then you go over to the billing window where you pay for your order. Then you get in your truck and go around to the warehouse where you pick up your order. You buy in length of whatever the metal comes in or full sheets. They will cut it for you for your convenience at $.50 per cut. There are no shopping carts, no wandering through the warehouse (it is an OSHA regulated environment). You better know what you want when you come in. These vendors are doing business with other businesses who buy by the ton. If they will do business with you at all, it is a favor to you.

You may be able to start some kind of a relationship with a local welding, sheet metal, or machine shop. Most shops stock materials and you could perhaps buy cutoffs or drops. You can ask them where they buy their materials as well.

McMaster Carr has a reasonably good selection of materials along with fairly good descriptions of physical properties. Online Metals does as well. As for looking and touching, I am not sure what that will tell you. MatWeb has fairly extensive physical, chemical, and thermal properties for virtually any material you can think of.

Bob
 
There's not too many places you can actually see the metal first in my experience. It's usually in 8 foot or longer lengths so its usually warehoused and pulled when ordered. You could try a local machine shop if there are any near you they may let you buy scrap or something.
 
Thanks! "heavy hardware suppliers" was just obscure enough to weed out most of the national suppliers.

I found 2. Both about an hour away. And about 30 minutes from each other.

One is a surplus dealer. Jackpot!
 
When I moved the dump body from my old truck (1984 Chevy) to the new one (2003 Ford) in 2012, I was able to buy some pre-cut 4x4x1/4" pieces from an "iron gate" maker in the area. Unfortunately, they moved or went out of business. Since supplying chunks of steel wasn't their main business, just getting the few pieces I needed was a bit of a hassle.

This search has been going on for a while. Though the pressure to find the steel to build the rotisserie for the Jag this fall or winter has brought a certain urgency to the process.
 
Crack open the yellow pages and keep checking places out until you find what you're looking for. You may do a lot of running around on wild goose chases, but unless you can find someone else in your area that has already done the legwork, it's your best option.

We've got Klein Steel & Surplus, and SMC Metals here in the Rochester NY area. You can shop through their surplus area for drops, but they don't necessarily have what you need on any given day. I think SMC deals in smaller quantities, and would sell you 2' of something, for example. Klein wants a minimum order of 10'.

My problem is both places are open from 8:30AM to 4:30PM. Well I work from 8AM to 5PM and there is no way I can make it there and back on my lunch hour, so I'm stuck taking a vacation day if I need metal.
 
I guess I am lucky to have a Foundry 4 blocks from my work place to get just about any type and shape of steel I need.
For Aluminum, I have to drive to Kansas City, about an hour away. The place is called Metals By The Foot. They have any size, shape and length of Aluminum or Steel you could ever want. They will cut to size and also have a couple of Bins in the sales area with cutoffs you can pick thru that they sale by the pound. They carry all kinds of measuring tools and consumables for working with metal.
Pretty much a one stop shop.
 
I have this one locally that I like... they have a wholesale warehouse and a retail store. It was like walking into a candy store... :)

http://www.alro.com/locations/locations_oz.aspx

Retail store sells material by the foot (well, I think that it is actually sold by weight but I ordered it by length)... can cut stuff for you... have racks of scrap pieces.
 
Last edited:
wachuko said:
I have this one locally that I like... they have a wholesale warehouse and a retail store. It was like walking into a candy store... :)

http://www.alro.com/locations/locations_oz.aspx

Retail store sells material by the foot (well, I think that it is actually sold by weight but I ordered it by length)... can cut stuff for you... have racks of scrap pieces.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, nothing like that in the hinterlands. The local job shops usually buy from McMaster Carr.
 
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