Price of cast iron?

Masterjuggler

Masterjuggler

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Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but I can't for the life of me find cast iron bar stock in small quantities for a reasonable price. I see mcmaster and msc selling bars of it for hundreds of dollars, but it's practically given out for free in the form of scrapped brake rotors, so the material itself can't be worth its weight in gold. I can't even find it on ebay in bar form at all.

I'm just looking for a few feet of it to make stuff like straight edges and to practice scraping before mangling a machine. Right now my straight edge is a broken off slide of an old bench vice lol. Can someone please point me in the right direction? I'm probably just going about this the wrong way.
 
For raw pig iron, it can be found many places, cheap.

A quick and dirty source for raw pig iron is old houses. Those built before WW2. . . The moveable sash in a window had "counter balance" weights inside the casing. From the inside, at the top of the casing is a small pulley for 1/4 or 5/16 inch rope. That rope attached to the movable sash and a weight in the casing. Those in my house were about 2 inches dia and 14 inches long. The original structure was built around 1887. When the windows were updated, the weights were simply abandoned in place. Often with the rope still attached to the weight. They were called "sash weights". . .

Such weights are not a very good source of cast iron, just round pigs straight from the smelter. What you are looking for is closer to ductile iron or even low grade steels. I have a couple of straight edges but they are simply "ground" rulers made from tool steel. One four feet long from Starrett. The device you describe is more of a bow shape if I understand correctly.

Sorry I can't really help with a source. Just trying to point out that there are many grades of cast iron. Some for stability, some for thermal characteristics, some for other purposes. One may well not be suitable for another purpose. Good luck. . .

.
 
Do you have a metal super market near you?
 
Sash weights ---- not just pig iron, but the tail end of a pour; if metal was still in the pot, they made sash weights, no worry if slag went in it too, the ones that I have tried to deal with were so hard as to be unable to be machined.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

@durableoreo Thanks for the link. They only have longer lengths in a few sizes that make it far over my budget, so if I can't find somewhere else I'll give them a call and see if they can get me cutoffs.

@benmychree I occasionally check ebay for a camel back straight edge, and that would certainly be the ideal for serious straight edge use, but really what I'm looking for is bar stock what I can chop up into whatever I need. Like I've got some precision level vials I'd like to make bases for, or a new mini lathe top slide with tapered gibs.

@Bi11Hudson Casting my own stuff could be interesting. At least for now it's not something I have the means to do.

@NCjeeper Actually there is a metal super market about 15min away from me. Somehow never heard of them. I'll give them a call and see what they can do. Would sure save on shipping lol.
 
eBay has been where I’ve gotten my Dura Bar. It’s tricky and intermittent. Tricky because just putting in cast iron will bring all kinds of garbage up in a search. There have been a couple of semi reliable dealers, one is steeldawg on eBay. But he doesn’t have it all the time. His prices when he has it are the best. And Dura Bar/grey iron etc is the most consistent and easy to machine. For a while he had 3x3 bar chunks and the last one was a 6”x1 1/2” I got for really reasonable price, way less than Online or the other net metal dealers. Steeldawg seems to be part of a foundry or something and sells drops on eBay all the time and is geared to what a hobby guy would be looking for. He seems to be out to make a living, not a killing.
 
Sash weights don’t turn nicely. I’d check online metals or eBay. I’ve found 2-1/2 x 2-1/2 durabar 12” long for a reasonable price. Bought it on eBay but it’s not always for sale there. Also, McMaster has 6” disc round bar by the inch at reasonable price too. Used that to make little tables for a Universal pillar tool I made.

i probably got the same stuff C-bag is talking about. When it was on eBay, definitely good price in my opinion.
 
Well I gave metal super market a call, and despite their website's claims, it seems they don't carry cast iron, save for one warehouse in Wyoming that has a single bar of it in stock. So much for that. I put in a quote on online metals for a shorter section over the phone, and got an email back almost immediately saying they can't sell less than 72".

@C-Bag I have ordered a bunch of 12l14 and some aluminum stuff from steeldawg9061 before, definitely good prices. There's no cast iron on his ebay store now, but I'll send an email to see if he knows when he'll get more. Thanks for the tip on that!

@Tim9 You're right, the round prices aren't too bad on mcmaster. I was looking at the rectangular bar which looks more expensive. I'm only about 40min away from them, so if I don't get it cheaper on ebay I might wait until they offer pickup again. Though it is fun to order in the morning and receive in the evening because they're so close haha.

I can't believe how hard it is to find this stuff considering how much it's used. I love working with it too. I much prefer the powder to stringy aluminum or mild steel chips, though free machining 12l14 is definitely my favorite.
 
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