It's time to aquire metals. What do I want?

Just a guess but 12L14 and 1144 are considered good machinable steels. Maybe so not common in these other shapes because it is assumed they will be turned on a lathe, so square / rectangular would not be very popular.

Online metals has a resources section that provides material uses / properties. They show 1144 as round bar only and 12L14 as round or hex bar only. They do list 11L17 as a good machinable steel, and they only stock it in rectangular bars.

Whether you buy from them or not Online metals does have a useful "learning center" with links at the bottom of their page. I have found their product guide a handy tool for metal selection.

Online Metals product guide
 
Thanks for the resource! Looks like 11L17 is pricey but a bigger concern was their note about it being used in situations where case hardening "is needed", something I'd probably never do. Maybe I should just get some 1018 and be done with it. I'm just thinking of making small stuff that need to be stronger than aluminum.
 
If you haven't already ordered the 1018, have a look at eBay for 1144 round bar: there's lots there and prices are OK. 1144
is much nicer to machine than 1018, with good surface finish.
 
Nogoingback said:
If you haven't already ordered the 1018, have a look at eBay for 1144 round bar: there's lots there and prices are OK. 1144
is much nicer to machine than 1018, with good surface finish.
Click to expand...

He wants rectangular bars, not round.
 
Everybody covered al the "normal" types of metals. If you want to make chips, small projects and still have a wallet, visit the junkyards, town dump or recycling center and yard sales and auctions. Road side dumps are great too. You will be surprised at what people throw away. a 2" X 12" diameter mystery steel round. Solid steel bars. Flat plates and chunks. You can go to an estate auction and get whole piles of metal for a dollar. Just made a spare tire rack and ramps holding rack for a utility trailer out of bed frames. Three visits to the country recycling center turning in plastic and cardboard and it didn't cost me a cent.

When you make a real, live, honest to God project, buy twice the metal of what you need. If you make a mistake, you have spare and if you don't, you are on your way to having what you need for future projects. Once you get started, it gets easier.

Good luck!!! Been there-done that!!!!
 
ErichKeane said:
For plastic, Delrin and HPDE are both really great metals. ...
Click to expand...
I'm not sure how many times I've read through this thread, and only just now did my brain catch and hiccup on reading this sentence. "For plastic ... are both really great metals." Pretty sure you meant to write "materials", but I love this oops the way it is. <3
 
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