What Did You Buy Today?

[dkemppai]

...some of this stuff I only needed 2’ of the material… Oh, and some of it I buy it CF instead of Hot Roll (that is less expensive)….

(Me: sitting quietly in the background, with a knowing chuckle, softly escaping my lips...)

This is my garage floor right now...these are 20 footers. Some (a lot actually), I only need a foot or two...
(But whole, they're cheaper than what they charge to cut it...)

 

[rabler]

What happens to a newbie buying material? So, all exited, I went to the local Alro Metals outlet…

...

What a dumbass… for some of this stuff I only needed 2’ of the material… Oh, and some of it I buy it CF instead of Hot Roll (that is less expensive)….

I buy a lot of stuff in 20' or 24' sticks. It eventually gets used up. And it is awfully nice to be able to do a lot of things based on material in hand. It does mean I have a 3' x 14' area that is taken up by a stock rack and cutoffs bin. My general rule of thumb is if I need more than 3' of something, I'll price getting a whole stick. For small orders I'll pick it up, over about $500 they're happy to deliver. I'm only a few miles away from a major auto plant so they are delivering there frequently.

 

[NCjeeper]

You going to drill a hole with that, or club someone to death with it??? lol

I have options.

 

[ChazzC]

Came the other day but tried today . . .

Was countersinking some 1/8” holes in 13 ga (0.082”) normalized 4130 for my latest project but discovered I had a gap in my collection of KEO countersinks so I used a 3/8” 90 degree spotting drill, no big deal. Then, while perusing Amazon I was presented with these:



The carbide round over bits I got a year ago worked great on Aluminum, so at $10 I figured, “why not give them a try?”



Used the 5/16” bit at half the recommended speed for drilling and fed gently but firmly and got nice results.

Don’t worry, I’ll still get the “missing” KEO bits, but won’t be afraid to use these when needed.

 

[7milesup]

There were a few auctions this week in the Twin Cities. I was bidding on a 7x12 metal bandsaw similar to this one. I had set my max bid in the upper $600's. It sold for a little over $1000. After adding in auction fees, whoever bought it could have bought a brand new one from Northern Tool. Some people...
However, I did score some raw stock. The long pieces are 1018, ranging from 2" down to 5/8". There are also three pieces of hex in there that are either 1/2" or 5/8". I paid $100 for that lot.
The shorter material is all 12L14 with sizes ranging from 3-1/8" and down. There are a number of hex and square pieces in there, too. I was pretty excited that I got that lot for $140. Apparently, there are over 800 lbs of short stock sitting there because my Kubota had to grunt to get that pallet out.

EDIT: I was bidding on another lot that had 4140 in it, but it also had stainless (17-4). One of the stainless pieces was 3" x 144" and weighed 300 lbs. I had no idea how I was going to move that out from the auction place or what I would do with it once I got it home, so I had to let that lot go

 

[wachuko]

Please post your thoughts on it. I might be interested in something like that for an upcoming project.

It is a cutie of a tool...




Came with two types of cutters, straight and round angle...

It has depth adjustment. Nice. I need to play with that since the first test took out a chuck of the edge.

You must wear a face shield, apron, whatever protection you have . This tool sends chips everywhere.... took some getting used to holding it as it wants to run away from you if you do climb cutting vs conventional... I would suggest even wearing hearing protection. Both for the noise this little tool makes, and to protect from flying debris...

Anyway, I like it! Will adjust it so that it cuts a very small/minimal chamfer...

Here, take a look at my first cuts. This is just holding the small piece in my hand and doing one pass on each face with the tool... the irregularities you see are my mistakes on how I did the passes... just one pass on each face.... I should have done a pass all around to even everything out...

Before:



After:

 

[alloy]

Garage sale at the end of my street. The only guy thing there was these. I picked up the baggie with the extensions in it and the guy said $5 for everything. I couldn't turn it down.

A most of it is china junk but there are a number of craftsman and proto and SK mixed in. I figure I can use a lot of it to put in a small tool box to keep in the back of the nova and the 55.

My wife told me about this sale, when will she learn not to do that

 

[rabler]

There were a few auctions this week in the Twin Cities.

Nice haul. Was that an online auction or did you go see the stuff in person? For some dumb reason, I have trouble getting a feel for stock quantity when looking at pictures vs. seeing it in person.

 

[great white]

Garage sale at the end of my street. The only guy thing there was these. I picked up the baggie with the extensions in it and the guy said $5 for everything. I couldn't turn it down.

A most of it is china junk but there are a number of craftsman and proto and SK mixed in. I figure I can use a lot of it to put in a small tool box to keep in the back of the nova and the 55.

My wife told me about this sale, when will she learn not to do that

View attachment 459970

I actually don’t mind having some cheap China stuff around. I’ve always got some hanging around, but separated out from my good stuff.

I can cut, grind and weld it into a special tool when I need one and not feel bad about cutting up a quality tool.

What I mostly find myself doing is grinding wrenches to fit small spaces or making a thin wall socket. Doesn’t matter if they only work once and then fail as it was essentially junk anyways.

 

[alloy]

I actually don’t mind having some cheap China stuff around. I’ve always got some hanging around, but separated out from my good stuff.

I can cut, grind and weld it into a special tool when I need one and not feel bad about cutting up a quality tool.

What I mostly find myself doing is grinding wrenches to fit small spaces or making a thin wall socket. Doesn’t matter if they only work once and then fail as it was essentially junk anyways.

Yeah I was thinking about seeing if there is a 9/16" wrench in there and making up a distributor wrench. I worked on a big block chevy awhile back and had to pull a valve cover off to loosen the distributor hold down. The wrenches I've had in the past were pretty flimsy. and I think I can cobble up a decent one.