Where do you get practice scrap cheap?

ThinWoodsman said:
...A hundred if you include brass and some drill rod?
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Thank you, that looks like some nice selections! However, I don't see drill rod value packs under the Tool Steel category (or anywhere else); did you find some that I'm missing?
 
Hmm, you know I thought I saw it there, but I must have been thinking of the one on hobby metal kits. Looks like onlinemetals doesn't have any of the expensive stuff (titanium!) in value packs. They do have a plastic protobox though, I may have to get one of those.
 
I found a local machine shop through CL that is selling their drops. I have been in a couple of times now and the price is always $30 no matter what I get. Today I picked up a 1 1/4 square bar by 18" long of 1018 and two 1 1/2 round bars by 18" long of 1045. He always asks what I am making. I have never weighted the stuff. My guess is that I am paying under $0.50 per pound.
 
Here's another one I more or less chanced upon: Grainger: Raw Materials.

Of course, Grainger isn't cheap, but if you limit it to Clearance Items (see "Shop By" on the lower left) and opt for pickup instead of shipping, you can sometimes get a pretty good deal.
 
Go to onlinemetals.com, get some 6061 and 1144, easy to machine and cheap in 4' lengths. I think they give $15 off shipping for new customers

For brass, look on Craigslist for fireplace tool sets

Also, dumbell and barbell 1" round bars

Those 12" and larger PVC sewer pipes the city throws out are useful too, cut with a hole saw and mill to shape - good for gears, knobs, spacers etc
 
I don't want to derail the original question, but I think this is related. Can one get any meaningful practice by milling wood? I always have a lot of scrap around and had an idea I might lay out my cuts on scrap wood before I started on metal.
 
Hardwood is best but it's so easy to cut it will not be a valid indicator of the rigidity of the setup. I've used wood for arbors, plug gauges, handles, threaded knobs, pulleys, index wheels etc.
 
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search for machine shops in your area, look for small"manual"shops . drop in around lunch time so you done interupt work and ask the guy sitting in his tool boxeating lunch what they do with their scrap and drops. it your a nice guy and he's a nice guy, you will have all the scrap to practice with for free or almost
. I "bought" almost 1k lbs of 12L14 chunks that way for 100$. the owner said he had it for sale out back so I picked out a 4" cube and ask the price he said 100$ I said thats a lot for a small chunk and he said its some or all same price! he wanted it gone.
 
Here’s a lot of brass I got today. Came from a 8” cast iron gate valve that broke from freezing. 1” acme thread shaft about 2’ long solid brass, good thing is I have the nut too which is in the chunk on top shaft. Gotta be 30-40 lbs. Along With some sealing flanges of the same brass. Got some nice pieces of cast to but no pics. 290934
 
Got a printer donated to me :D

A couple of stainless rods, they look ground! Lots of little plastic gears! If only I could find a use for them!
 
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