where to find metal supplies/materials?

CWCW · Joined: 06 Feb 2012 Posts: 22

I have been buying supplies a little at a time for my smoker trailer project. The first metal materials i was on the hunt for was 2x2x3/16 angle iron. I called two local scrap yards, one didnt seem very confident that he had any used angle iron and i dont believe he carried any new metal, and the other said that they carried both. So i went to the one that carried both. Looked around everywhere in all the scrap metal and couldnt find any angle iron that size that had more than about 3 ft of good condition metal per piece (most was bent all to hell). So i bought from the new metal that they had to offer.

I live 20 min south of Fort Worth, Tx. Am i looking in the right places for metal? I know that it would be nice to find good used angle iron but im just not locating it at the scrap yards. Maybe i just need to frequent those scrap yards more often to be able to get some good used stuff? Or is good used metal just that hard to come by? Where else in the DFW area could i buy metal from besides scrap yards? Or do you know of any scrap yards in the DFW are that have good supplies of used metal? Im really asking because im starting to look for the 1/4 plate steel that i will need for the fire box.

Another question, are new metal prices pretty close from place to place?

SoEzzy · Posted: Tue Feb 21 12 1:08 am Post subject:

http://www.sss-steel.com/contact-us/locations/sss-locations

They sell drops and off cuts cheaper that full length stock.

Prices do vary some, if one place has a "deal" let your fingers do the walking!
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MikeBuiltWhat · Newbie Joined: 25 Nov 2011 Posts: 35

When I lived in the DFW area I would get steel from garland steel. Oh be careful with the word scrap, it's useable material. I got corrected on that more than once.

CWCW · Joined: 06 Feb 2012 Posts: 22

CWCW · Joined: 06 Feb 2012 Posts: 22

SoEzzy · Posted: Wed Feb 22 12 11:18 pm Post subject:

The last time I just called and they said, "come on down and see if we have what you need"!

So I went and instead of finding what I needed in their stock I found it in their, drops and off cuts it ended up costing about $2.00 for the strapping I needed to sort out the new axle setup I was putting on my old trailer, I allotted $25.00 to do the job, the metal cost me the $2.00 and the welding cost 3lbs of pulled pork.
_________________
JM2C, BWTFDIK, YMMV, MDN! Wink

I work here!

X-Roughneck · Posted: Thu Feb 23 12 1:28 am Post subject:

When the price of iron skyrocketed there were people around here using NEW pick-up trucks to colect junk laying around and they all pretty much cleaned it up too.When ever i needed a piece of metal or pipe that i didn't have,I would to run over to any one of my buddies place and go thru their junk.NOT ANYMORE.The junk man has cleaned everybody out and when you go to the scrap yard they treat it llike it's almost NEW steel because of the scrap price.Like SoEzzy said,your best bet would be just go in and ask for drop or cut offs.

CWCW · Joined: 06 Feb 2012 Posts: 22

Cool, thanks for the help. Im gonna try out that place and a few more that i found searching online.