[INTJGuy]

Had a project today that led me to price a sheet of expanded metal. 76.00 for one sheet, but 138.00 to ship it. I had to say no, and I might try something else later. BUT....

I got to thinking about sourcing raw sheet steel for my plasma cutter. I'm nearing the finish line on my build, so I've only bought small amounts from a local supplier. Soon enough however I'm going to need enough that it would seem prudent to develop a relationship with a bigger supplier. I guess I'd like to hear from you all as to what has worked or not worked when you sourced sheet steel for your machines. In particular if you were buying in medium sized amounts, such as a single machine might consume if being operated as a fulltime business.

Feel free to discuss, but I'd raise the following questions:

Do you get shipments or go to their place to pick it up yourself? If so how much do you get per visit? Minimum orders?

Do you find favorable conditions with a particular type of supplier? IE, someone who handles only limited goods, or the place that has EVERYTHING known to man. What size of supplier?

Do you find it to be beneficial to deal with a semi local place (in the same state) or does it not matter where you order it from as it gets drop shipped from everywhere.

[plasmamatt]

We are a small manufacturer but all of our steel comes from 3 different local/regional steel distributors. One of my best sources here in Illinois is Liebovich. There are many different steel distributors across the country though. Most of them offer a wide variety of different types of steel and other metals. In our case delivery is always included in the price of the steel. They will pretty much deliver any amount of steel but like anything, the pricing will be better the more you buy. Most of our purchases are at least 1000 lbs but I have had steel orders of less than 100 lbs and as high as 15000 lbs.

[whiskeymike]

I buy from two sources, but could go to about 6 locally. One is a "Metal Supermarket" franchisee. They are about a 40 minute drive and I pick up and they will drop off. Depends on how much I need and how busy I am. They don't charge anything for delivery. I like them because they are competitive for price, provide services like cutting/shearing that is reasonable and they are a mom and pop business so they pay more attention to me than the bigger guys. Downside is that they don't stock everything I want and sometimes have to wait a couple days for it to come in from a shipment. I normally wait till I have an order of $500 or above for a delivery. They never asked for it, but I feel guilty otherwise.

Second supplier I buy from is a metal building supply company mostly focused on selling formed sheet metal, beams, supports and fasteners for construction. But I find that they carry a decent selection of sheet, plate, expanded metal, angle, bar and rod at 30% below everyone else in town and they are a couple miles from my shop and most interestingly, open for a half day on saturday which none of the others are. Their selection is much more limited like no cold rolled, so most of my business goes to the other above. They also don't provide any service. I'll slip the guy loading a few bucks to cut angle iron in half with their oa torch so I can get it on my trailer safely where as metal supermarket will have it all cut and packaged ready when I show up.

I think you just need to visit all of the metal suppliers in your area and get a feel for what they offer, how do they operate and how much they will support you. It was intimidating when I started not knowing anything, but if you visit their cuts bins and start to experiment with a few things, you'll start sounding like you know what you are talking about pretty quickly.