Challenge folk, how do you get cheapo steel?

As part of the truck build, I find myself wanting to rebuild my bed front panel:

Rather than replace it to the tune of $200. To do it, I'll need a round tube about 1 3/4", a piece of angle iron about 2"x3", and a flat sheet (18 ga or thicker) about 4" wide, all around 6 feet long. The metal supply places have this stuff, but it's like $100 in materials alone. How do you guys get this stuff cheaper? I don't have a scrapyard that will let me poke around, and the transfer stations nearby have no appliances sitting around to grab from.

Is a refrigerator skin thick enough?

http://baltimore.craigslist.org/zip/4276812828.html

drive up, pick up what you need, visit VCH, listen to him comment on how he's not jealous as even though your scrap truck was free, it isn't a volvo and a scrap volvo is worth paying for, scrap the rest for gas money.

Scrap appliances or steel cabinets for sheet, bed frames for small angle, old shed type structures or homemade trailers for larger angle, find a scrap yard that will let you buy steel for scrap weight, etc...

captdownshift wrote: http://baltimore.craigslist.org/zip/4276812828.html drive up, pick up what you need, visit VCH, listen to him comment on how he's not jealous as even though your scrap truck was free, it isn't a volvo and a scrap volvo is worth paying for, scrap the rest for gas money.

:-P ~~~

I'm buying those Volvos, berkeley you guys.

Echo the bed frames and old trailers. I've gotten both for free, all it costs is a few cutting wheels and some time. I wish I had a plasma cutter...

Metal drops from your local metal supplier. I've gotten so much stuff that was cut to 7'11", I'm guessing by mistake, and sold for ~10% over scrap value.

I bet you could snag the bed front from a 73-87 truck from the pull-a-part cheap. It would either fit or just need a few mods to fit.

I got this from one of the guys on Team Gutty at the Challenge. They put an ad on Craigslist offering to haul away old appliances for free, then went and picked up a fridge or two to get a supply of sheet steel. Take the remains to your local metal recycler to get a couple of bucks back.

DeadSkunk wrote: I got this from one of the guys on Team Gutty at the Challenge. They put an ad on Craigslist offering to haul away old appliances for free, then went and picked up a fridge or two to get a supply of sheet steel. Take the remains to your local metal recycler to get a couple of bucks back.

I would love to be a scrounger. The main issue is that my pickup truck is what I am working on, so the Leaf doesn't make the perfect scrounger type vehicle, and the van is largely off limits (also, an hour to remove and then reinstall all of the car seats would kind of suck).

Are you sure none on the local scrap metal yards don't sell? I didn't think I had any places around here to buy scrap until I found an ad on Craigslist for aluminum sheets. When I went to get them. It was a scrap yard and they said that basically everything is for sale a few cents above scrap price.

The local steel supplier also has a cheap odds and ends section, but you have to ask them to look there, otherwise they just sell you new stuff.

bgkast wrote: Are you sure none on the local scrap metal yards don't sell? I didn't think I had any places around here to buy scrap until I found an ad on Craigslist for aluminum sheets. When I went to get them. It was a scrap yard and they said that basically everything is for sale a few cents above scrap price. The local steel supplier also has a cheap odds and ends section, but you have to ask them to look there, otherwise they just sell you new stuff.

I didn't have any luck with the few that I've been to, but I have been wrong or missed things before.

Try the skeezy looking places.

If it's at all possible, I greatly prefer working with fresh metal. Salvaging is a HUGE PITA because you'll spend as much time removing coating, trimming material, and getting the good metal from the junk as you do actually making patch panels. Time is money...if you spend 10 hours to save $100, consider what you're valuing your time at (and that's ignoring the frustration, health impacts, etc. of dealing with scrap).

I bought most of the metal for my $2011 N600 at the local steel yard. Steel really is an extremely cheap commodity compared to what you're receiving. If I was working on a common vehicle with patch panels available for a reasonable price, I sure would be tempted to hit the easy button and save the fabrication efforts for areas that don't have readily available patch panels.

Bryce

All the stuff I got was like new at scrap price. 4x8 aluminum sheets for just over $1 per lb from Bob's scrap metals by PIR and about half of my chassis steel from the "outdoor" section at the steel yard off of Columbia Blvd. I recommend both places to Portlandia GRMers.

If you're gonna paint it, you only need to clean the steel you'll actually be welding to. They make Eastwood Rust Converter for the rest. ;-)

Steel is pretty cheap, but a bedframe's worth of non-rusty new steel (and bedframes generally don't get rusty, unless your waterbed leaks!) is probably about $50 from a metals wholesaler. Now, I know $50 may not sound like much to some, but I know it's $TEXAS money to Mr. Tuna. $50 feeds his family for a day.

The bottom rail on my new safari rack is recycled bedframe....works great!

I think that there are probably regulations in some areas that prevent yards that accept metal for recycling from selling it instead. It doesn't make much sense, but I think i've seen similar things locally. ya know, because gub'mint.

See junk around a house, knock on the door, offer to remove for free, actually scrap what you don't use, profit...

In reply to volvoclearinghouse:

$50 is 5 days of the racing budget, or 10% of the cost of scrap volvo, what's the weight of one pre rust? The volvo might bethe answer for him

ultraclyde wrote: I think that there are probably regulations in some areas that prevent yards that accept metal for recycling from selling it instead. It doesn't make much sense, but I think i've seen similar things locally. ya know, because gub'mint.

Do a search for 'Hollow Metal Doors' in your area. When I worked for a door company in SFL, we would just toss the cut-outs (for windows).

captdownshift wrote: In reply to volvoclearinghouse: $50 is 5 days of the racing budget, or 10% of the cost of scrap volvo, what's the weight of one pre rust? The volvo might bethe answer for him

Approximately:

PV544: 2200 lbs

Amazon 2 door: 2400 lbs

Amazon 4 door: 2500 lbs

Amazon wagon: 2700 lbs

put this is the back of said F100 to also sell for scrap. Apparently moving to Baltimore is the thing to do if you want scrap metal, however if your hobby is collecting scrap cars it could be dangerous.

http://baltimore.craigslist.org/zip/4281301548.html

(I kid about the scrap volvos because i'm jealous that my near scrap value car hobby isn't as old, classic and isn't rwd)

Nashco wrote: most of the metal for my $2011 N600 at the local steel yard. Steel really is an extremely cheap commodity compared to what you're receiving. If I was working on a common vehicle with patch panels available for a reasonable price, I sure would be tempted to hit the easy button and save the fabrication efforts for areas that don't have readily available patch panels. Bryce

That car was NICE. Great fabrication to mount the front suspension.

Still, I'd tend towards the scrap fabrication (obviously)

DrBoost wrote: Is a refrigerator skin thick enough?

On a really old one (think 1960's sears GoldStar appliances) yes, but most refrigerators are too thin to use for exterior panels. There's more strength (thickness) in the sides of a modern clothes washer, drier or stove.

Baltimore is a very scrappy town.

Just perusing the CL ads myself there's TONS of scrap steel for sale, cheap. Need any 4 x 7 C channel? ;-)

In reply to volvoclearinghouse:

all of sparrows point, broening highway, and some of the northrop grumman buildins off of 150 by martin state airport. scrapper paradise