Material Source for Seat Mounts?

I'd like to get the Elise seats I have in my Miata to sit a little bit lower, so I'm trying to build a new mount for them. But, none of the metal supply places nearby will sell me material, unless I want to buy a 20' piece... 

Any ideas on sourcing some 1/8" thick mild steel? I don't need that much, a 12" x 18" piece would be plenty to make a mount for each side. Aluminum would also work. Home Depot doesn't have anything thick enough and there's nothing promising on Craigslist right now.

mcmaster, ebay, online metal suppliers. 

Look for a metal supermarket in your area. 

Home Depot, Lowe's and Tractor supply all sell small 3', 4'  pieces of mild steel. 1/8" thick might be there depending on what shape you want.

Local welding/ fab shop. They can shear to your dimensions. 11 gauge (0.120" is pretty common). Some may charge per shear tho.

I prefer https://www.metalsdepot.com/ online. 

I'm surprised nobody near you is selling offcuts. I usually go to a commercial steel supplier and ask to root through the offcut pile. Way cheaper than Lowes/HD IME.

buzzboy said:

I'm surprised nobody near you is selling offcuts. I usually go to a commercial steel supplier and ask to root through the offcut pile. Way cheaper than Lowes/HD IME.

This.  Every metal shop around me has a pile of semi-discarded metal in odd sizes and shapes.  They'll let you root through and usually sells you half price, some of them even just go by the pound.

buzzboy said:

I'm surprised nobody near you is selling offcuts. I usually go to a commercial steel supplier and ask to root through the offcut pile. Way cheaper than Lowes/HD IME.

ALRO Metals sells offcuts locally for $0.50/lb.

Yeah, the few local metal supply places seem to not be selling offcuts right now. Not really sure what that's all about. I'm aware of the online options but hoped to find something this weekend. The local hardware store had some stuff that may work, at least for prototyping purposes.

cmcgregor (Forum Supporter) said:

Home Depot doesn't have anything thick enough and there's nothing promising on Craigslist right now.

 Don't know if those dimensions work for you but Home Depot has 1/8" steel flat bars in 3" x 36" and 2" x 72".  They also have angle, C-shape and box section steel in various sizes, and also some aluminum stock.  Look for the Everbilt brand on their website.

Have you tried the recyclers? I usually buy drops at the local large fabrication shop nearby but I've also bought odd pieces of steel and aluminum from the local scrapper. Right now steel scrap is paying hardly anything so if you go in and offer 10 bucks for a piece of steel you can hardly lift they're still making waaaay more than recycling it.

The next time you see a bed frame on the side of the road, pick it up. The are usually good quality steel and make great mounts for all kinds of stuff. 

Beyond that, I also buy cutoffs from a local welding shop if it's common sizes. The last bit of large round stock and thick aluminum plate I bought came from Amazon. 

The steel that Lowes/HD carries in my area (MD/DC) is complete crap, miserable to weld with.  

All of the metal retailers I have been to have a place you can scrounge through called the "Drops".