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Sourcing Metal | General Discussion

At my last job, I traveled extensively in AB SK and MB.

I recommend you wear Safety Glasses and Safety vest or hoodie with the stripes.
Makes you look respectful of their safety program (I happened to always have mine on for work, so they weren't shiny new either)

The only yards I found where to walk through and but were:

Brooks Industrial Metal, Brooks AB Lots of oil field and farm, plus trimmings from their punches etc.

Silver Star Salvage and Recycling, Moose Jaw SK (In town) Small yard, stuff turns over fast. I actually bought a leg vice there for $15.00 4 years ago.

Large yard East of Moose Jaw on HWY1, was part of Silver Star at one time. Lots of Farm Machinery and Railroad stuff. I usually just stopped in and asked permission. If they are loading at the back of the yard, you can scope a lot out on the way back to ask.....Thus the safety gear...

Hub City Iron and Metal, Saskatoon, SK Lots of Stainless when I was there (tanks, piping, tubing). Have a separate yard for people to walk through, and will cut stuff in big yard when not busy.

CMS Metal Products, Regina SK. Will let you wander in the small yard by the building, not allowed in yard across the street.

There may be a couple in Nisku/Edmonton area, I just called because I was looking for something specific.

Not ideal for Calgarians, but like I said, never found anywhere else that would even let you in the yard, unless you were unloading.
 
Hey guys if you need Steel in Calgary I'd like to recommend Steel Inc. It's just a local guy, Dylan, who bought the place. He has a wide selection of hot rolled steel and also aluminium. He has plate too. He will sell in shorter lengths and does cutting. I just bought 1/2" by 10" flat bar steel and he cut 5' into three 20" lengths for me no extra charge. Dylan is a little more than federal but much better than metal supermarket. He also orders stuff in - I ordered some 1" by 2" solid 6061 aluminium for a project. It's all stored indoors so it's clean.

Dylan is open on SATURDAY!

I'm sure it's rough right now for him. Let's keep this guy going and consider him next time you need some material.

He has a page on facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Shopping---Retail/Steel-Inc-Calgary-107853583985076/

Bay #30- 3260, 46 Ave. S.E.
Calgary, Alberta 237
(587) 349-4766

And yes I'm giving him a plug.
 
AFAIK James did sell. I only got some steel from them right after opening. James was a wonderful guy I met back when he worked at federal.
 
AFAIK James did sell. I only got some steel from them right after opening. James was a wonderful guy I met back when he worked at federal.
Ahhh.... if anyone has an email or contact info for him, I'd appreciate if you'd pass it on.
 
James failed to renew the domain, so the website is gone. I recommended to Dylan to make a new one as many people aren't on FB.
 
Hey you guys :) I’m curious if anyone knows off by heart where to find small square tubing - 1” or less. Thickness doesn’t matter much but the lighter the better.
Lengths don’t matter, as my big brother and I both will be using it for a variety of projects (shelving, light simple furniture etc)
Being in Rocky, I haven’t found anywhere local or in Red Deer yet.. but open to making a trip to Calgary if it exists down there! Lol. Gonna end up needing upwards of 80’ of it
Thanks :D
Elise
 
I've bought hundreds of feet of 1/2" 1/16 wall from MetalSuper Markets, as well as 3/4" and 1". I'm sure it's cheaper at other places in Calgary. You can pre-order and they have it ready for you.

Doesn't Premier carry rect tubing in RD?
 
Hey you guys :) I’m curious if anyone knows off by heart where to find small square tubing - 1” or less. Thickness doesn’t matter much but the lighter the better.
Lengths don’t matter, as my big brother and I both will be using it for a variety of projects (shelving, light simple furniture etc)
Being in Rocky, I haven’t found anywhere local or in Red Deer yet.. but open to making a trip to Calgary if it exists down there! Lol. Gonna end up needing upwards of 80’ of it
Thanks :D
Elise
You can get it at steel Inc or federal, in something like 065 wall it's super cheap, although not strong really. I've got some I could probably sell you if you're having a hard time getting it.. 1x1x065 I think
 
Price at MS in Calgary is so high I expect it cheaper to buy ready made furniture then make it. Rectangular pipe is available at Federal Metals in Calgary. Expect to pay around $3 for kg for thin walled stuff. A bit less per kg for thicker stuff.
 
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Price at MS in Calgary is so high I expect it cheaper to buy ready made furniture then make it. Rectangular pipe is available at Federal Metals in Calgary. Expect to pay around $3 for lbs for thin walled stuff. A bit less per lbs for thicker stuff.
Cheaper still to buy the house and just ask them to throw the furniture in.
 
It does happen - when you buy a house you can be asked about furniture - it can be a bargaining chip. For my house in ON I just said it was not mine but my parents.

Back before the days I had almost unlimited steel supply I run into having to source steel - prices for items at MS were prohibitive as far as cost - it usually was simply cheaper to buy ready made thing then buy steel to make it (!). Go price steel for back plate for say 8 in chuck. You can get one made in China for around 130 CAD or so at your door - with pins. Now same stuff at MS Calgary (I used 3.5" bar as they don't have online price for 8" & went with weight) is 110.

MS pricing model is a bit complex and not straight forward - so maybe for 80' of thin walled pipe you can get a good price - I got $167 in Calgary for 80 ft of 0.1 1" square. Given this is around 100 lbs that price would be good - at just 1.67 CAD per lbs - probably a bit more then Federal but not usual 2x. Given that MS can cut to your size etc. for someone like CalgaryPT extra expense of say 10% for extra service is a great deal - this is not the case for many people when buying solid bar of steel for 300% markup at MS.
 
Both Federal metals and Steel inc have hot rolled tubing. Federal used to have a page listing their products, dimensions, weights and prices but that has disappeared. Steel Inc has a Facebook page where you can at least see some of their product. Best that you figure out what you want and then contact them.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions - I bought a few “sample” chunks of tubing from peavey mart today (1/2”, 3/4” & 1”, ranging between 3’-6’) to play with so we know exactly what we want before making a big order.
I’ll look into the options you guys suggested and let you know what I discover :)
 
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