Steel prices

what's with steel prices today? I have been searching for 25mm EN1a mild steel round and have seen prices from £9.00 per metre to £36.00 per metre.

Once you add in VAT and carriage the prices tend to get more similar

Where are you looking? Some have always been ridiculous. I generally.use macmodels or m-machine.

As a regular user of M-Machine, their catalogue prices are way off the mark.. Add 50% minimum. now use eBay for most of my purchases.

Dear All,

I use a regular industrial supplier but I buy whole lengths unless I want a lens, eg 200 mm dia 17 mm long. Last Nov I bought a 10' length of 27mm ENIA Pb for £44 + VAT.

In April I bought a lens dia 200 X 17 lg and it was £23 + VAT.

I bought a length of 36 mm hex and thought that it would last the rest of my life but I am using it up quite fast!

John

Like everything else, steel prices have increase and it's worth shopping around to get the best price.

Bunnings is the biggest hardware supplier in Australia and have lots of stores (even planning to open in UK). They have bought out many of the smaller stores and have a monopoly on the market. As a result, their prices are expensive. It may be convenient to buy from them but I prefer to not get ripped-off.

eq. Their price for 25x25x1.6mm gal square tube is $11.12/metre, compared to Edcon Steel (an industrial metal supplier) which is only $4.45/metre.

Paul - I tend to agree re hardware store prices. As result I buy rod/tube in full lengths and fastenings in 'box' lots.

It is cheaper per unit length or number but suspect that my inheritors will be left with a lot of unused stock. A bit of a trade off in terms of what you will use over time vs the material required for a particular job.

At least metal does not go off like glue. Buying larger quantities is cheaper per unit volume but works out more expensive when 90% of it goes hard, unused, in the container!

Pero

In sizes up to 30mm I tend to buy full lengths from a local steel stockholder. Now in my twilight years I wonder if I will ever use some of my stock. My wife wants to downsize soon and she is most likely right to do so, maybe I will have to include steel stock in with the sale of my machinery.

My supplier will cut to a specified length for $4/cut but often there are off-cuts of various lengths which are only charged at the metre rate.

Was horrified, about a year ago to find that a 3 metre blength of 8 nn black steel was going to cost me over £50!

But having to have it had to pay up try to be happy!

Made me realise how fortunate I was to have been able to buy binful of rusty 2 -3' lengths of steel as scrap when I was at work!

At least inside a rusty 1" bar there is a 25mm item waiting to escape!

Howard

Paul, Bunnings have been and gone in the UK a few years ago, they had what turned out to be a disasterous purchase of Homebase stores which lost them many millions, so upped sticks and left. Apparently due to not understanding the UK market, not sure why UK DIY market should be that much different to the Australian one.

Bill D.

Home base gone, so has "Texas".

Decades ago there were so many shops in Brighton alone, flogging ME supplies, Bennets did handtools and Sievert gear, Elliots hand tools ( now a Gregg's grub), Browns, Banfields, Airds for handtools, Myford accessories and I even bought a new Super 7 from them. Their shop now flogs grub like so many others. AFAIK, " last man standing" is Dockerills and they have downsized their shop. Westbourne tools in Hove gone. Various metal suppliers also gone. Bottom line cost of Mail order metal a joke. I am going to try making a shopping list of wants, work out best place to buy and try to include the trip to collect with places to visit. Still not easy though. Means raiding the junk box to see what can be machined to requirements. Have to start copying the Americans with their "Bill of Materials" methods! Do miss the good old days of Guildford ("just up the road" clubs July min. traction engine do, with Blackgates and others attending.

John