Sourcing Steel tubing in southeast Michigan area

Monomer said:

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The shop I work at could possibly do it, but it has to be a high production job. 100k+ parts a year...

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SDConcepts said:

there are plenty of tubing suppliers local in the detroit metro area. some of the guys that supply small qtys are metal mart and the other is speedy. alro will deliver all the tubing you want as well and they are much larger than the first two i mentioned. but you will most likely only want to order full length bars from them. they usually sell tubing in 20 ft lengths.

are you looking for a place to cut it length too or just ship it to you and you cut it?

the best way to find out who is going to gouge you on price is to call each of them and find out what the material costs in how you want to receive it. if you want it precut you may be better off going to a local shop who get regular deliveries and paying them to get your material and then cut it to length for you. we do this for a few customers already since we have established relationships with large metal suppliers.

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Ries said:

I think its unrealistic to think you are going to be able to buy directly from a mill.

Most mills like to sell at LEAST bundles of 100 sticks (20 footers) of each size at a time.
And even then, usually only to companies that buy multiple bundles every month.
They are happier, of course, selling full 40 foot trailers (40,000lbs or so) at a time.

If you are talking about a few lengths of this, and a few lengths of that, they arent even going to talk to you.

There is wholesale, and then there is retail. At less than truckload quantities, you are buying retail, and will have to buy from the middleman, usually.

A decent sized local distributor will give you discounts on quantity- and will tell you who they are getting the tubing from.
But the steel industry is pretty fluid, and based on price and availability, such that a distributor will usually have a half dozen suppliers they commonly order from. Thus, they may have 2 or 3 different tube suppliers. Find a good local supplier who has good salespeople, who will search out what you want, and order it in if needed. I have had a steelyard like that in three different locations over the years, so I know they are out there. They will tell me what they have in stock, and if I want something specific, they will quote me minimums, plus what shipping would be, and happily order it for me. For instance, I was doing a candlestick for a while that required a 1" OD, 7/8" ID mechanical tubing, and it wasnt stock, but every few months, they would order me in a few sticks of it. I paid a higher cost than for a similar weight stock item, but it was worth it. Now if its something really oddball, you may have to go to a specialist distributor, where ever they may be. I use some 3/16" annealed black round bar on some production pieces- mill minimum is a 10,000 lb or so roll, but I go to Artsons in LA, and they stock all sizes of round and wire from .048 to .500 in bright, black, and galvanized- stuff my local yard hardly even knows exists. They will cut to length and straighten, and ship minimum 100lb orders. There may be some things that you want that are like that- oddball enough that your local guys cant or wont make the minimums, but that there are a couple of guys nationwide who specialize.


I am not in Michigan, and I know things are thicker on the ground out there, but in the west, most of our tube comes from only a few mills, and quality is pretty consistent. But the same mill may not make both square and round, for example- some do, some dont.

I think you are putting the cart before the horse- when your monthly volume gets to a truckload per month, then you can try buying from the mill, but around here anyway, below that, its just not possible, or very practical.

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