Fun starting out with material quotes (Denver area)...

I've been working on starting up a machining business this year (In the Denver, Colorado area) - just sold my first run of parts. Those parts were made from 3 full lengths of 0.875" x 0.125" 6061 tubing that I bought from the local (And easy to buy from) Metal Supermarket @ $4.74/lb - $1.64/ft. The customer wants more parts - a LOT more - and already paid for the next run!

So I start calling/emailing around for 30 more (About 200 lbs) of the same tubing to get going.
Erickson Metals: Nice email saying that they don't carry that size, but suggest a few other suppliers.
Tube Service: $10.83/lb - $3.79/ft.
Reliance (Colorado Springs): $12.86/lb - $4.50/ft.
Metal Supermarket: $4.57/lb - $1.60/ft

Asked all 4 using their website's contact forms - only Erickson responded - had to call the other 3 after waiting a week.

Have since requested a quote from Sapa on their website (They made the tubing I got from Metal Supermarket) for a 500 lb quote - no response, yet (One day later).

Didn't ask Ryerson (Not listed in their catalog, either) or Richardson Metals (Primarily custom extrusions?).

I can live with the Metal Supermarket price for now, but I'll need to do better than that to make it full time - I'm under the impression that Metal Supermarket is aimed at part time level supply anyway. Am I asking the wrong people and/or asking for not enough quantity?

PS: At the risk of sounding old and whiny, I tried starting a shop almost 30 years ago when I lived in rural New Mexico - Reliance (Albuquerque) bent over backwards to give me fantastic prices and fast service for low quantities of odd stuff. At the time, I lived in the middle of nowhere, yet their sales rep still stopped by to drop off a catalog. I told him that, even though they probably weren't making a dime off me yet, I really hoped things would take off and that I would be buying a lot more from them - and he said that's why they were being helpful. I'm guessing that's either a thing of the past and/or things in Denver are opposite of that in the metals business as well.

Sapa probably won't sell to you directly. Ryerson passes me their aluminum sometimes. From my experience Ryerson has the best prices by far.

In their defense, 7/8 tubing is an odd size.

I'd question why the Supermarket was so much cheaper than the others. A lot of lousy aluminum out there.

I quoted a stick of .875 x .125 square tube some years back. My supplier called me back to see if that's really what I wanted, as it's fairly expensive due to rarity. I vaguely remember it being roughly 2.5 times what I'd been paying for 1x1x.125.

Ryerson has been high on my past few aluminum quotes. I've recently started purchasing from Eastern metal supply (they have a location in Tx that services Colorado). I'm not at the shop right now to check their stock book for that size, but they'd be worth a call.

Fish On, what do you pay per lb. through Eastern? Might look into having them quote again but last time Ryerson killed their pricing.

Definitely an odd duck..

Speedy metals. $68 for 6 feet.. OUCH!!
Online metals, $44 for 6 feet, more OUCH!!!

However, common size 1"OD x 1/8" wall, about $9 for 6 feet.
Cheaper than buying solid, that almost never happens. In Qty it
would almost be free.

When doing half assed material calculations In my head I usually figure $2 a lb for 6061.. And when
I need to half assed guess a tubing price, I double the price per pound.. Add in the oddball factor and
I don't think you are doing too bad at $4.57 per lb...

Anyways, if Online Metals has it, that means Copper and Brass has it (same company).. Might be worth a shot..

Of course I need to ask the obvious, can you just use 1"???

Also, would you be money ahead making them out of solid?

1/2" pipe is .840" OD x .109 wall Sched 40 or .147 wall Sched 80. Not sure if that would cover the dimensions of your final product. Pipe sizes should be more reasonable, if you can make it work.

Thats unfortunate. I just did a quick look up through Alro Steel and saw 7/8"Ø x .120" wall 6061 for about $3.92/ft @ 30bars.

billetspeed said:

Fish On, what do you pay per lb. through Eastern? Might look into having them quote again but last time Ryerson killed their pricing.

Click to expand...

Yesterday's delivery had 10 sheets - 60x120" - .090 5052 - $1.37 per pound,

and 1 sheet - 48x96 - 3/16" 5052 - for $1.50/pound.

1 stick of 3/16x2" 6061 flatbar - $1.86/pound.

Quite a bit cheaper than both Ryerson and Pierce, this go around.

Also, I just checked the stocklist. EMS doesn't show .875 tubing in the book I was given.

Fish On said:

Yesterday's delivery had 10 sheets - 60x120" - .090 5052 - $1.37 per pound,

and 1 sheet - 48x96 - 3/16" 5052 - for $1.50/pound.

1 stick of 3/16x2" 6061 flatbar - $1.86/pound.

Quite a bit cheaper than both Ryerson and Pierce, this go around.

Click to expand...

All I ever order is bar stock 6061 and i've been paying $1.85/lb through Ryerson for a couple years now. The kicker is I have to drive 25 mins away because they wont deliver past a certain area. I might give Eastern another shot. Thanks.

A huge "Thanks!" for the info!

It would be a surprise to hear back from Sapa - I'm not holding my breath on that.

The extruded (?) Sapa tubing I got from Metal Supermarkets had a much rougher finish than I see on drawn tubing, but the parts get a brushed finish, they anodize very well, every single piece loaded and fit in the collet fixture reliably, and all operations deburred very easily.

The parts are racing motorcycle grip related (Sorry for being vague, but...) - can't make them out of solid 0.875 or 1.0 tubing.

The next call will be to Ryerson and find out what I need to do for complete bundles of the tubing from Sapa. If all goes well, this job will require somewhere between 4000 - 8,000 lbs/year. Time to commit to a few months rather than a few weeks worth...?

rohorn said:

A huge "Thanks!" for the info!

It would be a surprise to hear back from Sapa - I'm not holding my breath on that.

The extruded (?) Sapa tubing I got from Metal Supermarkets had a much rougher finish than I see on drawn tubing, but the parts get a brushed finish, they anodize very well, every single piece loaded and fit in the collet fixture reliably, and all operations deburred very easily.

The parts are racing motorcycle grip related (Sorry for being vague, but...) - can't make them out of solid 0.875 or 1.0 tubing.

The next call will be to Ryerson and find out what I need to do for complete bundles of the tubing from Sapa. If all goes well, this job will require somewhere between 4000 - 8,000 lbs/year. Time to commit to a few months rather than a few weeks worth...?

Click to expand...

If you are talking about complete bundle qtys, I'd call everyone that services your area. Just because they don't stock it, doesn't mean they can't get it, and any salesman will make a few calls in order to sell a whole bundle, or whatever increment you decide on. If that big order comes through, I'd call Ryerson, Eastern, Reliance, etc.

And, if you are changing the profile of the tubing over the entire length for your product, look into a custom extrusion.

Also, for clarification, when I mentioned Eastern didn't carry it, I was looking at square tube. In round, they have .875 x .062.

Be sure to compare with Earle M Jorgensen, in Denver, they had reasonable prices and were nothing but responsive to my small shop needs. Ryerson is competitve, just dont order small quantities. OnlineMetals.com has a great selection and is eager enough you could probably talk them down. Hit me up if you have too much manual lathe work, Ed

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Alreco is my go to place. Call Bob there

FWIW, I work at a machine manufacturing company in Denver. We don't do any aluminum tubing but all of our aluminum round and bar stock comes from Ryerson. I'm not sure but I'd guess we buy $1/2 million/year so YMMV.

All the other companies that I've dealt with have already been listed; Erickson, EMJ, Norfolk and Alreco. Tube Service is insane, I've never received a quote from them that was close to competitive. Metal Supermarkets is great for low quantities. I'm guessing if Erickson carried your size, they would be the winner.

Ended up hearing back from Sapa (!) a few weeks ago - they gave me a list of local distributors, which included Erickson. Erickson was willing to order a 1000 lb bundle of 0.875" x 0.125" 6061 tubing for me for the price I needed - it is on the way. Now all I have to do is lots and lots of work - I think I have a viable business now...

Thanks for the helpful input!