Quote:
Originally Posted by Lyler1
Does anybody have any sources besides McMaster to buy 5052 sheet aluminum? McMaster sells for $11 per square foot when buying 48" x 48." Are there any cheaper options?
|
About once a year or so we drop off our aluminum scrap with a local metals place for them to recycle, and in exchange they let us pick up a variety of larger cutoff pieces (i.e. 12" x 48" or some pseudo-rectangular piece about 24"x24")... our fabrication sponsors are usually willing to donate the materials they fabricate, so those two options cover most of our aluminum sheet or plate. Work to establish relationships like these, because aluminum isn't cheap.
When we do order aluminum (extruded, sheet, plate, rod), we usually do so from
Online Metals, which now has multiple distributors spread out across the US. Their 36"x48" 5052 .063" thick is $48, which comes to $4 per square foot or $4.50 per pound. They have a pretty wide variety of thicknesses, alloys, extrusions, etc. so we can almost always find what we want from them.