[Dick Linn]

Our supplier has a pile of "shorts and dings", sometimes known as "drops". You can sometimes get short pieces of odds and ends at reduced price, or at least not have to buy a 20 foot stick of everything. This is very useful if you need a couple of inches of thick stuff for a bracket of something.

Overall, we've found 1 x 1 x 1/8" square tube very useful, with occasional uses for 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/8". We usually have a collection of 1/8" thick angle - 1/2", 3/4", 1" and maybe 1 1/4" or 1 1/2". We generally don't buy more than one 20 ft. piece of anything until we know our design. We don't stock much plate due to the cost.