Hi all, our team (UHS 1991) needs some .125" thickness aluminum plate for our testbed chassis this year. Already checked Yarde Metals, all the local hardware stores, and we were wondering if anyone had a supplier they knew of or another way to find some. Much appreciated if anyone has any suggestions.
McMaster will be default next-day delivery for you guys in CT. They have tons of good stuff. A little more expensive than some suppliers, but the immediate delivery is usually worth it.
How could you have built a robot without McMaster? :eek: 
I’ve used onlinemetals.com with reasonable success. For .125 Al sheet, prices range from ~$0.10-$0.20 per square inch depending on alloy and quantity.
The Yarde Metals Drop Zone is currently listing several sizes of 0.125" 5052 aluminum sheet available:
http://yarde.com/cgi-bin/dropshop.pl?alloy=5052-H32+++&form=SH&size1=++0.1250
Logan Steel in Meriden/Wallingford also has a surplus/scrap area which often has a lot of aluminum stock.
McMaster also has a wide variety of raw materials, but their prices on aluminum stock can be a bit steep compared to other options.
I would recommend Metalsdepot. They have decent stock at reasonable prices, sometimes they don’t always have the size you need (a problem not encountered somewhere like McMaster), but if they do have the size you want, I would recommed them; my team has bought from them and been satisfied.
http://www.metalsdepot.com/products/alum2.phtml?page=sheet&LimAcc=%20&aident=
See if you can find a local supplier:
Also search on “steel service center”. Look in your local Yellow Pages as well. You should be able to locate a number of local suppliers. Then hit them up for a good discount or a sponsorship! I got a some freebies from a couple local metal suppliers.
If you don’t have any luck, call a local welding supply company or a welding shop and ask for names. You might even find a recycling place that sells scrap material.
Here’s one local supplier: http://www.emjmetals.com/index.htm
Ebay, baby!
We buy most of our aluminum from a local Metal Supermarkets store, but they also sell online if there’s no retail location near you.
http://www.metalsupermarkets.com/MSC-Home.aspx