I just noticed that OnlineMetals is now stocking 1/16’’-wall 2’‘x1’’ rectangular 6061 aluminum tubing. I know a lot of teams have had trouble finding a supplier for this in the past (usually you can only find it in 6063), so I figured I’d mention it.
This is great
I believe Brendan Browne ordered a stick and said that it actually came with sharp corners as well, not radiused like the picture shows.
This is great!
This is great if you only need a small amount.
Brendan did confirm sharp corners in this post.
If you are placing a large order I would still go thru Adam, much better prices. Info can be found here.
Ordered six 60 inch pieces. With cutting fees and ground shipping to my location the total was just under $100.
If you sign up for their mailing list you get 15% off coupons on a regular basis (usually once every month). I get 20% off coupons occasionally too. If you make a lot of orders then you get 20% off on your next order iirc.
Excited to start ordering. Definitely can not wait. Having trouble finding a place locally for the rectangular tubing.
We’ve used Online Metals last year and this year for materials and they’re awesome. One thing I will recommend, check to see if they have a warehouse nearby! We have one near my place of work, and I can place an order in the morning and pick it up in the afternoon.
On top of that, If you enter WILLCALL in the “Add a Promotional Code:” box, you will receive an additional 15% off your order.
Online Metals is a great company, and fills their niche very nicely.
I’d highly recommend teams find a way to order from a local metal supplier and spend $2-3k to get a huge stockpile of metal. You should pay somewhere between $2-4/lb depending on some factors, and get a bunch more metal.
It’s definitely a spot where paying up front leads to huge savings. From then on Online Metals is a nice bonus for filling things you missed ASAP.
So we have used Online metals and love them - very easy to order and reliably received next day.
Also as East Coast team had been looking for a 0.062"x 1"x2" option - we have used Vexpro Versaframe past two years - a great product (particularly if it is hard to locate holes…) but expensive and seemed we could go to 0.062" vs. 0.1" for our needs.
So we bought the 1x2x0.062 bundle of this through Adam which was roughly 2/3rds cost vs Online (after shipping) and roughly 1/2 of the versaframe - but required order of 32x5’ pieces - more than we need - but teaming with other local team made this very viable and cheaper. roughly week for delivery (From CA to CT). Delivered today and looks great. I hold no stock in Adam’s company.
We will remain loyal customers of Online for other shapes, and for their rapid turn time - particularly during build.
To be clear, this is just 973 selling tubing as a fundraiser; I don’t make anything personally off of it.
Glad you’re happy with the tubing!
If I have OnlineMetals deliver to my house, will the delivery be in a box or will it be on the back of a truck? I would be ordering 5’ or shorter pieces.
Whenever I have ordered from Online Metals to my house or business, tubing shows up in a cardboard tube (long, short, thin, or fat tube depending on the size and quantity you ordered) and flat sheet comes wrapped in cardboard and plastic.
My order arrived yesterday in an eight inch diameter tube with plastic end caps. The tube could have held more. Next time I will order ten pieces.
I have placed one order with OnlineMetals so far, for our 2014 summer practice chassis. The order included both C-channel and angle (all aluminum). The C-channel and angle were shipped separately from different locations, and the experience of the two half orders was like night and day. The angle aluminum (far heavier package) came in a 3" inside diameter tube (from Dallas TX?), and it arrived at the house utterly intact. This tube went to our build space, as its inside diameter was perfect to hold a tennis ball for our summer game. The C-channel came in a 2" inside diameter tube from Orlando, FL (I still have this tube in my garage, so I’m sure of the location), and one end of the tube had been blown out in shipping. I haven’t seen very much torn strapping tape, but more than half of what I’ve seen was on that shipment. The metal was all there (it was strapping-taped together), but there was **no **paperwork inside, as especially contrasted with some rather extensive batch-specific paperwork on the aluminum from Dallas.
Forgive me if it has already been mentioned, but online metals also has various coupon codes floating around the internet. A quick google search will turn them up. Some are stackable. I believe they have a system where if you order over 100$ worth of materials, you get 10% off. I added another 10% off coupon I found somewhere online and the total order came out pretty cheap.