My team is considering buying an Omio CNC for the upcoming (lack of) season. We also want to stock up on polycarb and aluminum sheets, so I’m wondering where other teams buy them and where I can get reasonable prices.
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We use Laird Plastics in SE Michigan, but looks like your team is located in Pittsburgh. Just from a quick google search, this place came up. Piedmont Plastics
Basically, look for plastic suppliers, and tell them you are a robotics team with the local HS. You might get lucky and get a discount, as for aluminum, my team does not purchase aluminum sheets, but I would try the same think with the plastic manufactures.
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Alright, I’ll take a look at Piedmont and see if there are any other local suppliers. Thanks
It depends on where you are located. I would suggest reaching out to some local machine shops in your area and seeing if they can help source some of the material for you. We had a sponsor do that for us and we were able to cut down on costs by buying 4 x 12 sheets and our sponsor would cut them down for us to 4x4 for our router. Shipping and receiving is often the hardest part in sourcing metal with requirements for shipping docks or forklifts. I also wouldnt get locked in to one supplier as we were able to save money by buying different thicknesses from different suppliers so make sure to shop around before you buy
You may also find that a lot of places are going to be out of stock of polycarbonate in certain thicknesses right now. This is due to the face shields, and polycarb dividers being made for the pandemic I am assuming.
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Find local suppliers. Your TBA shows you’re in Pittsburgh so I bet there’s several suppliers you can choose from. Explain you’re a high school team because you’ll probably get somebody to throw in free delivery. We have two metal suppliers and two plastic suppliers all with the same free delivery and cutting services.
I haven’t had much success at discounted prices because raw materials are a commodity and priced out by weight. But, we have a scrap metal yard that basically gives us 2x the market rate for our scrap as a credit and let us wander around to pick big chunks of stuff.
Aluminum prices seem higher than normal as well… Not sure if it’s because of ventilators or something.
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I second what others are saying about contacting local suppliers. My team also asks for drops of material (leftovers from cuts) that the supplier will usually donate for free. They are of varying sizes and shapes but you can’t beat free materials.
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Sounds great, thanks!
You may not be able to get whole sheets (as those are useful for their business), but you might be able to get end of sheets or their trimmings donated or at greatly reduced cost/sq ft. For example the sheet would normally be 8ft across, and a customer buys a 6ft piece from them…that remaining 2ft cutt-off is normally scrap, but can be very useful piece for FRC.
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More often than not, I’ll just order polycarb from McMaster. Their prices are only a bit higher than other sources, and the convenience factor of next day delivery and low shipping cost to us is worth it. We’re less than an hour’s drive from McMaster. For sizes that McMaster doesn’t sell, I usually order from Boedecker Plastics in Shiner, TX and have them send it freight on a pallet. For aluminum sheets, Coast Aluminum. You’ll want to stock up. Price goes down with substantial quantity.
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OnlineMetals is pretty great for aluminum. Their shipping is a little steep but their sheet prices are great and their web interface is great for whittling down exactly what you need.
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Coast Aluminum and Tap Plastics work for us.
Same for companies that that use the aluminum but may have usable waste. Cincinnati Radiator graciously donates medium and large (up to 2x4) sheets of 1/8” aluminum left over from their laser cutting process.
For all FRC teams out there, if you go to your local glass company that replaces windshields and whatnot you will find that many of them actually use polycarbonate for construction equipment, bus windows, train windows, and other applications. They always have mounds upon mounds of scrap that are big enough for most robotics teams to make heavy usage out of. They toss that stuff away if it isn’t picked up by someone since it cannot be recycled in most cities. Every piece of polycarbonate on our robot is a scrap cutoff from a 4x8 sheet from the company next door. We have been given 2x3 and 1x4 sheets of scrap cutoff over and over.
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While not always the best value (especially due to shipping costs) we generally just order from McMaster Carr because of the simplicity, selection, and fast turnaround times. On occasion, we’ve also ordered plastics from Inventables (they sell sheets in sizes designed for use in CNC routers similar to the Omio, and they’ve often had KOP vouchers too).
For metal I’ll echo the comment to check local suppliers, many will give discounts or scrap to teams.
We get our polycarbonate from Grainger. Their prices are typically better than McMaster and they give us free shipping as an educational institution with an account set up with them - even on 4x4 polycarb sheets. Shipping is normally under a week, though we have had to search for where material went before when it accidentally got delivered to our maintenance group.
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