Heavy Metal: Things to look for in welding material selection - Part 2

Welding Tips and Tricks. Purchasing metal for your welding project, Part 2

This is our follow up to welding tips part 1 yesterdayIf you are purchasing metal for a project or job for the first time or are relatively new at it, don’t get in a hurry to get buy. Plan to shop around and inform yourself on various practices by local metal suppliers. Many suppliers have a tiered pricing policy, and some will treat smaller or newer customers quite poorly on pricing. Definitely, the price may be better than buying bits and pieces at large retail hardware or agricultural stores, but the prices quoted may be as much as 30-50% greater in price than an established, larger customer receives. However, there are many metal suppliers will treat everyone fairly with small discounts for greater volumes. These forward thinking companies are willing to help out the new guy and see them as the next potential “big” customer. Don’t always assume that because everyone deals with the biggest company in town that they have the best pricing or quality. Small-time welders and enthusiasts can seldom afford to overpay because they are uninformed on the pricing policies at the metal distributors. Some small town LWS (the places that locally sell welding gas, MIG welders, stick welders etc.) also double as metal distributors, but you will find a range of pricing as many are lower volume distributors, or purchasing from larger regional suppliers and their pricing is often higher than buying straight from the larger suppliers, but many of these smaller retailers/wholesalers of metal are more likely to custom cut and sell you just the amount you need to do the job, so overall the pricing may be lower than having to buy whole, long sticks of tubing or sheets of metal that will have left over. If you don’t think that you may have a local metal supplier close by, use a search engine on the internet, and you might be surprised. Even a number of them will deliver metal to you if you meet small minimum purchase requirements.

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Look For Part 3 Of Tips When Heading To The Metal Supplier Tomorrow.