We hadn't either until just recently. We had a customer come in a few months ago from a local (Milwaukee) chapter and we discussed it at length. They're cropping up all across the country and it's one of the coolest concepts we've heard about in a long time.
Everyone has a project that they're working on but might not have the resources to complete it. It might be steel fabricating, 3D printing, fabric work, etc., a makerspace is a place you can go to and complete your project or just play around and create your dream. They have equipment available for you to use and again, it runs the gamut from metal working to artwork.
It's true, metal isn't just for industrial or manufacturing applications. Take a look at the picture to the left, it's a 25 foot long, 15 foot tall dinosaur sculpture made entirely out of steel. A local metal artist created this a few years ago using steel plate, steel tubing and various sizes of steel flat stock.
While the dinosaur is on the extreme size of metal sculptures, we also supply steel and metal to artists that specialize in smaller pieces of garden art, decorative wall art, jewelry, etc. If you're a metal artist with a project please browse through our store or give us a call, we'd love to hear from you!
One of the more frequent questions we field is if we stock Drill Rod and Ground Flat Stock. While we have a small amount of each in our warehouse the short answer is no, we don't keep much of it in stock. In our region we're the authorized distributor for one of the largest and most respected producers of these products, Precision Marshall Steel. Their website and product listing can be found here: http://pmsteel.com/.
We get asked a lot about minimums. Do you have a minimum charge? Do you have a minimum order size? The answer to virtually any "minimum" question that people ask is no, we've never had any minimums and never will. Take a look at the picture to the left, we fill orders like that (and smaller) every day, small orders are a large part of our business!
Whether you need a small quantity of metal or tons of it we're here to help. Please browse through our various steel and metal categories found in our store or contact us to discuss your needs, we'd love to hear from you!
A week doesn't go by without us fielding an inquiry for trailer hitch steel. Building or repairing a trailer hitch is a fairly straightforward project and the materials needed are easily obtained. While we always recommend purchasing a complete assembly that's designed for your vehicle from an authorized dealer, we realize that a lot of people simply prefer to build their own. There are obvious risks in going the do it yourself route but if you're confident in your abilities and decide to build your own, we're here to help.
Out of all the questions we field on a daily basis, this one is asked more often than any other. Do we stock it? No. Do we sell it? Absolutely. In fact, while we don't keep any of it in stock it's one of our top five selling product lines. We have relationships with some of the largest sheet metal suppliers in the country which enables us to be very competitive in our pricing and provide extremely quick turn arounds.
Today we added numerous items to our sales and specials store. These are mainly overstock or cut-off/drop items that we're offering at large discounts when compared to our everyday pricing. Our initial list of items include:
Round bars in alloy, cold finished carbon, hot rolled carbon and stainless.
Square bars, (currently just one size, two different lengths) in cold finished carbon.
Flat bars in aluminum and stainless.
Angles in hot rolled and stainless.
We're currently in the process of loading all of our steel tube stock into our tubing store. To date we have rectangular and some square tubing loaded, round tubes will follow shortly. We thought this would be a good time to address one of the most common requests that we get from our customers, tubing that will slide together or telescope. While it's certainly possible to purchase tubes that will slide together with a nice snug fit (similar to the picture at left) it's not as simple as it seems.
Our alloy category now has a full listing of 8620 and 4140 round bars available. Other sizes and shapes will be added soon!
We're in the process of entering our alloy steel bars into the site, 8620 round bars are available now. Watch for our 4140 grades to appear next in rounds, squares, and flats.