Hobby Machining Materials - Where I Buy My Metal From (Australia) 

Should go without saying, this is not sponsored in anyway. Timestamp - 10:39 - Where I buy my metal from in Australia Link To Quinn's Video, certainly worth checking out. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yBVo8wufsCE.html

I had cast recovered aluminum from my 'hood into what I call near- net shapes, that is flats and rounds about 5 years ago. I gave my foundry away to a fellow enthusiast but now have the urge to get back into it, so I made a small forge from a helium tank and a diy propane burner, and now am collecting bits and bobs again.

Thanks I have saved Edcon Steel, the shipping charge for one item is a bit exe at $35.00 so a bit of planning is required as the charge does not change as you add items, up to a point of course. Their variety is excellent. Update, I contacted the owner and he pointed out the facility to ask for a quote where he can tweak the cost, for example an item under 1 metre in Aust. can be posted for $9.50. Got a quote for $100.00 AU of stock and the freight dropped from 35 to 22.50. I will place the order tomorrow.

The scrapheap here has a separate part where they collect usable bits of bar and sheet material from which you can get quite decent pieces for a nice prize

Thanks for the metal materials primer, it’s helpful. I learned a lot.

Perfect. I’m just getting started with a hobby mill. Watched all of Blondihacks vids. Great to get advice from another Aussie

Great video and info - thanks.

Thank you. Where I live is a sugar producing town and we have a few metal merchants as well as a few recyclers as well. Of course I never asked them for small cuts as I just assumed they sold by the whole length. Never occurred to me to ask. I rummage through the recycled metal and find a few little bits and pieces but it is mostly mystery metal and that bothers me as I don't know what I am using. I also just realised watching your video there are irrigation shops in town and they would use stainless bore shaft. I bet it would be machinable grade as they would need to thread ends or similar. Just hearing you talk about the different grades of steel made me realise this. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for sharing your experience 👍😎👍

Great video mate. Waiting for your next project 👍👍💫

This video was very helpful. Thanks for sharing 👍

Great video. Learned allot. Thank you!

Phosphor Bronze is really popular for mechanical bushes, eg bushes in conrod small ends (repair instead of replace), camshaft bushes in motorcycle cylinder heads etc…it has self lubricating properties

Amazing. Just what I needed I've been forging aluminium as wasn't sure where to go and could only get lengths here in Newcastle. Just registered with Edcon and prices are really reasonable. Thanks

Good information video. Thanks for sharing.

Good call on Edcon. I live near Parramatta, so midway between two Edcon outlets. Their cut charges for larger sections can add up, so I usually buy a length that will suit, and then cut it on the cold saw. I do have another steel store much closer, but Edcon has a greater range of metals. Thanks for the very straightforward explanation. Regards Robert

Another supplier is man cave metals in Victoria- he does hobby packs of metal and individual pieces . Ebay provides some stuff as well - usually if you search for lathe or milling machine in all categories there are a few metal sellers that usually have a listing of some sort on there - gotta be careful though as some are advertising from overseas and some say it is this grade of material like 6061 and it isn’t . I have got a lot of stuff from Brett cnc over the years off eBay and it has been good stuff - only lists when he has a stockpile to clear out though . Also need to factor in postage as this is usually y more expensive than the metal itself ! EJ winters at Bathurst have a small range of materials mainly aimed at model engineers .

I am just about to pick up my first lathe and have been into K&K Steel in Hastings. They have a pretty good selection of steel brass and aluminium as well as tooling. I found them really helpful to an obvious novice. They were happy to cut 1mt lengths for me and also have a couple of scrap bins.

My recommendation, as an engineer: Get as much from scrapyards and offcuts as possible For steel suppliers it's not worth selling anything under a few kilos at a time, especially for cheap stuff like steel, so chances are you're going to get massively ripped off. Any offcuts you can get your hands on can usually be assumed to be 1040 high tensile mild steel, which is good all-round for shafts, axles, pretty much anything. Aluminium is alumnium, it hardly matters if you aren't welding it As for stainless, you can tell by the colour if it's 304 or 316. Most bar stock cab be assumed to be 316 I would highly encourage under-the-table beer or cash deals with anyone you know who has access to scrap or offcuts.

I've used Edcon for ages. Great place. Also, don't forget scrap merchants. Sometimes you want a chunk of something expensive, say a lumps of cast iron for something, and the scrappies often have something useable. To get on a scrappie's good side, separate your aluminium and brass swarf and collect as much scrap al and brass as you can, take it there and give it to him. Tell him "no need to pay me for the scrap, but if you can watch out for x and y I'll buy it from you at better than scrap price, call me on this number", it can go a long way towards finding things you want. I often pick up old washing machines that have been put out for council collection and take them home and rip them apart. Dismantle the motors, collect a few sets of windings and give them to the scrappie and he'll think you're a hero.

Thx for the info! I also get a lot from EBay. It works well for me as a hobbyist here in Germany ✌️😎

Great info, thanks.

Thanks, great info

Interesting video mate. I buy my steel, brass and alloy from “Offcuts Galore”. They are pretty reasonable and have mainly small off cuts to about 300mm length. They also sell nylon bar which has come in handy. I didn’t know about Edcon Steel. I see it’s in NSW, so postage to me in Melbourne May be pricey compared to Offcuts Galore which are in Geelong, not far from me.

I followed Xynudu's (aussie youtuber) advice to cast my own aluminium rounds. Only $2 per kilo for alloy wheels at a scrapyard which melt nicely. Make whatever starting stock you want. Can also make brass and copper stock by collecting taps or copper windings to melt. Easy.

If you want brass/copper/bronze/ally try Brass & Copper at Seven Hills in Sydney. They're the NSW branch of George White (can buy from GW in other states but B&C are the best to deal with), they've got just about everything under the sun in non-ferrous stock, and they'll sell whatever lengths you want, and they're cheaper than Edcon.

I only machine aluminum and get my stock from local distribution center, they sell scrap plates (

Edcon looks pretty awesome. thanks for that. All I had found so far (non-ebay) was mitre10 which is more limited in choice compared to Edcon.

You should try the ZX-40 milling machine from extra machinery, it’s similar in price to some of the sieg machines and it has a 800 x 240mm bed with 385mm of z travel, and it has a 2hp motor, it’s made with cast iron and it weighs 350kg. It looks like really good value

Good stuff mate

This is all good information. However, the availability if material is very specific to your geographical location. Here in central Canada material availability and cost is terrible. Due to this, I have built a foundry and gathered up scraps and cast my own material. The only downside is what scraps are available. Cheers from Canada

I'm in the US, New Hampshire to be exact. I found a company called Online Metals. Most items are sold 1 foot minimum, then 1 foot increments. They have 6 locations in the US and the nearest to me is in Connecticut and every time I've ordered through them I'll order before 12 noon and it will be at my place the next day. They use UPS for shipping

Good video. 🙂 Interesting how many different names there seems to be for essentially the same materials. Free machining steel is usually called EN1A over here (UK) for example. 2 other things to note: bronze is horrible for drilling and tapping. 🤮 Also if you you are a sucker for punishment and want the absolute grand daddy of work hardening try titanium! 😤🤬🤣

Over here in the UK, I found an E. Bay seller selling offcuts of nice free machining steel. It's great if you can find someone industrial offloading their remnants or offcuts.

I use Edcon at Kings Park and they sometimes have good off cuts on the shelf.

My local supply shop sells A36 mild, and 304 SS... So i literally started out and learned machining 304. It was, difficult, to say the least. However, as a result I've actually gotten pretty good at machining 304 and I will reach for it often now because I know how to work it and can get really great results. It also gives a lovely surface finish once you get the hang of it. Hands down I'll take it every single time over hot rolled mild steel. Great vid, thanks!

I’m in Sydney and use Edcon and recommend them for range and availability. If it’s a small piece and I can’t get to the warehouse, they send it in the mail. I had couple of order cut errors and they replaced it straight away.

If you can get by with a little less strength in stainless steel give 400 series free machining stainless steel a try. Much easier to machine and it is easier to avoid work hardening on smaller hobby machines. Works a treat on things like machine handles where it can easily be polished to a mirror finish.

one of the many upsides of me being a profesional machinist is that i just take offcuts home all the time :P

free machining steel contains a small amount of Sulphur which is why it doesn't weld either with a welder for fabricated parts and also the chip doesn't pressure weld to the cutting edge of your tool giving the spiffy finish

I'll agree with Roel's comment. Get to know the local scrap metal merchants. They buy a lot of scrap off-cuts from local manufacturing, which they get dirt cheap and sell them at much below "proper" prices for steel and aluminium. Particularly useful if you don't mind small weird shaped pieces, which is usually ok for small hobby machining jobs. Pieces smaller than your hand are very cheap, you can usually buy close to their scrap metal value. And sometimes you get lucky, at my local scrap guy the last time I was in there he had 16mm dia aluminium round stock in 600mm lengths, with a weird shape cut into one end. He cant sell for proper price so I got some for $2 a piece.

Action aluminium are fantastic to deal with and excellent on price, they can also cut small amounts. If you haven't had the pleasure yet, I also quite like 4140. Tends to be very stringy but if you can get past that it's dead easy to get a fantastic surface finish while still being a good strong steel

I made a couple Lathe Chuck Back Plates out of a free weight... I was burning through HSS tooling in about 10 minutes or less... a viewer commented that it probably wasn't true cast iron, but Sintered Steel, which would explain things... $80 in Carbide tooling later, it is not bad to work... (With bits for hardened & interrupted steel...)

With health and safety here in the UK most of the scrap yards won't let you near them :( I have found a lot of machining places which sell offcuts as clean hobby stock on eBay though, maybe a bit more expensive but you know what it is and can get manageable sizes. Always looking for better options though!

I’m thinking about building a foundry so I can make my own brass bronze stock it’s easy enough to find scrap raw materials but good sized bar stock in the states

I am surprised that countries in which model making and DIY is common have difficulty in getting materials. Here in India its very difficult. The shops don't know what is model making or DIY mostly and won't sell small quantities even if it's available.

Not used much 4140? I find it the easiest steel to scrounge in sizes suited to the small hobby machinist. I scrounge bar ends ranging from 40mm to 90mm diameter up to 200mm long from a local CNC shop, usual cost is a carton of beer for a load. They get nothing for it from the scrap dealer. It is hard going on the small lathe though. My mill is a bit bigger and handles it well enough. I have seen Edcon and like the way they do business, as you say, other suppliers are not much interested in supplying in the sizes for hobby machinists.

6061 t65 is heat treated and has a Rockwell hardness of 48 and 211 steel is 50.

Excellent info - thanks.

I tend to use cutting oil when machining cast iron so the dust doesnt go everywhere.

Same issue here in South Africa, hard to find machining steels in hobby lengths. No online choices, that I’ve found.

This is so helpful for me, thanks a lot. What aluminium brazing rods you like and would a butane torch reach the required heat for welding aluminium parts together? Thanks mate.

I’m curious what process you’re using to weld the 12L14. Mig, stick, and if stick, what electrode are you burning? This was a very well done video, and I’ve recently gotten hooked on your channel! Thanks!

most free machining brasses contain lead. Usually it's just a percent or two, but cutting it tends to smear the lead all over the surface. It's not really bad, but make sure you wash your hands before eating especially if you're under 25 years old.

Finding materials is a pain in the states allot of people get lucky but when you need something special it sucks I priced some stock the other day on Metals depot priced a 10’ piece of stressproff on accident so added a drop they had with the ten footer the drop was 125$ without the drop was 400$ smh had to pay shipping on each regardless but that’s ridiculous

👍

If you want a mirror like finish for brass, use milk as a cutting fluid.

I am asking for subtitles because I wanted to turn on the translation. Greetings from Poland

My wife can't stand driving with me on garbage disposal day cause I'll stop just about anywhere if I see something metal and mechanical, I even carry two pairs of vise grips, bolt cutters and a multi bit driver under my seat just in case, nuts, bolts,springs and basic hardware always find a new home with me ! You wouldn't believe what people throw out, I'm on my third treadmill, d/c motor plus controller, actuators and steel

It took me most of the way through the vid before I realized you were saying 'mild' steel.

I find cheep good metals at scrap yards grate saving's and a lot of places will do some cuts for free if your buying a lot.

Unfortunately, small pieces of metals are very expensive. There are suppliers on the internet that specialize in supplying hobbyists. But they charge ridiculous amounts. Finding companies that sell longer pieces, and spending more for those will cost much less per foot, or meter, or however you want to measure it. Just think of what you may want to do with the metal over the next year, or even several. Then buy enough for that. You might pay less than half per length than you would pay buying small pieces every time you have a project. If you’re going to weld aluminum, then 6061 is good. Many other alloys of aluminum don’t weld up well. I prefer hot rolled steel because cold rolled, due to the process, there are much more internal stress. If you machine hot rolled on one side, likely it will remain pretty straight. But you need to machine both sides of cold rolled because it will warp otherwise. I stay away from 12/14. Yes it’s easy to machine, but its characteristics are inferior, in addition to the rusting. 303 is similar to 304 in characteristics. But with any stainless, if you’re going to weld it, make sure the alloy has an “L” at the end, such as 303L, 304L, 316L, etc.

316 stainless does not work harden--that is the problem, you cannot harden it with any treatment..

Great video. Do you have a link to the video you mention around the one minute mark? The one aimed towards us stateside

Really easy to turn cast iron too fast.

Why don't you get materials from scrapyards and get them far cheaper them from there?