I'm in Cumberland, Maine - just outside Portland.

Needed a small length of brass rod last week. Wanted hex, but would have taken
round. Something in the 3/4" range - I'm flexible. Easy, right? Wrong.

I get a lot of what I use from Steve Welch at Reed's Machine Shop in Yarmouth.
Really good guy, lots of hot rolled bar and flats, but doesn't keep any brass.

So I tried Gowen, the last of the large machine shops on the Portland
waterfront, but not as large as they used to be. Found a two foot piece of one
inch round bronze. Took them quite a while to come up with a price in their
computer - $54.00. No thanks. They had some round brass in longer bars, but
after getting that price on the bronze I decided not to bother them any
further. No hex stock even in steel.

Scrap dealer in downtown Portland. Perry? Used to be able to look through the
yard. Now he says everything is bundled and sold as soon as it comes in, and
no retail.

Another scrap dealer - Mack - in Westbrook. Would sell retail, but no brass or
bronze. Mostly plastics.

Went to Brackett Machine - the largest machine shop in Westbrook. Westbrook is
the home of the S.D. Warren paper mill, so there are some decent shops there.
Brackett had no brass or bronze hex, but I did find a short length of brass
square which I settled for. They are good folks and very reasonable.

I used to buy from American Steel in South Portland. They stock all sorts of
steel and aluminum, and can order brass or bronze or whatever. They've always
been a bit of a PITA to deal with, though. The last time I went there, they
wouldn't sell to me - although they did suggest a job shop up the street who
could place my order. And this was for a really simple order - full length
bars of 12L14, no cutting, maybe $150 worth. No questions - I knew exactly
what I wanted and had cash. So I had to go up the street, order from the job
shop, have him phone it in to American, have them check stock, wait until they
had pulled the bars so they could get the exact lengths and weights, have him
call back to get the total price, pay him, and then go back to American to pick
up the steel. Hey, I can understand why a business might not want to bother
with consumer retail sales. But when someone comes in and knows exactly what
they want and it's a stock item with no cutting or special handling and they
have green money.......

Goldstein Steel in Scarborough is a pleasure. New and used steel, mostly
structural but some flats and plate. They are happy to sell you what you want
at a reasonable price, and that makes me happy to buy from them. Little bar
and almost all hot rolled, though, and I don't recall any brass or aluminum.

So, now that I've shared my sources and my ranting, does anyone have any decent
sources in southern Maine? Hell, I might even drive to New Hampshire if I have
to.

And is it the same in the rest of the country?

John Martin