Existential Angst wrote:
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
...
Steve B wrote:
A 5# box, which I estimate holds about 1,000, cost $14 -- a price diff
of
a
factor of 10!
I have friggin boxes and boxes and jars and jars of fasteners. Just
because
I'm too cheap to pay what they want for ten of them. But when I need
something, I go to the bins rather than make a run to the hardware store.
And if I do have to run for fasteners, I buy them by the box and have a
stock of them.
I hit the local scrap metal yard first. They have a few tons of
surplus hardware they sell for $1.50 a pound.
You are blessed.
The scrap yards by me pitch *everything* in 30yd containers, to be hauled
away.
Sheeit, they won't even save pristine 1x3 alum bar, much less save hardware.
Ocala Recycling is like that. They had a mint condition open frame
aluminum relay rack that weighed about 25 pounds. They wouldn't sell it
for any price. OTOH, I have had some luck asking people to sell me
something before their scrap made it to the scales. Like a two foot
piece of 4" copper pipe for free. A mechanical contractor had a huge
truckload of it and the guy gave it to me to make a pair of WI-FI
Antennas rather than sell it.
There are several other places with drops & surplus as well, but the
prices are a little higher. I mentioned one recently. Rhino. I have
friends who manufacture nice aluminum framed canopies for art shows. If
I need some short pieces of the tubing they use, they usually give it to
me. I do free IT support for them, and at one time they owned a large
thrift store that donated used computers and parts to my Veteran's
project.
The next stop is usually Fastenal or Grainger's. I miss living near
Dayton, Ohio. Mendelson's had over a million pounds of surplus hardware
on the first floor of their surplus store. Everything except stainless,
brass or nylon hardware was $1.25 a pound. I used to buy 10 to 25 pounds
at a time. 6-32 * 1/2" pan head philips screws were about 600 per pound.
I used a lot of them repairing electronics. Toss all the old screws in a
can and put the item back together with new hardware. I used the last
of them repairing computers, to replace the crapware they were built
with. I really liked the screws with captive star washers for computers.
--
Greed is the root of all eBay.