On Sat, 2 Jul 2011 09:12:23 -0700, "Jon Danniken"
wrote:

wrote:
I needed some 3/4"x3/4"x1/8" angle iron for a project. Previously I
bought a 3-foot length in Home Depot so I headed back there. They had
an item with that description but it did not look like what I had
bought before.
[snip]
2) Is there a good reason why a 72" length of stock should cost 1.5x
as much per inch as a 36" length?

Because you're buying it from home despot. Look up Steel in the yellow
pages and go to your local steel or scrapyard. They will sell you the
stuff, and LOTS of other stuff, by the pound, or by the foot, at prices that
will probably be 1/3 or less what you are paying at the despot. It's a lot
more fun, too.

I wish. I went to three steel yards that day. The best I could do was
a 20 ft length for $18 provided I bought 6 of them (minimum $100
sale). If I bought it from the dealer they sell to, the price doubles
after cutting. Not that they had any...

In the end I got it in Home Hardware. I just did not trust that formed
stuff in HD.

Interestingly, about a month ago I went to Nanaimo "Metal
supermarket". When I compared the prices from there (factoring in
cutting but not the travel) Home Depot was actually cheaper if one
bought the 48" lengths of comparable stock.

I took the opportunity to ask about other things in the said steel
yards. Tha availability of stuff was very limited (12L14, 303, 416
etc.) The same story in Nanaimo. OTOH I got a line on small quantities
of aluminium so it was not altogether a waste of time.

Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC