On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 05:49:05 -0700, azotic wrote:
"Califbill" wrote ...
"Harold & Susan Vordos" wrote ...
"Steve B" pittmanpirate@hotmail wrote ...
mkoblic@gmail 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?

Check with steel suppliers. Many have "rems" or "drops" that they
sell for $.30 (that's 30 cents a pound). If you're lucky, you can get
what you need for a couple of bucks.

Worth a shot.

I'm pretty sure the days of 30 cents/pound are long gone.

I purchased three beams for the house I'm building, new material, that
cost
me right at 33 cents/pound---but that was a few years ago. I expect
that you're going to pay no less than 50 cents/pound now, and probably
more.

I visited my local steel distributor yesterday. New structural steel is
now $1.16 per pound if you buy mill length 20'. Stuff from their scrap
bin is .53 per pound.

A couple of years ago I paid 20 cents per pound at a South Dakota
yard I visit when driving through there, up from 15 cents a pound
a few years before that. 3 months ago I bought a few hundred pounds
at 30 cents per pound.

Here are some pictures of some 15-cent-per-pound chrome-plated-drops
bins and rust-plated-drops bins in 2002, all of which are long gone,
replaced by other stuff & now twice the price:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61108728@N04/sets/72157627409702492/

--
jiw