Does anyone know of a steel bar supplier in the Toronto, Canada area.

For jigs and cut off sleds etc.

Thanks

Jim Smith asks:

Does anyone know of a steel bar supplier in the Toronto, Canada area.

For jigs and cut off sleds etc.


Check your phone book for metal shops. They'll have just about anything you
need, usually at a lower cost than one that takes the same bars and calls them
table saw sled bars.


Charlie Self
"I think we agree, the past is over." George W. Bush

If you are looking for the 3/8" X 3/4 stuff used for jigs and sleds plus
the track you can get it at

Lee Valley http://leevalley.com
Nicks http://nicks.ca

and Busybee tools

Try Nicks.ca
http://www.nicks.ca/jigparts.html

You don't necessarily need to use steel unless you have a specific need.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...45&cat=1,43455
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...,43455&p=45161

Hope this helps
UHMW is the plastic - Just got some pieces for Jigs

If nothing else it's fun to look at the sites :-)


Jim Smith wrote:
Does anyone know of a steel bar supplier in the Toronto, Canada area.

For jigs and cut off sleds etc.

Thanks



--
Will
Occasional Techno-geek

Lat time I checked Home Depot did not have this stuff -- Also checked
Home Hardware and Canadian Tire -- no luck there either.

Nice to know about metal supermarkets though.


WoofWoof wrote:
Jim Smith wrote:

Does anyone know of a steel bar supplier in the Toronto, Canada area.

For jigs and cut off sleds etc.


Metal Supermarkets ( http://metalsupermarkets.com ) are all over town
and will sell in small quantities. Not particularly cheap and they don't
publish prices so you are at the mercy of the local manager. Some, I'm
fairly sure load up the price a bit - others will find a spare, short
length and almost give it away. Having said that, for odds and ends it
won't cost a fortune anyway.

They do have short lengths ( up to a coupla feet?)of ground, accurately
dimensioned bar stock at a considerably higher price if you want it.

Also, don't get turned off Home Depot just because some of the "experts"
around here question the quality. All of this kind of material comes
from one of the (relatively) few major metal suppliers and are to
standard, common commercial specs. Handling-damage aside , there's no
logical reason why steel bars from HD should be worse (or better) than
other places. And something like 3/8 x 3/4 steel bar is unlikely to get
significantly damaged due to poor handling.

--
Will
Occasional Techno-geek

On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 14:03:37 -0500, WoofWoof wrote:

Jim Smith wrote:

Does anyone know of a steel bar supplier in the Toronto, Canada area.

For jigs and cut off sleds etc.

.... snip

Also, don't get turned off Home Depot just because some of the "experts"
around here question the quality.

Not so much the quantity as the price at Home Depot. They tend to treat
metal stock as a specialty item and price it accordingly. Not sure I've
seen anything at HD that one could use for sliding bar stock anyway.

All of this kind of material comes
from one of the (relatively) few major metal suppliers and are to
standard, common commercial specs. Handling-damage aside , there's no
logical reason why steel bars from HD should be worse (or better) than
other places. And something like 3/8 x 3/4 steel bar is unlikely to get
significantly damaged due to poor handling.



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WoofWoof wrote:
Mark & Juanita wrote:

Not so much the quantity as the price at Home Depot. They tend to
treat
metal stock as a specialty item and price it accordingly. Not sure I've
seen anything at HD that one could use for sliding bar stock anyway.


(First off ... I hadn't meant suggest that I'd seen it in HD. It's just
that there was a recent discussion of mitre gauge slider material here
where it was suggested to stay away from the HD material for quality
reasons. I assumed that someone has seen it there).

I sort of agree but the reason they get to treat it as a specialty item
is because there aren't too many places that that you can just walk into
and buy small quantities of bar stock/extrusions at the retail level (as
the OP has found). Which makes it ... well .... what would you call it
..... a specialty item (:-).

There's Metal Supermarkets, but they are basically a supplier to small
commercial shops that are also willing to deal with individuals.
However, I doubt they are any cheaper than HD, probably more.

But it's not like we're using a ton of this stuff and if you judge the
price from the benefit you get I don't think the price is that bad. If
someone wants to spend a week in the yellow pages/internet or chasing
all around town to find the $20 bar from HD being sold elsewhere for $14
he can be my guest. I'll spend the $20, get on with the job and think I
have the better deal.

(Talking about value, I've just ordered a 7 foot length of a special
(80/20 Inc) aluminum extrusion (3 x 3/4) for use as mitre fences. This
stuff has double t-slots in it as part of the extrusion so it'll be
dead-easy to attach facings or stop-block systems. All it needs is to be
cut to length and a couple of holes drilled to attach to the mitre gauge.

This is costing me $60CDN which sounds horrendous for a 7 ft bar of
metal ... but I can get 3 fences out of this for various setups and a
rock-solid versatile fence at $20CDN sounds pretty good to me. I'd
expect to pay $70 - $80 for it commercially.)
Around here (NJ) Sears hardware carries a variety of both steel and
aluminum bar and angle stock.

I bought a .001" dial caliper, took it to HD, and found that for 2 pieces
about 3/4"x 1/2" x 18" the closest thing was a 1"x3" select pine finger
joint. I sanded the width down about .020" and then cut two 18" pieces to
1/2" heights. Screwed from the top of my sled down. Mint.

BTW, mdf is always pretty close to exact i.e 1/4" = .250"
1/2" = .500"
3/4" = .750"



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I had to buy a 6' or 8' piece, the straightest.

I used select pine 2x4s for the sled F adjustable +/- 1/16" and R fence.
Just screwed them on! Man they come straight and flat! Oversized holes
along the length of the bottom, and round or flat head screws for under up
(CS screws do not align holes! . after the 2 guides are attached to the
bottom, while in the tracks. Align F fence after raising blade through.



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