Always on the lookout for steel ... and a good haul today!

[mcmxi]

As the title says, I'm always looking for steel on sites such as Craigslist, and over the weekend I saw that a local farmer was selling some lengths of W beams. The add said "make an offer", so I called him to see what he wanted and he was ok with $350. When you consider that a 20ft section of W8x28lb is $1,100 or more locally, this deal was too good to pass up. One of the 19ft lengths (cleanest of the lot below) is basically W8x28lb although the web is .313" thick rather than the standard .285".

I'm not sure what I'll be using these pieces for, maybe the new barn/shed builds, but I think $350 is a very good deal for this bunch, and I got to see his 400 acre farm along the river. His family homesteaded the farm over 150 years ago. He grows various grains and grass/alfalfa for hay, and raises beef cattle. How cool is that?

 

[radas]

Nice haul, you beat inflation and then some.

 

[Lil Foot]

Score!
You and I think alike when it comes to material.
I often buy material that I have no specific plans for, if it is a killer deal.
I always seem to use it eventually, or sometimes a buddy needs it.
Recently scored this plastic haul for my shop:
Post #204:

Show us your Shop and Equipment

Today, I built a rolling stand for my bench grinder and belt sander with pieces I had laying around the shop.

www.orangetractortalks.com

 

[Bugzilla46310]

I see some mighty awesome wood splitters in someone’s future!

 

[Lil Foot]

Or a pretty good start on a bridge!

 

[mcfarmall]

Here's a portion of my free steel from work. Much more went straight to the metal recycler.

 

[mcmxi]

I see some mighty awesome wood splitters in someone’s future!

I have a "like new" Oregon 22 ton splitter that I bought for $1,200 recently from a radiologist and her husband. They put their $3M home and property on the market recently and were selling off a lot of nice stuff in preparation for moving back to Vermont.

I was thinking that I could cut sections of plate out of some of the more ragged pieces if needed. I'm sure the longer pieces will end up in a shed or barn build, or used in a similar way to @mcfarmall making porches along both sides of the house.

 

[mcmxi]

Here's a portion of my free steel from work. Much more went straight to the metal recycler. View attachment 84278

That's awesome! As a welder that spent many years working with steel I just love the stuff and use it whenever/wherever I can.

 

[mcmxi]

Score!
You and I think alike when it comes to material.

I have a real problem when it comes to steel. The farmer had a nasty looking 6ft long piece of 3/4" black pipe near the pile and he could see me eyeballing it. He asked me if I wanted it and my response was "sure, I'll take it!". When I'm working on a project I'll keep the smallest offcuts with the crazy notion that I might need it for a gusset or something.

 

[Yooper]

Nice score! Handy to have even if you don’t use it as my neighbor would say. W8x35 has a web of .310.

 

[Crash277]

I have a real problem when it comes to steel. The farmer had a nasty looking 6ft long piece of 3/4" black pipe near the pile and he could see me eyeballing it. He asked me if I wanted it and my response was "sure, I'll take it!". When I'm working on a project I'll keep the smallest offcuts with the crazy notion that I might need it for a gusset or something.

i throw nothing out when it comes to steel. 100% have used scrap pieces as gussets. a few times i even found some scrap pieces that i didnt even need to cut to fit into a project!!! i love when that happens

 

[mcmxi]

Nice score! Handy to have even if you don’t use it as my neighbor would say. W8x35 has a web of .310.

I measured all eight pieces this morning and the table below shows what I ended up with. Some of the pieces are a little messed up and would need work depending on the application. The W8x28 section is good to go.

As for pricing, the two pieces of W6x20 would cost around $1000, the W8x31 would cost around $2,500 and the W8x28 around $1,100. All in close to $4,600 at regular pricing for new material. I wonder if the farmer could have got more than $350 if he'd turned it in for scrap?

 

[hodge]

I have a real problem when it comes to steel. The farmer had a nasty looking 6ft long piece of 3/4" black pipe near the pile and he could see me eyeballing it. He asked me if I wanted it and my response was "sure, I'll take it!". When I'm working on a project I'll keep the smallest offcuts with the crazy notion that I might need it for a gusset or something.

Steel is precious. I do the same thing. I keep a scrap bucket in my shop, and a place on my steel rack for short left overs. When the scrap bucket is full, I take it to the local dump station. The guy who mans it scraps, with people bringing him all of their odd metals (like appliaces). By then, I've used what I want out of the bucket, and he can take it to the local recycling place.