Raw Aluminum Source?

Hi All,

I am ready to have my hand at home-made extruder making.

I was wondering what you consider the best/cheap source of raw aluminum bars/rods for making heater blocks etc.

Thanks for your thoughts

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FabberForge - Printing Happiness

[www.fabberforge.com]

Either your local steel mill or: [www.onlinemetals.com] if you are in the US.

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Depends on the qty of metal you will be buying. Online places like the one in the post above are fine if you only need a few feet of metal now and again. But if you need to buy like ten 12' bars a month or something find the closest metal supply company. Most of them will have a weekly or even bi-weekly delivery route that runs through your area. And prices will be much better. The big metal companys dont like to sell a single bar and if you need less than a standard 12' bar you might as well buy the whole bar as the saw charge and fees will cost about as much as a full bar anyway. There are usually pretty big price breaks so if you know you will need aditional metal in the near future and have the cash to put some in inventory its cheaper to buy a few months worth of metal at a time.

The shipping is a killer on raw materials, so if you can find a local supplier who will sell in small quantities use it.
OnlineMetals.com happens to be local for me so I tend to use it, and I've been happy with the service, being able to buy cut to approximate size is nice.
I can't easily deal with 12ft of anything, I usually buy in cut 15 inch lengths, because it's the practical cutting area of my mill anyway.
Again you pay extra to have it pre cut, so it's a matter of what the convenience is worth to you.

In the U.S. try McMaster.com

Lots of raw materials as well as hardware used in printers.

+1 on McMaster.com. I ordered most of my i2 hw from them.

discountsteel.com

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- akhlut

Just remember - Iterate, Iterate, Iterate!

[myhomelessmind.blogspot.com]

use-enco.com regularly has shipping deals and their prices are reasonable.