anyone know of a decent place to get tubing thats not a fortune?

[14TR]

I have a couple threads on my 99 ext cab ranger racer I'm building. I just got done building my own tubing bender (a clone of a JD Squared model 3) and am about to start building a cage out of 1-5/8 x 0.120 ERW. There is a local metal supplier I usually use but they recently changed hands and the prices are through the roof now for material (As they are most everywhere, I know). I called my one buddy who has a contact there who usually gets pretty deep discounts for him, but even his best price came out to $6/foot. I'm thinking I need about 120 feet for the cage and frankly thats more money than I paid for the truck lol. Shopping online I was hesitant with freight shipping killing any potential savings but I did find a better price on Metals Depot for a little over $4/foot and shipping comes out to about $150 so not bad but nearly wipes out the price difference. Any of you guys know alternative sources for the tubing or a better deal online? or a good supplier within an hour or so of Northeast PA? Thank you much!

 

[Roert42]

McNight Steel and Tubing, and Widener are the two places I use normally.

They are both in bucks county, so might be a bit of a drive.
Let me know where you get your metal from either way, always good to have another name incase you need something.

 

[14TR]

I always bought from Nivert which is here in Lackawanna County. They recently traded hands and are now American Steel or something similar. Prices on metal are up the last few years anyway, but there was undoubtedly a noticeable spike in prices when the new owners took over.

I'll check out the places you mentioned. Who knows, might be worth the drive

 

[sgtsandman]

Check out https://www.metalsupermarkets.com/ I suspect they aren't local to you but I'm not sure what counties are in Northeast PA.

I also don't know if their prices are great, only that they are cheaper than getting steel from a place like Lowes, True Value, or Home Depot.

 

[Curious Hound]

Metal supermarkets is handy and decently priced. I use them occasionally. My metalsupermarkets (just 3.5 miles away) has a set of shelves for short drops and small pieces. I call it the bargain shelf. Sold by the pound, supposedly. But they never weigh what I pick out. $10 minimum. I'll spend 20 minutes picking out pieces on those shelves some days. I get some good stuff there.

Mostly, I go to an independent, family owned metal supplier nearby. Their prices change often due to market. But always seems reasonable. I usually buy full 20 sticks of whatever and keep the scrap for future use. I scrounge the drops by the big shear outside to get smaller pieces of sheet goods. Fun place. Probably 98% or more of what I use comes from them and they'll order something if they don't have it in stock.

 

[901wd#2]

Fazzios in New Jersey.

 

[Shran]

Sounds about like what I have been paying… just bought 14’ of 2” square 3/16 wall and it was $65. That’s about $5/foot after tax. I think DOM is special order here, HREW is fairly common. Both are spendy.

 

[14TR]

I meant to update this a while ago, but ended up getting 1 5/8” .120 wall DOM for about $3.50 a foot local. 21 foot sticks delivered for free. American Steel (formerly Nivert Steel) in Throop PA. In case anyone is interested and somewhat local