Tom Fitzpatrick
Active Member
Tried out Calgary Metal Market yesterday for 6061 aluminum and some mild steel angle for a dolly for the industrial compressor I'm restoring. I was very impressed with his set-up (Daniel is his name). Very neat and organized place. He has a good stock of aluminum and stainless plus lot of steel. It's inside where it's dry and warm. The piece of aluminum I purchased (2 X 2 X 1/4" wall) is difficult to find and MSM, Steel Inc & Federal Metal never carry it although they say they can bring it in. Same type of dimension that is used to mount your 2" trailer ball and then that ball mount slides into the class 3/4/5 receiver on your vehicle. Robust piece, especially because of the 1/4" wall thickness. Using this piece as a ball mount for the receiver tube for the front of our quad to reduce weight when moving around trailers. He has a very good selection of aluminum (checker plate, dimensional stock, & sheet stock in various thicknesses). Daniel also has some end cuts, but because he's only been open 3 weeks, these are currently limited. He also carries quite a good line of used Miller and Lincoln welders. Check him out.
Oh, to answer a question earlier on in this section about Federal Metals and them not having aluminum. They DO carry aluminum in dimensional thicknesses - they keep it in a C-can next to the large tent structure - the C-can is always closed, but all you do is ask the attendant & he more than willingly opens it up. Calgary Metal Market has a much more diverse selection of aluminum though.
It's nice to see a variety of metal supply businesses starting to open up and provide diversity and competition in the market. Now if we can only go back to what Federal metals had a number of years ago when they used let hobbyists scour through their recycling bins and purchase the material for scrap prices. That was sweet, until some fool went outside of the boundaries, got seriously hurt and then Federal shut that material stream down for the rest of us - I get it because of liability. Would be nice to see something like that again - here's dreaming!
I've also purchased dimensional steel from Russel as well ( new tongues for two trailers out of 3 X 6 X 3/16" wall), but had to buy 20 feet - was OK though as I used it all. They're OK for large dimensional material.
Oh, to answer a question earlier on in this section about Federal Metals and them not having aluminum. They DO carry aluminum in dimensional thicknesses - they keep it in a C-can next to the large tent structure - the C-can is always closed, but all you do is ask the attendant & he more than willingly opens it up. Calgary Metal Market has a much more diverse selection of aluminum though.
It's nice to see a variety of metal supply businesses starting to open up and provide diversity and competition in the market. Now if we can only go back to what Federal metals had a number of years ago when they used let hobbyists scour through their recycling bins and purchase the material for scrap prices. That was sweet, until some fool went outside of the boundaries, got seriously hurt and then Federal shut that material stream down for the rest of us - I get it because of liability. Would be nice to see something like that again - here's dreaming!
I've also purchased dimensional steel from Russel as well ( new tongues for two trailers out of 3 X 6 X 3/16" wall), but had to buy 20 feet - was OK though as I used it all. They're OK for large dimensional material.