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North America What's It Like Out There?

North America
Type
Metal
T

Tecnico

(Dave)
Premium Member
I was sourcing some material today for a couple of little projects designed to broaden my horizons. I went looking for 1215 steel (screw cutting stock) which is claimed by the reference I was looking at to be available on about any street corner in the UK (UK improve your machining skills project book). That and some O1 round (oil hardening material.

In the UK these are known as 230M07 and Silver Steel. The 230M07 is supposed to produce a better finish, kind of like 12L14 but not the same.

Metal Supermarket lists both but locally the answer was we don't stock anything like that (or SAE 660 bronze). My long established go to metal supplier has a raft of steel round bar types but not 1215 (or 12L14) and the bronze but no O1 round.

Just for giggles surfed a bit and Grainger's site showed up with a few sizes of 12L14.......not sizes I was looking for though.

I wound up with C1018 and nothing to harden, not a big deal because it was an exercise but still I would have liked to play with it.

So, how is it out there in your neighborhood?

D:cool:


EDIT: Apparently I can't edit the location, is that a privelege of a paid up member? Where are these perks listed?
 
It's not great here in Victoria. I pay through the nose to get 'specialty' steel such as 4140HT or 12L14. O1 or W1 is a special order from KBC or McMaster.
Heck a 12" long chunk of 2.25" 44W round stock was $30.
 
David_R8 said:
It's not great here in Victoria. I pay through the nose to get 'specialty' steel such as 4140HT or 12L14. O1 or W1 is a special order from KBC or McMaster.
Heck a 12" long chunk of 2.25" 44W round stock was $30.
Click to expand...

Huh? Almost 5X the population here and you can walk in off the street and buy 12L14?! I get blank looks.

We don't have KBC out here either, nothing like it. Seems strange given that we have a Canada's east coast naval fleet and a big ship building yard (Irvings) here, you'd think there'd be a bit of infrastructure to support it. The local shops must buy minimums from the distributors and keep it on the shelf until it's needed again. Gotta get expensive if you're the customer that ordered a little widget that needs a minimum buy.

A sample price from today, $34.21 for 12" of 2" dia C1018.

/Rant

Thanks for sharing.

D:cool:
 
Tecnico said:
Huh? Almost 5X the population here and you can walk in off the street and buy 12L14?! I get blank looks.

We don't have KBC out here either, nothing like it. Seems strange given that we have a Canada's east coast naval fleet and a big ship building yard (Irvings) here, you'd think there'd be a bit of infrastructure to support it. The local shops must buy minimums from the distributors and keep it on the shelf until it's needed again. Gotta get expensive if you're the customer that ordered a little widget that needs a minimum buy.

A sample price from today, $34.21 for 12" of 2" dia C1018.

/Rant

I'll be OK!

D:cool:
Click to expand...
We have several shipyards here also; DND and private and some pretty serious steel fabrication shops but I have no idea where they get their stock.
 
That's what I thought, similar naval infrastructure, should be similar support structure. Some day I'm going to have to see that part of the country and get a better appreciation!

I don't know how to compare it but we have a fair quantity of serious machine shops in the area and it's still hard to get turn around so it's not like nothing is happening locally. We have a good regional machine tool distributor that I deal with and a DGI supply nearby and probably more so that end seems to be serviced.

D:cool:
 
It's crap here in calgary as well

We just don't have a big enough market, 38m people vs 329m down south. Why stock something you are going to sell once a year, maybe, just leave it in your us warehouse and make the customer pay to ship it in (you have to remember most of the metal producers are internation companies)

All those places that use large quantities of specialty steel just get it brought in from 'merica
 
I just paid $20 for 36" of 3/8" O1 Drill Rod and MSM. They don't stock the 5/16" that I also needed:(

Didn't ask if they would cut it down. I only really needed about 6" or so.
 
Last edited:
YYCHM said:
I just paid $20 for 36" of 3/8" O1 Drill Rod and MSM. They don't stock the 5/16" I needed:(

Didn't ask if they would cut it down though. I only really needed 6" or so.
Click to expand...
That's actually a decent price.
 
I called Nu Tech metals in Thunder Bay looking for 12L14 a while back, and the sales guy said he's never heard of it and said 1018 was pretty much all they stock. Ordered it from McMaster and had it in a few days.
 
Tecnico said:
Huh? Almost 5X the population here and you can walk in off the street and buy 12L14?! I get blank looks.

We don't have KBC out here either, nothing like it. Seems strange given that we have a Canada's east coast naval fleet and a big ship building yard (Irvings) here, you'd think there'd be a bit of infrastructure to support it. The local shops must buy minimums from the distributors and keep it on the shelf until it's needed again. Gotta get expensive if you're the customer that ordered a little widget that needs a minimum buy.

A sample price from today, $34.21 for 12" of 2" dia C1018.

/Rant

Thanks for sharing.

D:cool:
Click to expand...


I get round chromed steel for next to nothing (at least scrap price through) in up to around 2.5" sizes (i.e. 1018 / 1020). Getting square in Calgary is hard... quite hard.

I only purchased twice in my life at MSM - once in Calgary and once in Ontario.

Specialty stuff would mostly be super expensive. I would look into usual "bad" places such as MSM but for small amounts you can also look online.
 
Tecnico said:
I was sourcing some material today for a couple of little projects designed to broaden my horizons. I went looking for 1215 steel (screw cutting stock) which is claimed by the reference I was looking at to be available on about any street corner in the UK (UK improve your machining skills project book). That and some O1 round (oil hardening material.

In the UK these are known as 230M07 and Silver Steel. The 230M07 is supposed to produce a better finish, kind of like 12L14 but not the same.

Metal Supermarket lists both but locally the answer was we don't stock anything like that (or SAE 660 bronze). My long established go to metal supplier has a raft of steel round bar types but not 1215 (or 12L14) and the bronze but no O1 round.

Just for giggles surfed a bit and Grainger's site showed up with a few sizes of 12L14.......not sizes I was looking for though.

I wound up with C1018 and nothing to harden, not a big deal because it was an exercise but still I would have liked to play with it.

So, how is it out there in your neighborhood?

D:cool:


EDIT: Apparently I can't edit the location, is that a privelege of a paid up member? Where are these perks listed?
Click to expand...
KBC
 
David_R8 said:
It's not great here in Victoria.
Click to expand...
I've been ordering 12L14 from Metal Pros in Ottawa, and having it shipped. Seems to work ok, at less cost than MSM, shipping included. MSM didn't even want to bring any in last time I was there, so there would have been shipping there too.
It's pretty grim.
Tom Kitta said:
If you need some 4140 or 4330 round I have few tons ... literally.
Click to expand...
You're too far away!
 
@phaxtris jumped on some 3x3 square steel for sale on kijiji and then the members jumped on him. I’m glad to have acquired one piece myself. Metal does come up for sale now and then privately. I’ll buy some and throw it under the bench for the next project. Material is always a problem. My last purchase of 4” round 6061 aluminum was $7+ per pound. Yikes! I need some more - anybody?
 
Janger said:
@phaxtris jumped on some 3x3 square steel for sale on kijiji and then the members jumped on him. I’m glad to have acquired one piece myself. Metal does come up for sale now and then privately. I’ll buy some and throw it under the bench for the next project. Material is always a problem. My last purchase of 4” round 6061 aluminum was $7+ per pound. Yikes! I need some more - anybody?
Click to expand...

I have I think something bigger, like 5" or 6". I would need to check. I also have stainless at 5" or something like that - round. Like 5 years ago I made tiny mistake and paid a lot for it (plus a large 9" log that is like 500kg+).
 
Tecnico said:
In the UK these are known as 230M07 and Silver Steel. The 230M07 is supposed to produce a better finish, kind of like 12L14 but not the same.
Click to expand...

Would these work?

O1 Tool Steel | DIN 1.2510 | Steel Express

O1 Cold Work Tool Steel. A general purpose oil hardening tool steel combinating high surface hardness and toughness after hardening and tempering. 01 is considered to be the general purpose tool steel, highly versatile and easy to handle. Available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.
www.steelexpress.co.uk www.steelexpress.co.uk

EN1A Leaded low carbon mild Steel 230M07 PB

en1a leaded, also known as 230m07 pb. a low carbon mild steel with added lead, free cutting, suitable for machining. en1a is available in rounds, squares, hexagons, and flats.
www.steelexpress.co.uk www.steelexpress.co.uk

Craig
 
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