Welding Tips and Tricks

I don't buy steel too often, but I continue to see rise in prices to me from my local suppliers.

I just bought a 20' length of 1"x2" tube, 11 gauge (1/8" wall) and had to pay $50.85. This same stick was about $35-$38 about a year and a half ago. Seems the price has gone up about 40%-50% on the street.

I could be wrong on my $35-$38, but pretty sure I'm right on that.

I don't know that this is a good gauge, as I said, I don't buy too much steel but buy it consistently.

Even worse, I pay about 70% of that to buy rusted sitting out in the rain for 2 years scrap...I would rather get new steel at a 30% margin... Scrap is like $1.50/lb in San Jose...

Alan

Just curious, does the price include delivery, Or are you able to pick it up?

Buying one length of anything certainly is going to be more expensive

You can get thank the trade tariffs for that. Pipe and fittings have gone up 50% as well. The suppliers sent out notices middle of last year.

LtBadd wrote:Just curious, does the price include delivery, Or are you able to pick it up?

That is for pickup... I only have a few options in my area, this is at SIMS. I can get about 10% cheaper if I drive 30 miles.

LtBadd wrote:Buying one length of anything certainly is going to be more expensive

Indeed, but they base their price on large purchases.

Poland308 wrote:You can get thank the trade tariffs for that. Pipe and fittings have gone up 50% as well. The suppliers sent out notices middle of last year.

That's a huge increase for materials, although in many cases welding is mostly labor, for any new structural type work requires purchasing steel...I buy various types of steel over the course of a year, but the most I'll buy is about 60'-80' at a time. More than not either 1 or 2 x 20' sticks.

I would most often rather use new pickled and oiled as I can clean it up pretty easy and tig it. Scrap is a lot more work for me to clean up and only marginally less cost.

Alan

Shouldn't the tarrifs allow domestic made steel to be cheaper? Or are the big corps using it as an excuse to gouge the little fellow?

Mick

weldin mike 27 wrote:Shouldn't the tarrifs allow domestic made steel to be cheaper? Or are the big corps using it as an excuse to gouge the little fellow?

Mick,

It seems the later. And speaking of tarrifs, I ponder how this will end up for all the imported inverters over time, there's bound to be some serious tariffs slapped on all those goods, it's probably just a matter of time. Maybe looking good for the Lincoln SquareWave 200 box, it's made in Mexico and it seems that they've somehow reached an agreement with Trump.

A year and a half ago when the tariffs were first imposed on Canada and Europe for steel, the increase wasn't too bad...but over time steel in general has gotten a lot more expensive.

I don't know why or how it is effected but it certainly seems to have been.

Alan

Domestic pipe is now just a little bit cheaper than the import stuff. But it’s price has stayed the same. For the most part. Lots of sale places only stock import because that’s only what they sold before.

Poland308 wrote:Domestic pipe is now just a little bit cheaper than the import stuff. But it’s price has stayed the same. For the most part. Lots of sale places only stock import because that’s only what they sold before.

Josh,

Probably the case with my local vendors, I only have 2 that I know of, SIMS and South Bay Metal.

Alan