Buying material in bulk, a discussion

[lilitaly]

How do you buy your material? Do you buy in bulk? Do you purchase volume to get a better price? Pick it up or get it delivered? Do you buy material as needed, monthly, or for a year at a time? For those with a smaller than full-size table, do you have the supplier cut the material or do you do it yourself?

*Not looking to start a "how much is steel in your area?" discussion. I'm talking more about what makes sense for your shop given size/production volume/ material types/ and supply/inventory.*

When I started, I would buy 5 sheets at a time, bring them home and cut them into 2x4 pieces. Two years ago I started buying 2500lb orders, precut, because that's what my pickup can carry. I recently bought a tractor with forks, which has opened up the possibility for delivery (although its somewhat limited because I can't get 18 wheelers to deliver to my shop). I've quoted several larger orders of 5000lbs, but find that I am not getting a worthwhile price break for the volume. I'm trying to figure out what makes sense going forward.

I also found a supplier that does a 40,000lb minimum. It's a fantastic price, but waaaay too much material.

How do you buy your material? Looking for thoughts, ideas and feedback. Thanks!


-Chris

[little blue choo]

I purchase mine as needed. I always try to order when I get down to 2 sheets of a given size. My supplier delivers daily and doesn't charge for delivery if I order $50 worth which means I only have to order 2 sheets to meet their quota. That being said it doesn't make sense for me to stock a lot of material.

Rick

[tnbndr]

I only keep a couple sheets in stock for quick orders or if I want to cut something to try. Otherwise I to pick up steel as needed when I have orders.

[steel 35]

The price breaks are huge, wish I could just sign up for an account and get the break but the tonnage I cant do; I buy 3 sheets or so at a time. No one close stock's 4 X cold, 5 X 10 only. Some days I wish I had gone 5 X 5.
If you know someone that does the tonnage ask what they pay, after you buy them a cold Beer

[little blue choo]

Unless you're cutting 8 hours a day 5 days a week I would thing you would be better off buying your material as you need it.

Rick

[Merica_Metal]

I just bought 28,000lbs of 14ga cold rolled for .21lb They miss cut on a job. most sheets are 49x24.875 which is perfect for my 4x4 biggest sheets are 50x120.

Figure I have 912 49x24.875 pieces and if I can make $200 a sheet min that's $182k not bad for a $6k investment. No risk no reward right

[_Ogre]

I just bought ...

NO YOU DIDN'T
YOU STOLE DAT

[Merica_Metal]

I just bought ...

NO YOU DIDN'T
YOU STOLE DAT

It was weird how it all worked out to be honest. I just got my machine last week after a 11week wait. I went to get 2 sheets of 14ga and 2 sheets of 16ga. While waiting to be loaded I saw a big fork lift full with 1/8 dump it all in a scrap dumpster. I get out look at the plate and its perfect. Ask the workers and they said ya they scrap all the time if the plates have dings scraps etc. Talked to the sales guys said I would use mostly 14ga. He said he had 28,000lbs from a job they miss cut and he'd sell it for .41lb I pretty much told him to pound sand as I just paid you .46lb retail no way in hell I taking a .05lb discount. So I said if you will do .21 I'd be interested. He replied back sure but you gotta take all 28,000lbs. O and that included delivery.

So its a goal to see how fast I can run through this 28,000lbs. as there is a lot of $$$$$ to be made with these margins

[lilitaly]

$0.21/lb is an awesome deal! If you also recycle, subtract that from the cost of the material and it's even less expensive!

I found a distributor a few hours away that offered a price 35% cheaper than my local options; the catch is I would need to go pick it up myself. I priced out a Penske flat bed truck, which costs $600 for the day (including fuel, mileage, insurance etc) and has a 10,000lb capacity. If I order 10,000 of steel from these folks; even after the cost of the truck rental I would still be saving $1,500 or 30% savings per pound. I think this justifies a day trip!

-Chris

[_Ogre]

[bigcreek]

Ill usually buy between 30 and 100 sheets at a time of what I use the most of which is 10 gauge just because of the cost savings per pound for buying bulk. Buying in bulk will save me around .20 per pound usually. 5x10 sheets. Other sizes I don't use a lot of I buy as I need. Actually Ill keep a sheet or two of many sizes in stock I don't use a lot of so I have it on hand if I need it which always comes up eventually.

[Dana gear]

I know it's a cost issue and some people just don't need a bunch of sheet at all times, That said we get a massive price reduction when we purchase larger volumes from the suppliers that sell to the local steel yards, I let a couple local shops (friends) piggy back off our orders, they simply add there orders to ours, helps both ways increases my weight and they get our pricing. Yes they have to come to our yard to fork it on to there trailers.
We pay about 60-75 percent of what the local yards sell for.
Shop around steel prices are all the place, go with a steel supplier that is moving a lot of product if you can, they tend to be a little cheaper.