Materials prices.

[Cato]

I've been looking into what additional equipment I'll need when I move. So I thought I'd price up the materials and to make another steel bench the same as this one I made previously will cost £1,000 in materials alone! No, that's not a typo.

 

[Morrisman]

40’ of 3” box, some castors and a sheet of 1/4” hardboard, £1000?

Or is there more to the bench than meets the eye?

 

[Cato]

40’ of 3” box, some castors and a sheet of 1/4” hardboard, £1000?

Or is there more to the bench than meets the eye?

The 'frame' is all 80mm square 5mm wall box section so :-

4 of @ 1500
6 of @ 500
4 of @ 750

and the top is 2 of 750 x 900 x 6mm sheet, plus four decent quality braked castors.

Sturdy enough to take some bashing of things, strong enough to take some heavy stuff, heavy enough to not bounce around and castors strong enough to wheel it around when loaded.

 

[Brad93]

The 'frame' is all 80mm square 5mm wall box section so :-

4 of @ 1500
6 of @ 500
4 of @ 750

and the top is 2 of 750 x 900 x 6mm sheet, plus four decent quality braked castors.

Sturdy enough to take some bashing of things, strong enough to take some heavy stuff, heavy enough to not bounce around and castors strong enough to wheel it around when loaded.

80mm is dear at the minute because it's not a common size.

Look at 100mm

 

[Morrisman]

80mm is dear at the minute because it's not a common size.

Look at 100mm

Just looked on eBay, 6m of new steel = £712

Or this,

 

[Cato]

80mm is dear at the minute because it's not a common size.

Look at 100mm

Thanks, that's useful to know as I hadn't even considered it as an unusual size.

 

[Ton-up]

Where the hell did you get those prices -
80 x 80 x 5mm RHS is £120 at Brundles -

80

R/H Section 80 x 80 x 5mm x 7.5 - 7.6m Grade S235. Buy online or call to order.

www.fhbrundle.co.uk

 

[Cato]

Just looked on eBay, 6m of new steel = £712

Or this,

It's not loads more to get another bike lift. If I use the one I have now with the side extensions left on, and add another it'll give me more flexibility in the workshop.

 

[Cato]

Where the hell did you get those prices -
80 x 80 x 5mm RHS is £120 at Brundles -

80

R/H Section 80 x 80 x 5mm x 7.5 - 7.6m Grade S235. Buy online or call to order.

www.fhbrundle.co.uk

Rapid Metals cut to the lengths required. I use them as they're close handy for collection and given that I rarely need anything beyond stuff for the lathe or odd bits for something it's convenient. The other issue I have currently is that a length that size won't fit in the workshop. That issue will be resolved when I move to the bigger workshop.

 

[owas]

Fh warden in Birmingham are good,cut to size and sell offcuts too.

 

[Munkul]

Rapid Metals are daylight robbers! They get business from hobby folk who can't, or won't, be prepared to deal with a proper steel stockholder.

Brundles are better, or use a proper big stockholder if you can deal with lengths.

 

[Morrisman]

Rapid Metals are daylight robbers! They get business from hobby folk who can't, or won't, be prepared to deal with a proper steel stockholder.

Brundles are better, or use a proper big stockholder if you can deal with lengths.

I started to order a 12” length of 1 1/2” alloy round bar from them, not a bad price, until the dreaded VAT and £8 postage was added at checkout, and it came to £24

Off to eBay, same piece of alloy was £11 with free postage.

 

[Cato]

Rapid Metals are daylight robbers! They get business from hobby folk who can't, or won't, be prepared to deal with a proper steel stockholder.

Brundles are better, or use a proper big stockholder if you can deal with lengths.

I only buy metal in hobby quantities and Rapid Metals Redditch is 10 minutes away so I can collect. Any other trade type places are the other side of the city centre for me which is 30 minutes to an hour away depending on time of day so for the quantities and frequency they usually work out cheaper and are always far more convenient. Delivery is an option of course, but trade places add a delivery charge and either don't do on off small quantity orders or when they do you're at the bottom of the list behind their main/regular customers.

So while the price per metre/kilo/square metre looks expensive the cost in delivery, time or travel means that there's not much in it.

 

[tigdlo]

The only way I can see £500 of steel being worth £1000 is if they build the bench for you, or you have some money that needs laundering then Rapid Metals pricing starts to make sense.

 

[gaz1]

I only buy metal in hobby quantities and Rapid Metals Redditch is 10 minutes away so I can collect. Any other trade type places are the other side of the city centre for me which is 30 minutes to an hour away depending on time of day so for the quantities and frequency they usually work out cheaper and are always far more convenient. Delivery is an option of course, but trade places add a delivery charge and either don't do on off small quantity orders or when they do you're at the bottom of the list behind their main/regular customers.

So while the price per metre/kilo/square metre looks expensive the cost in delivery, time or travel means that there's not much in it.

ive traveled to birmingham to pick up steel before

hired the van enjoyed the day out and collected all the steel for my stove builds and im on my last pieces now

my stockists are other side of town for me buying full pieces gives me chance to store and use later

 

[MetalMonkey]

Brundle is free delivery on orders over £150 ex VAT. Which I assume it would be.
Orders under £150 are a tenner.

Don't forget with the rapid metals quote you will have the additional expenditure for the bottle of astroglide.

 

[winchman]

I recently made some railings and a gate for the back garden.
It was far cheaper to buy a bigger set £20 on market place and alter them to fit my gap.
Materials have gone through the roof so I often look around and see what can be bought cheaply and remade.
One of our local scrap yards have twigged to this and now keeps lengths and off cuts to resell, usually just under half the new price.

 

[Munkul]

I only buy metal in hobby quantities and Rapid Metals Redditch is 10 minutes away so I can collect. Any other trade type places are the other side of the city centre for me which is 30 minutes to an hour away depending on time of day so for the quantities and frequency they usually work out cheaper and are always far more convenient. Delivery is an option of course, but trade places add a delivery charge and either don't do on off small quantity orders or when they do you're at the bottom of the list behind their main/regular customers.

So while the price per metre/kilo/square metre looks expensive the cost in delivery, time or travel means that there's not much in it.

That's fair in the case of a metre here or there, but in this case you're ordering 12 metres of SHS and a guillotined sheet of 6mm.

So the quantity and price behoves you to look a bit further afield.

 

[toddy]

for 2 lengths of 80x80x5mm box (7.5M) and a sheet of 6mm (2x1m) parkers steel is saying £300 +vat

 

[Cato]

That's fair in the case of a metre here or there, but in this case you're ordering 12 metres of SHS and a guillotined sheet of 6mm.

So the quantity and price behoves you to look a bit further afield.

You're right, and if it was an essential requirement or in the unlikely event I needed something like that for a customer job then I would shop around, compare prices and see who does what. In this case though it was just a 'nice to have' idea for a bit more mobile bench space and frankly if it was half the price I got I'd consider it too dear.

I'll make do with the bench I have for that sort of welding/grinding/hitting work. Everything else I do can be done on a timber bench, so I'll remove the fixed bench from the unit and then adapt it to suit the new place. If I need more bench space then as other have suggested a trawl of eBay, FB Marketplace etc will be the way to go.