Used steel

[dkc1657]

Steel prices seems to be going through the roof in the last few years. I'm guessing it corresponds with low interest rates + industrial construction boom lately. Has anyone ever thought of used steel? Here's where I've been scavenging lately

- Expired propane tanks = OBA tanks, fuel tanks?
- Old steel sign posts the city throws away, 8-10' of 2.5 - 3" galvanized tubing
- Sign posts that someone runs over when hopping a curb, someone does that a lot near me (not me)
- Old steel fencing / fence posts the city throws away (pipe)

Sheet metal:
- Old computer cases / tower covers (patch panels, custom fuel cells?)
- Appliance sides - cut them out, nice wide sections

Also been going to a steel recycler's lately. They buy offcuts and unused steel from construction projects big and small, machine shops, fab shops etc.. they'll sell stuff at well below half of what I'd have to pay new for...

Anyone else?

(My 300th post, woohoo!)

[HalfFastFord]

stick with the steel recyclers. Expired propane tanks may or may not hold, not worth you life trying to find out. sign posts are generally crappy metal and extremely heavy (read pipe). sign posts aren't thick enough to do anything with other than mounting brackets for your stereo. steel fencing-again it's pipe.

[PTSchram]

I get my sheetmetal from the body shop next door to the shop.

Mercedes deck lids are really nice. Nice big sheets of flat steel! Makes great floor pan patch panels.

[Travis Waldher]

stick with the steel recyclers. Expired propane tanks may or may not hold, not worth you life trying to find out.

120psi bursting a tank will mean a bang, followed by PFFSSSHHHHHHHHHH as teh air leaks out.

It isn't going to kill you.

Hell, on MB when they shot a 3000psi divers tank it didn't explode, it just let the air out.

[rcurrier44]

120psi bursting a tank will mean a bang, followed by PFFSSSHHHHHHHHHH as teh air leaks out.

It isn't going to kill you.

Hell, on MB when they shot a 3000psi divers tank it didn't explode, it just let the air out.


Yep and the 120psi that you are putting in a propane tank is way less than its rated for...I woulden't worry about it.

Personaly I get alot of steel from the scrap bin ware I work. I have enough 1 & 2" cold rolled to build 10 sets of d60 high steer arms. Plus lots of 3' - 4' sticks of different flat and tube. Most companies don't care if you scrounge around in their bin because they get so little from the recyclers arround here.

I haven't had to buy anything other than sticks of tube in years :grinpimp:

[bigdreamin]

One thing to remember is that steel comes in hundrads of diffrent "flavors", and street sign posts and fencing are about bottom of the barrel when it comes to steel. If all yoru gunna do is use it for a floor pan or tool box, go for it, just don't use it for anything remotly structural, or load bearing.

[dkc1657]

Well street signs around here are made with galvanized tube, 2.5 - 3" or so ... I live near a bridge and the city has been putting diverters and blocking residential streets to keep people from using residential roads to shortcut to the bridge. Judging by the direction some of these signs have been knocked over, looks like someone is runing right over them.

These posts kink near the bottom, I found one when walking my son, I just picked the other end up and kept bending it till it broke off. I figure the city will just throw it away so I figre I'll pick it up. So far I've found 2 this year like that.

Last time I threw out a stove I decided to cut out the sheet steel sides. It's quick easy work with the plasma cutter.

If I ever find pipe I'll take it too. Not really good for much but maybe making other shop jigs ...

[dkc1657]

I've seen some people get pretty creative with old propane tanks. Like I've seen people turn them into a wood heater with a hinged door, into a barbeque with a hinged hood, into auxiliary fuel tanks (me).

I'm a scavenger at heart, I drove into a gas station and noticed there was an odd sized propane tank, it's not a 5 gallon, and not a small camp stove one. It looked like 1 or 2 gallon capacity. It looked perfect for an air compressor tank.

[CPOM]

What I usually do is go to the local family-owned steel place, but some steel in the full lenghts, pay the cut fees or whatever, then on the way out mention you need some other pieces they might have in the drop pile. they usually just give you that stuff for next to nothing if you are already tehre buying something.

Before I would go and just try to buy the drops and they'd charge me 40-50 or whatever for a small amount since their rationale is to get a decent sized order out of you no matter what. I learned that lesson and now I buy half new half drops usually. Got pieces to make a front driveshaft 2 3' pieces of sq tube for $10 last time!

[bigdreamin]

I pretty much only buy new steel, but thats is becuase I work for a company that uses alot, I can buy steel at our cost which is pretty damn cheap. :D

[lwg]

Street signs would make a cool toolbox!

[Lil'John]

Depends upon what I need and what I'm using it for.

For some things where I don't mind cleaning it up, I will see what my local steel place has on the shelves. $0.25 a pound is kind of nice ;) That is assuming he doesn't just outright give it to me:eek:

But at othertimes, I will just buy new. Although sometimes that HURTS a lot.

[Travis Waldher]

I pretty much only buy new steel, but thats is becuase I work for a company that uses alot, I can buy steel at our cost which is pretty damn cheap. :D

So does someone I know.

still 12x.250 bar in a 20' stick was $134.

I won't even mention how much 6x6x.250 box tube cost.

[D60]

One of the most obvious sources is parts vehicles.........and if you can make XYZ fit your application, ya know it's relatively high grade stuff (or at least average mild steel). For instance complete truck frames can provide good lengths of channel, axle tubes ain't gonna be pot metal, etc etc. Axleshafts will of course be hardened and can be used as just round stock in some applications, ditto for tie rods. Sway bars may be spring steel tho I think?

I particularly seem to scavenge all sizes of tube and pipe. Never know when it'll come in handy for a cheater bar, or to drive an odd-size seal into place (the front pump seal on many auto trannies is quite large).

Wheels are great bases/stands, and don't even get me started on all the cool rotating assy stuff you can do with spindles, lockouts and wheel bearing hubs :) I even once saw an idiot build a complete engine stand from TTB arms..............er wait, that was me

Living in natural gas well country I sometimes scan pads for stuff leftover. Found one of the big-ass anchors they use to tie off drilling rigs. It's about 5' or 6' long, maybe 1.5" round stock w a huge eyelet intended to be above ground and a flower-shaped toggle to be buried. Lots of pipe and pipe support stands, stuff like that, too. All stuff that's clearly been forgotten about or abused too much for it's original purpose and they're just too lazy to haul it away.

[jerseyzuks]

I have grabbed bunch of old bedframes, they are a great source of angle iron

A buddy of mine used to work on the docks, and used to bring home really long lengths of C channel that were used to secure the containers when they were shipped overseas. From what he told me, they would weld them shut, then torch off the C channel when they arrived at the docks. He said that they had piles of the stuff just laying around waiting to be picked up. I've used a bunch of it for custom bumpers. Kinda heavy, but free.

[eschoendorff]

I sometimes scrounge around commercial building sites for dumpsters full of uni-strut. Granted, you can't build a rig with it, but it sure comes in handy for all sorts of projects around the garage.

[300sniper]

galvanized steel....

i'd really NEED the galvanized before i would let some one GIVE it to me. i definitely wouldn't be using it on my vehicle. for a fence post or a antenna mount on a communication tower, sure.:D

[Zrock]

I scrounge the local dump steel pile... I have yet to go out and buy steel. Old trailer frames is a good source for 2x10 and heavy guadge steel, car hoods and roofs is a good source for sheet metal cut out the flats and take the rest back, Unlimeted source for axles most of the time someone dosent realize what they are tossing out and nothing wrong with it (just scored a 86+ toyota rear only thing wrong was a leaking pinion seal) Found big plates of T1 steel and this stuff is a bitch to cut up with a grinder. I have yet to buy steel for a project on my truck... built all bumpers and sliders etc from good steel

[Kartracer55]

120psi bursting a tank will mean a bang, followed by PFFSSSHHHHHHHHHH as teh air leaks out.

It isn't going to kill you.

Hell, on MB when they shot a 3000psi divers tank it didn't explode, it just let the air out.


I strongly disagree

Two different animals. On Mythbusters, the tank they shot was perfectly capable of withstanding the pressure. When they shot it they made a hole which relieved the tank of its internal pressure. The gas inside wasnt highly volitile or anything like that, so why would it explode? it just leaked out.

If a propane tank were to explode, it wouldnt be as harmless as you think...

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/FACE/stateface/mi/01mi038.html

For 6 years peopl had be pressurizing this same tank to 100 PSI to help speed up the evactuation of liquid. On this day, the line pressure was increased from 100 to 120PSI and look what happened.

Compressed gas is dangerous... its not like a compressed liquid. Hence why they do hydrostatic testing instead of pressurizing a tank to X psi and have one guy come out from behing the brick wall to spay some windex on the thing to quckly check for leaks.

Yeah yeah somebody is going to come up and point out all the technicalities in the story and how its different from a propane tank because this wasnt intended for pressure. Bottom line is the same thing this guy was doing at 120psi when it ruptured and killed him had ben done without incident for 6 years at 100psi. Thats a pretty brutal rupture on that tank, and that was only at 120 psi. Look how far it went too.

As long as the propane tank is still up to code or however youd like to put it you shouldnt have a problem because they are apparantly designed to see pressures well beyond what and of our air compressors can produce, but dont go to some junkyard somewhere and find a propane tank that is dated 1972 because youd ont want to take the risk of having it burst on you, ya know?

Jim

[jasonmt]

The last paragraph highlighted in blue is the most pertinent to what is being discussed, the rest is more background information from a previous post with a similar subject being discussed.

In my younger and stupider years I will happily admit to using a propane cylinder as an air receiver, but having worked in and around pressure vessels for more than a few years now I would NEVER consider using a propane cylinder as an air receiver.

Transportable cylinders such as a 20# barbecue cylinder are generally manufactured to DOT specifications 4BA, 4BW and 4E and have a minimum service pressure of 240psig with the PRV setting usually at 375psig.

A few quick items pertaining to this specification:

The term service pressure is analogous to, and serves the same purpose as, the ASME design pressure. However, it is not identical, representing instead the highest pressure to which the cylinder will normally be subjected in transit or in use but not necessarily the maximum pressure to which it might be subjected under emergency conditions in transportation. The service pressure stipulated for the LP-Gases is based on the vapor pressures exerted by the product in the cylinder at two different temperatures, the higher pressure of the two becoming the service pressure, as follows:

The pressure in the cylinder at 70°F (21°C) must be less than the service pressure for which the cylinder is marked.

The pressure in the container at 130°F (54.4°C) must not exceed 5⁄4 times the pressure for which the cylinder is marked.

Example: Commercial propane has a vapor pressure at 70°F (21°C) of 132 psig (910 kPag). However, its vapor pressure at 130°F (54.4°C) is 300 psig (2070 kPag), so service pressure [5⁄4 times, which must not exceed 300 psig (2070 kPag)] is 300 divided by 5⁄4, or 240 psig (1650 kPag). Thus, commercial propane requires at least a 240-psig (1650-kPag) service pressure cylinder.



Another item to consider that LP-Gas is considered to be commercially free of corroding components and thus internal corrosion is not considered an issue. The approved requalification procedures for a DOT cylinder in LPG use are subject to certain exemptions due to this. A propane cylinder that has sat empty with the valve open for a long period of time or used in a service that corrosion may be an issue such as being used as a compressed air receiver would present some corrosion issues. A propane cylinder also does not have a drain for condensate like most air receivers have which could multiply the corrosion issues. It doesn’t take a large amount of local corrosion before pressure vessels integrity is impaired and I doubt that anyone who is using one for an air receiver is using a relatively new cylinder.

[rotozuk]

There is always the story of the guy that saw a bubble on his truck tire. He inspected it by touching it (tire had about 30 PSI in it) and the bubble popped and took off a finger. I heard this second party.

-Wayne

[dkc1657]

Here's some creative uses for old propane tanks...

http://img95.exs.cx/img95/2040/m09.jpg
http://img95.exs.cx/img95/2006/m21.jpg
http://img95.exs.cx/img95/1880/m04.jpg