Materials - Where do you Shop?

[Bcone1381]

Where do you shop to find your materials? I would like this thread to be ongoing where we can ask, and share good shopping experiences. I am looking at future Hardware, Rivets, Clecos, tools, Steel Tubing, and who know what else.

Right now I am shopping Aluminum for Wing Spar Cap materials for the Patrol. Plans call for .125 thick 2024 T3 1" wide, and various lengths up to 12' long. I am waiting for an offer from onlinemetals.com to match Spruces published offer. Spruce beat the published numbers in often by 50%. My hope is that onlinemetals.com will match Spruces price and allow me to drive an hour to there warehouse to pick it up.

Other vendors I tried included Kansas City Air Parts, Wicks. Anyone have a favorite Aluminum Vendor?

Brooks Cone
Scratch Building Patrol #303
Chelsea, MI

[patrickh99]

I like http://www.twmetals.com/

[Bcone1381]

I got a quote, and I think I like TW metals too.

[Chris In Milwaukee]

Ditto for TW Metals. That's where my aluminum came from.

From 2010, but here's the quote for my materials for the 4-place.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Bearhawk/files/Materials%20Quotes/

Click the PDF to view.

[geraldmorrissey]

KC Airparts for most of my aluminum. They ship small quantities plus all the sheet metal I have received has a plastic coating. Pricing seems competitive. I bought some capstrip extrusion from Spruce and it was pretty badly scratched up. Had to return it. Went back and forth until I got enough clean material to do my spars. Spruce pricing is very good and they do take returns, no questions. Customer service for both is good. Never bought from TW.
Good Luck
Gerry
Patrol #30

[Bdflies]

Spruce is now and has always been my 'goto' for materials. I can order aluminum sheet, steel tubing, nuts, bolts, hydraulic fittings, paint, etc., etc., all on one order at good prices. I've found their customer service to be first class. I order hardware (screws, rivets, rivnuts, etc.) from Spruce, even for non-aircraft projects, because of their pricing.

Bill

[Mark Moyle]

ACS is my first choice as well. They'll roll aluminum 4' wide full length sheets and mail it to me. They even rolled .050" 3003 and 5052H32....I insisted! The thicker stuff holds the rolled shape... But I have the tooling to make it flat again.


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[Chewie]

I've patronized brown tool for various things as they occasionally have surplus materials for pennies on the dollar. Clecos were cheaper if I recall, even new, compare to ACS. Free shipping when over $100.

[mswain]

Spruce for most things. B&B Aircraft sometimes has good prices on hardware and they have a lot of surplus less common style nutplates, etc. Vans Aircraft can have good prices on certain items. I ordered all of my dimpled nutplates from them, I think they were .60 vs. Spruce > 1.00. Thats a big difference when you need hundreds of them used in the 4 place. I did order my capstrips from Wicks as I couldn't find another source of 14' 6061 used in the rear spars, but they are a last resort for me.

[stinger]

Spruce now gives a discount to retired military, may help some. Stinger

[lsa140]

Excellent info. Spruce has a real time shipping quotes on their website, which is very useful. Other sites often say the shipping amount will be determined when the order is packaged, or call for a quote.