[Closed] Buying scrap metal - where?

You could try looking around some of the engineering auction sites.
They may have something like this

Any engineering companies near you who could sell a chunk of their scrap or even spare stock?

1.8m doesn't really feel like an offcut!

Poly You'd be surprised .

I get stuff made in 38ft lengths and material comes in ~23 or ~43ft lengths for various reasons

Longer offcuts can and do happen in industry especially when your not allowed to hold the offcuts as stock for smaller jobs(blame lean and 5 S processing)

How ever in (my)industry we do need proof of destruction when we send to scrap merchants so he could not sell on to an un licensed third party such as Mowgli for a variety of reasons.

I have, in the past, walked into scrap yards and asked to have a rummage around and pay cash for anything I find that I want. Obviously very dependent on the yard, and may be more difficult with tighter regulation, though since most of that is checks on sellers, probably wouldn't make much difference.

Similarly, you might have luck walking into a local steel stockholders. The sales counter isn't likely to be terribly interested in helping a one-off customer wanting a small quantity, but if you can talk to the guys on the floor, you might get lucky and they might find something for you. I know a friend of mine has bought bits and pieces this way before.

It's surprising what you can get if you're prepared to go and talk to people, though expect nothing.

Any engineering companies near you who could sell a chunk of their scrap or even spare stock?

This. I worked at one of those industrial-estate light-engineering type places for a summer, and they had a skip outside that was full of 'bits'.

Any steel stockholders nearby? There’s one in Thirsk called Tomrods & if they have any offcuts you want you’re obliged to bung a few quid in a charity box they have.

How much is it new?

Not sure where you are based, but would something like this work?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175045513820?hash=item28c186925c:g:NSQAAOSwaaBhp0~0

Not mine, just saw it whilst bored at work!

Not sure where you are based, but would something like this work?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175045513820?hash=item28c186925c:g:NSQAAOSwaaBhp0~0

Not mine, just saw it whilst bored at work!

🙂 Did you spot the sellers name ?

Ahh, I see the problem!

That should work, I think the OP is in Sheffield too🤣

That should work, I think the OP is in Sheffield too

👏👏👏👏👏👏

A few years ago when I was trying to learn to MIG weld I was looking for some scrap bits to practice on. I went to a local light engineering/fabricator place, told them what I wanted and they let me have a rummage in their skip. I took a small box of offcuts FOC. I suspect if they saw me taking the piss and taking 100s of kilos to weigh in at the scrappy they might have said no, but they could see I was genuine. There were some fairly big offcuts in that skip! Too big for what I needed, but I'm sure they would have let me take one or two for a few beer tokens. Worth a try?

Haha, yep, that one looks it ought to work! It's actually off a much smaller drill and wasn't till I got it home that I realised I need something much beefier, even if the OD is correct. I'll try a few more local machine shops, cheers.

Why do you want to make a new column? What's wrong with the old one on eBay?

Ah - read the above!
Can you not sleeve your head and table to match the Startwrong?

1.8m doesn’t really feel like an offcut!

Steel is typically sold in lengths of 6 to 7.6m - most stock holders won't sell you less than a whole length - they might cut it to size for you but they'll still charge for the whole lot. Busy fabricators can easily end up with a lot more shortish (ie less than 3m) lengths than they can make any real use of. So an offcut for them can often be quite big. I don't typically hold on to anything less than 4m at the end of a job - not worth the space it take up to store.

Exceptions if you're looking to buy shorter pieces new  are an online retailer called Metals 4 U and branches of a small chain called 'Metal Supermarkets' who may have a branch locally. Both are expensive on a per-meter price but cheaper than buying whole lengths - they're focused more towards a precision engineering market where people need small amounts of very particular stock for one-off applications.

Metal Supermarkets stock more in the way of precision stock, specialist alloys than more typical fabrication orientated stockholders like FH Brundle.

Dunkerleys if you’re passing Oldham, I’ve used them a few times for odds and sods. They don’t seem to mind cutting some off a length for you.

Scaffolding bar would be plenty strong enough for this. Wont look pretty but will defo do the job.

You could bush the drill body if the scaff bar is too small in diameter.

Scaffolding bar would be plenty strong enough for this. Wont look pretty but will defo do the job.

Have you ever picked up a quality pillar drill head.

The reason the tube is so hd is so you can drill straight and true.

A scaff tube over 1.8 m with a weighty head and the rotating and downward forces on would be lucky to start in the mark you made never mind be go straight

Yeah I'm afraid I'm with him. The head is best part of 80kg and the down force from the quill is at least that again. There's a reason the column is 70mm solid bar, and it's not so it looks good!

LOLs at the scaffold bar solution 🤣

Could you do something to beefy up the one you have? Maybe fill it with concrete with some rebar. Not sure how much stiffness that would add, though.