I have not been to Alro to know. There is metal Supermarkets Pittsburgh near that and I know someone that has been there and it sounded good. 

Check to see if you have any screw machine shops around. The one I worked at generated bar ends that were 7"-12" long by the ton. We did mostly electrical connectors so mostly copper and brass with some beryllium copper tossed in-easy to spot due to the color difference, along with some stainless, titanium, aluminum, and steels. 

So my dad ended up coming with a carload of stuff for me. Everything from 1/2 inch steel plate to a few little bars of copper. There's some giant chain, I beams some things that are like what they use as the canister for canister damascus, except thicker. I'm going to go take some pictures and post it all. The bench vise he got me is xxxxxxx huge. Plus he got another little arbor press.

Edited November 23, 20178 yr by Mod34
Edited for inappropriate language.

Look forward to pics. 

Some giant chain, it's about 11 feet long.

I'm not sure what these airbags are for, but there's four of those.

 

This is all copper coated with chrome.

 

Awesome new wilton bench vise. Another picture below. I didn't get a good picture of the diamond plate steel it's sitting on, but it's half inch thick diamond plate.

This piece of steel is half inch thick.

This is some kind of wheel from some industrial piece of equipment. There's 4 of them.

There's also a nice craftsman angle grinder I didn't get a picture of.

Man he got you all kinds of goodies. Next you'll need a welder 

that angle grinder is going to be busy. 

 

Yeah, that's the next thing I plan on buying. Well, my dad will probably find it for dirt cheap and buy it for me. The bench vise he got is a $300 wilton and he paid like $100. That's the only thing he actually paid for that he brought to me today.

Good deal! 

Your dad did good, found all sorts of useful stuff. I think the air bags are load levelers from a truck or trailer.

Those are acualy air ride cab bags, but they are used for all kinds of light truck and car applications, even low riders

Very nice haul, Pr3ssure. 

But please, next time wear shoes (at least) when handling metal. Just dropping something on your foot may cause a lot of damage!

Cheers!

Now I’m thinking about using airbags to make bellows....

Might wear you out pumping them. That's usually some strong thick rubber. 

If the copper is buss bars it may be nickel or silver plate

 

12 hours ago, Arthur210 said:

Very nice haul, Pr3ssure. 

But please, next time wear shoes (at least) when handling metal. Just dropping something on your foot may cause a lot of damage!

Cheers!

I was wearing shoes when I was moving them but my feet starting sweating. So I took them off before I took the pictures. Thanks for the tip anyway.

 

40 minutes ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

If the copper is buss bars it may be nickel or silver plate

 

He said it was all from an electric box, like the big thin plate with holes, the bent pieces and the smaller rectangle. I'm not sure if the thicker bars were as well.

Also, went to town today, got some nice safety glasses, some cutoff wheels for the grinder, a flap disc because there weren't any regular sandpaper ones but the flap disc takes wood off like nothing. Also some bolts to bolt my vise down and a nice little six foot Stanley Fat Max measuring tape.

I've been installing new sink faucets for my mom all night, one in the kitchen and the two in her bathroom. Guess I'm adding "plumber" to my resume. LOL

You'll add a lot more titles as time goes on if you are the do it yourself type . And you'll add a lot more tools to the box as well lol.

 

Yeah, I'd rather be able to do maintenance on most things myself. A little common sense and a quick google search and I have been able to do most anything. I just don't think I'll try playing electrician, at least not past installing new sockets and light switches. I've got a friend for that.

but I think I'm going to fire up the forge in the morning and cut the little square bar my dad got in half and try forging some s hooks. I really need to mount my anvil though. So might be a productive day tomorrow on that front. If I do I'm going to make a new post with some pictures of hopefully some half decent S hooks.

16 hours ago, JHCC said:

Now I’m thinking about using airbags to make bellows....

Ray Clontz used one of the adjustable airbag/spring sets to make a hands-free leg vise. A foot pedal allowed you to open or close like a hydraulic press. Ya gotta make it beefy though, the prototype out of small C-channel warped. 100psi X volume of airbag = SMOOSH!