Interesting find. While trying (in vain) to locate some 310 stainless, 2" OD x .065" wall, I spoke with Plymouth Tube. They told be that I would have to buy 10,000 feet at a minimum (I only needed 620 feet). I asked what they would use as starting stock and they said it would be a hollow.....2.375" OD x .109 wall. Those numbers seemed somehow familiar so I too a look at my handy pipe size chart and guess what? Those dimensions describe 2" schedule 10 pipe!

 

I checked with Rolled Alloys and they did in fact have stock in 2" schedule 10 pipe.

 

Plymouth Tube quoted me roughly $10.00 per foot to convert the pipe to 2" OD x .065" wall tube and about 5 weeks....as opposed to 24 weeks for the 10,000 foot min buy.

 

There are a number of companies willing to provide this service including, apparently, Plymouth Tube but also, Century Tubes in San Diego.

 

You may never use this tip but one day if you do, say thanks Al.....

Be creative. If what you need is not available, you can:

1.) Saw cut or Mill it from plate, round bar or forged block

2.) Forge it

3.) Hot roll it from round or flat bar - conversion

4.) Plane or mill it from round bar

Here are shops who can provide these service.

1.) SAW CUT OR MILL IT

Many production saw cutting shops can take large diameter round and cut to square and flats

Pacific Metal Cutting - 714-729-2480 (excellent shop, speak with Mark, a former Fry Steel employee, he is super creative and he also stocks 15-5PH and 13-8MO vac melted blocks so he can often quote the whole job in flats and squares.

Able Bar Milling - 800-522-8800 - NOTE - This is an EXTREMELY expensive process and you will not see a return bid for at least 1-2 days.

Cartright Profiling - 714-828-6782 - Talk to Mel - West coast bar milling company better pricing than Able and quotes over the phone...They can cut flats, squares and hexes from rounds

2.) FORGE IT

Many forge shops can produce what are called "mandrel rings" to replicate tubing in short lengths, generally over 3" OD. Here are some favorites:

Viking Iron Works - 845-471-5010 - If you don't work with Viking yet, I strongly recommend that you start soon. Excellent forge shop, run by Rick Kunkel and his brothers. Extensive inventory, willing and able to do short lead time jobs, often in 2-3 weeks.

Western Forge & Flange Company - 800-352-6433 - Another great little forge shop who can offer faster than normal turnaround on an extremely wide variety of stainless and nickel alloys. Speak with James.

3.) HOT ROLL IT

There are a few shops out there who can hot roll round bar to squares, flats and hexes. Only consider these when you have a decent quantity (>200 feet) and some time to work with.

Braeburn Alloy Steel - (800) 33897 - Best in the business, period. They make the very best quality flats and squares out there, period. They make the very best quality flats and squares out there - talk to Clem

 

ANOTHER OPTION....PLANNING

Valco Precision Planing - Bert - 323-582-6355 bert@valcoprecision.com

Planing is an old art by which metal is cut in a manner of widdling material with a single blade/cutter. This is a method long abandoned since the development of machining centers and especially with the new technology of CNC machining.

There are, however, still applications in which you cannot beat this technology. Such as applications that require straight, flat and parallelism in an excessive long part. Also, the cutters are made to conform to sections of the shape being machined and can access difficult to reach areas.

 

 

For the average metal service center, buyout business represents about 10 % of your annual revenue yet, if you are like most, you have no formal policy around how to handle it.

How crazy is that? 10% might not sound like much but for many companies we're talking about millions of dollars in business and yet you have no set policy and provide no training.

Metal Suppliers Online is a website containing the searchable inventory of every known distributor, mill, extrusion and forge shop in North America. Using it, our clients average over 20% buyout business.

If the time is taken to create, train, implement and measure financial results year on year, many benefits can be achieved. Among them:

1.) Increased revenue....and not just in buyout sales. Properly handling buyout sales results in saved time, which in turn result in improved inventory turns. Your inside sales staff will begin to be seen as the "go to guy" for your clients...."these guys really know their business".

2.) Improved client relationships. If your staff is educated in the broader availability of metals in the US market, they will become perceived as the first one to call on any metal requirement. And, with a consistent policy on markups, they will be providing a fair price every time.

We advocate the development of formal policies for handling buyouts. The topics should include:

1.) Pre-qualification. Specifically, what sort of company and what sort of metals do we go after?

2.) Sourcing. How do we locate the metals and which vendors are qualified. Metal Suppliers Online can certainly help here.

3.) Markup. What is the markup percentage? There should be clear direction here with qualifiers...latitude for special situations.

4.) Order Entry. How is the paperwork handled on the items?

5.) Warehouse. When buyout Metal is received, how is the warehouse supposed to sanitize the metal....removing all supplier tags and markings to prepare for shipment.

These are the basics that must be addressed in order to create a sense of order, consistency and direction to your buyout policy.

If properly addressed, a policy such as this will have a solid impact on your bottom line. Give me a call if you have an interest.

Alan Gamble....603.329.0101 ....metals@gmail.com

If your client has a drop dead date for delivery and you cannot guarantee it, walk away. You might win one order, but if you miss that delivery date, you probably won't get a shot at the next.

Honesty will win you more friends than anything.

Having said that, there are a lot of ways to grease the skids and make the impossible possible. Work with your logistics team and if the money is there, look at air freight......a dedicated flat bed....there are lots of ways to get metal moved.

Use your contacts....Linkedin or otherwise. If a client has a plant shutdown situation, money is often no object...read PROFIT....but understand, you may have to take calls at home, after hours and really stay on top of a situation.

If it fails, the failure is all on you and your company.

Be careful which ones you commit to but if you do, its all in till the metal gets where it needs to be, but the commission and profit can be massive if you're willing to follow the metal from start to finish

Earle M. Jorgenson had a favorite saying.....it was (and still is) even painted on the wall above his office door...."Hustle....Thats All"

The faster you reply to ha sales opportunity, the better the chance your client won't head to Google and find it himself.

AS SOON as you get the RFQ and decide to work it, reply....even if just to let the client know that you're on this one and will have a quote very soon.

The Internet has taught people to expect things instantly. Amazon can deliver darned near anything overnight.....and they display pricing online. Obviously, at this point we can't match that, but many suppliers are getting pretty darned close.

Take a look at www.rolledalloys.com or www.onlinemetals.com. The industry is rapidly moving in that direction. I am writing this in 2015.....if you're reading this any more than 2-3 years later, I am willing to bet that most of the major distributors are offering online pricing, stock checking and ordering. Heck, back in 1978, well before the Internet, Ryerson would give a free computer terminal to their better contract clients who could view their material and schedule releases.

Bottom line.....HUSTLE!

Careful, careful, careful. The client asks for some A-286 round bar....no spec, just A-286.

You get a price from Fry for material to AMS 5732, the most common spec available for A-286. You win the order.

The purchase order comes in and in the small print, which you can easily miss, the customer calls for AMS 5737 - Aged material.

Rejection.....and oh by the way, Fry cut the stock in half for UPS so, you own it.

There are many ways this sort of thing can play out - pitfalls galore but here is the ONLy way around it.

When an order comes in for a non-stock item, a hard and fast procedure must be followed. Send the order through and get an acknowledgement copy with a spot in the body for a client to review and accept it.

DO NOT order the metal from your supplier until and unless you get a signed copy back from the customer.

EVEN IF the customer is in a super rush for the metal, do not skip this step and make sure that the order acknowledgement clearly states the material, specification, size, tolerance and shipping promise....every detail that could cause confusion down the road.

MAKE SURE that the customer knows that until you get that signed copy back, you cannot accept the order or start the clock for your delivery promise.