Automotive Rotisserie Question

[LITJOHN]

I called a buddy that runs a metal manuf. biz that orders steel in once a month and said he'd price it out for me on his next order.
DAT if you were closer I'd come take some of that free stuff!!!

John

 

[Toolin]

When I was still working I could get get cut downs for .47cent a pound. Didn't matter what it was. I always buy it by the stick instead of paying them to cut it. I called a couple places today 2 double check prices, 3x3x1/4, 1 was $184 another was $267 last one was $400 for 1 20' stick??? That's with me picking it up!! They're flippin nuts!!! I'm like Tooling, been doing this type of stuff for over 35 years and would rather build it than buy it.
Like the 4 bolt flange bearings and using DOM by the way

Thanks for the compliment. Once you have the CG set properly it rolls like it's on ball bearings... That's because it is! In addition to the flange bearings the design incorporates a disc brake on each end that allows for infinite positioning. Came in real handy when welding up the Mustang-2 front suspension and the four link rear. I needed it perfectly level so I could take measurements with a carpenters laser.

Below is a couple of pictures of how I upgraded the casters because the car dollies did not roll so well especially when I wheeled it outside and had to deal with a slight grade. I have a time lapse video of me setting it up and spinning the car for the first time but is seems I cant upload it directly to the site.

 

[D.A.T.]

You should go into business selling all this free stuff.
I live in a rural setting and the number of shops are few and most just making enough to survive.

The drive to pick up this rotisserie was 2 1/2 hours one way.

Well...........the idea was to suggest to those on this forum commenting on the increased expense of steel they want to buy an alternative they might not be aware of and why. No one is going to give you free 40' or 20' sticks of tubing or pipe or flat bar etc. that they order and buy to make their products from. They might be willing to give you what is left over in shorts or rem if they have laying around with no other purpose for it and you tell them it is for something you want to make for yourself to use in a hobby and you have your own way to process it to shape.

There often is another way that may work for some depending on where you live and whether or not you want to be creative. A person has to have the gumption to walk into a shop and ask a fabricator or machine shop for something they won't likely use, don't want to sell because of how it is costed for accounting to a job, and has little value for scrap where it sits. The worst someone can say is no. If you say it for making something for your hobby that you are excited about----you might get a very friendly response from inquiry.

Once CAD design displaced old drafting and database materials ordered happened by being linked to CAD for many medium steel fabricators--the rem (left-over) problem exploded for many. You cannot store and inventory rem for something you might make out in the future and pay taxes on in some areas. For many--it has not gotten more efficient--it is worse. If the left-over cannot be sold via a scheduled delivery contract for another business to use for their feedstock--it piles up. They don't want to act like small players with cash sales out of wallets. Shorts--less than 6' long in light sections--channels tube etc. have little value for them and lots of handling costs to use them up in something else especially in automatic sawing, punching, and small pieces of plate for shearing in manufacturing. Medium sized steel fab businesses today might even offer you a job for $75,000yr for even walking in and expressing an interest in making something like a welded rotisserie for yourself.

Two large boilers I was involved in retubing in rural areas--about 2,200 boiler tubes coming out of each were free for the taking. Some were 30', 40, 50' long and 2 1/2" and 3" OD steel tubes and had lots of wall thickness left. Another one in Iowa had the original boiler supplier mis-bend 1100 brand new tubes--junk when it was discovered going into the install. No scrap vendors wanted to bring dumpsters out with the high cost of transport for such low value haulage and expense to cut down into more valuable smaller scrap pieces the steel mills want. Customers didn't want a junk pile on the property of things they don't or won't use or that took up spacer used for raw materials or their finished products. This often includes new material , insulation, brick, pipe, steel sheets, plate, sent to site that did not end up being used. The expense to pay people to load and transport back 1500 miles and the return freight was about the value of the items. Guess who came and got the boiler tubes--farmers, horse people, ranchers, used them for corrals, fences etc. Yeah..........took some effort on their part, not new shiny cut to length things exactly fitting their shopping lists.