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Where To buy Materials My preference has been to buy locally. RG 45 at the welding supply where I get my tanks filled. Copper 8 gauge wire at the local metal recycler. Sheet copper from a warehouse in Indianapolis. To get my oxygen acetylene tanks filled or go to the metal recycler is about a 40 mile round trip. The warehouse in Indianapolis is about a 100 mile round trip. Part of the skill of doing metal sculpture is finding the materials. Without the material, knowing how to braze and weld is not much use. You have a lot going for you in the Yellow Pages and now the internet. If you have one source for buying a particular metal then you are stuck with their price. But if you have several resources you can choose the one that is best for you. I don't like to pay shipping costs any more than anyone else. But some of the prices I see on the internet for sheet copper are far better than anything I can get locally. This means paying the shipping costs is not such a bad deal. On the other hand if you can find a metals warehouse that has "drops" (left over pieces) in the size and thickness that you can use and if you can get these at a good price, this will be a good resource to keep in contact with. A friend of mine got an unbelievable deal on hundred of pounds of copper sheet. Some of it was in short pieces and some hand dents and curled edges. For her purposes none of this was a problem for doing her metal sculptures. I mention this because later she decided to move to the West coast and sold me what she had left at the same price she's paid. This gave me enough copper sheet to last for several years. Once people know that you are doing metal sculpture you may find people telling you about where to buy tools or materials. It just seems to work that way. Almost every community of any size has a metal recycler or in my day we called it a junk yard. In my experience smaller recyclers are better then the larger ones. Larger recyclers won't let you into their yard to look around because of liability. Smaller recyclers are run by fewer people and you can develop a semi personal relationship. Soon they will know what type of material you are looking and may even hold some back for you to take a look at. Recyclers hold their materials until they either have too much on hand or the commodity price goes up. So what you see today might not be there tomorrow. As I mention in the chapter on copper I buy the 8 gauge copper wire from a metal recycler. They usually have lots of it. As you can see in the photo below, these two spaces usually have lots of scrap copper.
One day I went in an these spaces were empty. I really needed wire for a large order of Magic Wands. This meant that I had to wait a few days and go back to see if they had any. The point of this story is that if you see something you need or may need in the near future, be sure to pick it up because it may not be there tomorrow. Note: Expanding your circle of resources: You and I are both limited in the number of people that we know. But if we expand this to the people they know our chances of discovering new resources of tools, materials or information increases. For example, a large metals warehouse may not want to bother with you and I because of our small orders. The want to sell in thousands of pounds or tons. But, maybe we find out that someone in our circle knows someone that works at a metals warehouse and can get us in the door. Here are two examples that just happened for me; At a dinner party I met a man who buys from a recycler that I have never been able to get into their yard. He goes there frequently and said when I wanted to go we could go together. This means that I can get into the yard based on his relationship with the recycler. A woman who has bought every bicycle sculpture that I've ever produced wanted me to show her how to braze. She came down one day and I gave her a quick lesson. In conversation I mentioned that the machine shop where I bought steel had closed. She told me about a large steel warehouse which has a separate warehouse selling "drops" or short and odd sized pieces of steel. Once people learn that you are doing metal sculpture you'll find they are eager to help. It just seems to work this way. Bottom line: Expand your circle of resources. Conserving materials: The more materials I can conserve the less materials I have to buy. For an example small pieces of leftover of copper can be used for bicycle seats, parts for the golf cart, etc. As mentioned I use a lot of the RG 45 rod. Small sections of rod can be used on other pieces. Most metals can be recycled either at a commercial recycler (copper) or in the case of small amounts of steel at the local county run recycling center.. A good example of conserving material is in this video below which is about pattern making and conserving metal.
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