Money is Bigger; Selection is Smaller
October 24th, 2008Take the Good With the Bad
Deflation. Good if you have cash. Bad if you owe money. I keep wondering if it’s on the way. Gas prices are plummeting, and so are the prices of metals.
Here is something that may make the shooters among you happy: Natchez Shooter’s Supply is selling CCI Blazer 9mm ammunition for $7.49 per box. Ammunition is full of copper and lead (and aluminum, in the case of Blazers), so as metal prices have gone insane, so has the cost of shooting. Now metals are cheaper. Maybe that’s why ammunition prices are dropping.
They’re even selling .45 ACP for under twelve bucks. If you don’t reload, this is a hell of a deal. Maybe the metal shortage is over.
Incidentally, let me ask: have any of you had bad luck with PMC .357 ammunition? The last two times I’ve tried it, I’ve had lots of duds, and I’ve been pretty unhappy with my accuracy.
Yesterday I started thinking (again) about building a belt sander. Then I looked at the price of steel. It’s ridiculous. A one-foot piece of 2″ square tubing costs $22.
Can someone explain this to me? I’m sure I can buy heavier products containing steel for less than that. And they’ve been worked and painted and shipped and advertised, so you would expect them to cost more.
I have to wonder how anyone ever comes up with the money to fabricate anything. Some time ago, I realized you can do a lot with dirt-cheap galvanized stuff, but the cold-rolled costs plenty.
I’ve noticed something else. The supply of surplus Ebay motors has dried up. Wonder what that means. Does it reflect a slowdown in business, generally?
Picking a motor is difficult even when there are a lot of them available. For example, one guy who built a grinder says he found a DC motor and speed control on Ebay. It’s nice to be able to vary the speed of a grinder. But how do you power a one-horse DC motor? Where would you get that kind of DC current? Ebay has something called a “motor drive.” I guess that’s it.
I never got the gearmotor I ordered for my pig roaster. I’m very upset about that. Maybe I should take care of that first.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:24 AM
I reload 38 special and 45 acp for bulleye target loads. I just checked two of my favorite suppliers RozeDist.com and PrecisionDelta.com and the prices of lead are still rediculously high, hovering around $70/1000 for 38 and $85/1000 for 45. I’m glad I stocked up 11/2 years ago when prices were a lot more reasonable, roughly 2/3 of the current prices.
October 24th, 2008 at 11:02 AM
Steel is costly only when you buy small amounts. And most industrial scrapyards will let you buy by the pound, which is cheaper. Shamnefully, not many of those in Coral Gables- though you might find an auto body shop that does custom work and raid their dumpster.
I get most of my steel from japanese shipping crates the machines come in;
October 24th, 2008 at 11:07 AM
Buy an old treadmill and take it apart. You’ll get a good strong motor and the speed controller.
October 24th, 2008 at 1:28 PM
Copper has come down a lot in price recently. I think ammo will continue to become cheaper if the economy stays weak. Of course we may not be allowed to buy ammo any more…
October 24th, 2008 at 6:34 PM
If you’re desparate, you can order online for about 1/4 of the cost you quote:
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http://www.metalsdepot.com/
,
I found a 2″ square 14ga, 2ft tube for $9.18. O’course, the shipping probably matches the cost of the steel..:(
October 25th, 2008 at 9:01 AM
There absolutely HAS to be somebody in the Miami metrosexual area that is welding stuff together professionally and would be willing to sell you some odd scrap pieces of steel for a few bucks each.
Get on the phone man (and find someone that speaks English while you’re at it…;-)
October 26th, 2008 at 6:01 PM
Virgil is correct: if you can’t find a scrapyard that will sell to walkins, find a fab shop that will. My local shop has an area out back for shorts, ends of bars/angles/whatever that he sells for about $.50/#. The scrapyard that I frequent just dropped their price on steel from $.30/# to $.20. Both of these outfits sell new steel and will cut it to length for you, but the price is (obviously) quite a bit higher.