online source for tool steel?

Best prices I've found on drill rod and ground flat stock is:

For other tool steels, as well as for non-ferrous stuff, I've been happy with Online Metals:

MSC is the old standby:

Cheers,

Jim

For W1, O1, and A2 you can't beat McMaster Carr. Fair pricing and it will be on your door step tommorrow morning.

Karl

I have been very happy with McMaster Carr, easy to buy steel on the web, they will sell short pieces (usually 1, 3 or 6 feet) of various alloys, much cheaper than local suppliers. The shipping may be almost as much as the steel, but still cheaper than buying locally.

Can't get a catalog out of them, unfortunately.

Richard

Karl Townsend wrote:

Did you actually compare the prices to ToolAndDie.com? I usually find McMaster-Carr to be in the same price range as MSC.

Example: 3/4" W-1 drill rod x 3' qty 1 McMaster-Carr $10.02 MSC $9.38 ToolAndDie $8.24

Example: 1/4" x 2" x 3' O-1 ground flat stock qty 1 McMaster-Carr $32.89 MSC $34.10 ToolAndDie $26.13

There's an even wider disparity in quantity pricing.

True, both McMaster and MSC both have very low lead times (best I've seen), but I tend to order early enough that ToolAndDie's slightly longer lead time doesn't matter.

Also, McMaster generally has a wider selection of sizes and grades available, and I order from them often because of that.

I usually get W-1 drill rod on sale from Enco. They sometimes have incredibly low prices on it.

Jim

Thanks all for your links/names/etc.

Try using an old vehicle leaf or coil spring. I've made lots of tools with it.

Ted