Rather than buy castings for certain projects, especially the simpler tooing type stuff, I thought I'd just buy cast iron bars / blocks and work with that. It's not just a matter of being tight, but in part a wish to modify designs or do something from scratch without trying to get a one off casting made and needing paternmaking and all all that. However, looking at mkmetals website, it seems that it's quite an expensive raw material eg 50mm diameter by 1m costing a hundred quid. I could believe postage might be lot but isn't this the basic stuff that comes out of the furnace at =A350 a ton, before it gets made into the fancy stuff like steel? Or is mkmetals selling a particularly exotic kind of cast iron ?
I'm after small bits eg suitable for making a George Thomasish pillartool, or for the body of a (woodworking) block plane. Another thought was a bigger slab to cut some T-slots into for a milling table for the lathe. At this sort of cost I could buy a full-blown mill cheaper than the iron.
Any thoughts or suggestions ?
Hywel