You can get metal for welding from a wide range of sources, from big-box hardware stores and online retailers to local steel yards, scrap yards, and industrial surplus dealers. The best option depends on what you’re building, how much you need, and how much you want to spend. Here’s a practical breakdown of every major source and what to expect from each.
Local Steel and Metal Supply Yards
A local steel yard or metal service center is the go-to source for most welders. These businesses sell raw steel, aluminum, and stainless steel in standard shapes: flat bar, round bar, square and rectangular tubing, angle iron, C-channel, I-beams, and sheet or plate. Most structural steel tubing comes in A500 Grade C, and flat stock and plate are commonly A36 mild steel, both of which weld easily with any standard process.
Steel yards typically sell by the foot or by the full length (usually 20-foot sticks), and they’ll cut pieces to your specifications for a small fee. Prices per pound are significantly lower than what you’ll find at a hardware store, especially once you’re buying more than a few pieces. Many service centers also sell “verified remnant” metal, which is leftover material from larger orders that has been inspected for accuracy but may have minor surface blemishes. Remnants cost less than new certified stock and work perfectly fine for shop projects, furniture, trailers, and general fabrication. If your local yard has a remnant pile, it’s worth asking to browse it in person.
Online Metal Retailers
If you don’t have a steel yard nearby, or you need a specific alloy or size, online metal suppliers fill the gap. Companies like Metals Depot, Online Metals, and SendCutSend sell steel, aluminum, stainless, and copper alloys in a wide range of thicknesses and shapes, cut to your dimensions and shipped to your door. SendCutSend, for example, offers 5052 aluminum in ten thicknesses from 0.040″ up to 0.500″, and 6061 in eight thicknesses across the same range.
The tradeoff is shipping cost. Metal is heavy, and freight charges on a box of steel plate can rival the cost of the material itself. Online ordering makes the most sense for small, precise cuts, specialty alloys you can’t find locally, or sheet metal that needs to be laser-cut to a specific profile.
Hardware and Home Improvement Stores
Home Depot, Lowe’s, Menards, and Tractor Supply carry a limited selection of mild steel and aluminum in their aisles. You’ll find angle iron, flat bar, square tube, round rod, and perforated sheet in short lengths, usually 3 to 6 feet. This is convenient for small, one-off projects where you need a single piece and don’t want to make a trip across town to a steel yard.
Expect to pay a premium, often two to three times what a steel yard charges per pound. The selection is also narrow. You won’t find plate thicker than about 3/16″, and the range of tubing sizes is limited. For anything beyond a quick repair or a small bracket, a dedicated metal supplier is a better deal.
Scrap Yards and Recycling Centers
Scrap yards are the cheapest source of metal by far, but they require more effort. Mid-2025 scrap prices give you a sense of the savings: iron scrap runs about $0.06 to $0.09 per pound, stainless steel $0.30 to $0.52 per pound, and aluminum $0.55 to $0.80 per pound. Even accounting for the fact that scrap yards charge buyers more than they pay sellers, prices are a fraction of new material costs.
The catch is that you’re working with mystery metal. Pieces may be rusted, painted, coated, or of unknown alloy. A simple magnet test helps sort ferrous from non-ferrous metals, though it’s not foolproof since some stainless steels are non-magnetic. A spark test on a bench grinder gives more detail: mild steel throws a white spark stream, while stainless steel produces a longer stream (up to 50 inches) with straw-colored sparks near the wheel that turn white at the tips, with fewer but forked sparklers. If you’re building anything structural or load-bearing, the uncertainty of scrap metal is a real drawback. For practice pieces, art projects, and shop furniture, it’s ideal.
Marketplace and Classified Listings
Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and OfferUp regularly have listings for leftover steel and aluminum from contractors, fabrication shops, and hobbyists cleaning out their garages. You can find everything from bundles of square tubing to partial sheets of plate at well below retail. Estate sales and farm auctions are another goldmine, especially for heavier structural material, pipe, and equipment that can be cut apart and repurposed.
The same caution about unknown alloys applies here. Ask the seller what grade the material is, and if they don’t know, treat it like scrap and test it yourself before welding anything critical.
Choosing the Right Metal for Your Project
Most beginner and intermediate welding projects use mild steel, specifically A36 or 1018. Both weld beautifully with MIG, TIG, or stick, and combining them (say, welding a cold-finished 1018 round bar to an A36 hot-rolled plate) works just as smoothly as welding A36 to itself. A36 is the standard structural grade and the easiest to find at any steel yard. 1018 is a cold-finished steel with tighter dimensional tolerances, making it a better choice when you need precise fit-up without machining.
For aluminum, 5052 has the best weldability and is the standard choice for welded aluminum fabrication like tanks, enclosures, and marine components. 6061 is stronger and more common in structural applications, but it may need preheating and post-weld heat treatment for best results. Avoid 7075 aluminum for welding. It’s a high-strength aerospace alloy that’s prone to cracking at the weld.
Stainless steel is widely available at steel yards and online suppliers, typically in 304 or 316 grades. It costs more than mild steel and requires different filler wire and shielding gas, but both grades are weldable with TIG or MIG.
Getting the Best Price
Your cheapest option depends on volume. For a single small piece, a hardware store or online order avoids the minimum-order hassle some steel yards impose. For a trailer build or a series of shop projects, buying full-length sticks from a local yard drops your cost per pound dramatically. For practice material and non-critical projects, scrap yards and online classifieds can cut your material budget by 70% or more.
A few practical tips: call ahead before visiting a steel yard for the first time, since some primarily serve commercial accounts and may have minimum orders or limited walk-in hours. Ask specifically about their remnant or drop bin. And if you’re ordering online, price out shipping before you commit. A $40 piece of steel with $55 in freight is no longer a deal.