I've been looking into having gates and decorative wall panels built. Prices I'm getting seem to be outrageoous. I'm thinking of building my own. Can anyone offer suggestions for good places to buy angle iron, pipe, and flat steel?
You can contact my friend Gilot. GP welder training and Assessment Center Inc. His contact numbers. For globe subscribers 09156339588 and for smart subscribers 09192250361. They fabricate steel trusses, steel gates, fences and machining jobs. Ron
Buying steel is a job in itself. Most of the hardware stores downtown sell steel. We used to buy a lot of it, as we own(ed) a welding shop. Some (most) of the stores sell "substandard" steel. This means that 6 mm angle may only be 3.5 mm. You literally have to take a caliper with you when you go pricing, because nothing is what it is supposed to be. If they offer you a sample from their "display card", that does not mean that is the steel you will be getting, you need to make them show you their actual stock and measure that. Case in point when we first started doing this years ago I priced out 100 pieces of 65mm X 6 mm angle bar. When it was delivered, it measured only 2.8 mm thick. Another place that priced me out for 6 mm was really 5 mm, but their 4 mm measured 3 mm, and quite a bit cheaper than the 2.8 mm that I had paid for. Of course, no refund, and a considerable amount of money involved. Of all of them Matiao comes the closest as far as getting what you are looking for. Their sizes are still substandard, but generally much closer to the truth than most. Rejoice comes in second. Matiao, of course, will quote you prices more than the others for a given size, but you cannot go by the sizes they state, you have to measure everything to make sure you are comparing apples to apples, lest you unknowingly compare apples to huckleberries. Also, be advised that you cannot just buy a welder and plug it into NORECO's service. You will need to have your own transformer or power it from a generator. Polaris will rent you a transformer for about p4000/month. Your mileage may vary Larry
They're selling nice little DC arc welders at Polaris that can be plugged into a wall socket in the house?!?! And won't trip the breaker. At 16K they're a little pricey, but really handy to have.
Hey Guys, thanks for the advice. The DC welder at 16K sounds like it might be a good idea since DC welds so much better than AC. Also, as for the substandard material, I understand that problem already. I'll just have to be careful. A close friend suggested a place near the market that supplies lots of the hardware and welding shops, but didn't know their name. I'll take a walk around the area to see if I can find them. Now to the welding shop. I'm sure there are many shops who can do the work, but meeting my standards and designs might be different. Most things I can well do myself, with the exception of gates. Even that may be possible if I put my mind to it. I'll get the welder and build my trusses forst just to see if I can still see well enough to tackle bigger things. Thanks for all the advice. Gary
Thanks for telling me about the welder at Polaris. I went by and looked at it. Price now is only 14,000. But it only has 1.5 meter leads. I'd have to buy cable to make them longer. With a 60% duty cycle, it should be very useful. I'll buy it the first of next month. Thanks again, Gary
If you are buying lots of steel, it might be worth your while to go to Cebu. When I built my house two years ago, I bought all my steel / iron products from World Wide Home Depot in Cebu (rebar, angle bar, flat bar, furrings, etc). I saved over P100,000 over the best price I could find in Dumaguete, even considering the shipping costs to Dumaguete pier (Cokaliong shipping) and the P2000 to have it delivered to my lot in Valencia. World Wide delivered the materials to the pier in Cebu for free and handled the logistics (I paid them for the shippng to Dumaguete). As for your welding machine, I use my automotive booster cables to extend my ground wire with the alligator clips attached to a piece of rebar to reach my work, when necessary. So, I only had to pay for the positive extension.
Hey Steve, Thanks for the info. Right now I only need enough steel to build some floor trusses. However, the thing about going to Cebu for all the major stuff sounds great. I'll be sure to keep this info. Also, thanks for the idea about using my jumper cables for a ground. I've used rebar many times in the past but never thought of the cables. Thanks for all the useful info. Gary
I recently purchased a Fuji inverter (dc) welder at Uymatiaos. It was P7,000 and the build quality seems to be better than others I have seen for sale in the city for double the price or more. 100% duty on most rods and very smooth welding. I run it off my diesel generator as I do not have a transformer. Just because you can plug it into an outlet does not mean it will not dim your neighbors lights. I tried that first and I would have had a lot of angry neighbors if I had continued. Yes it works, but I do not recommend it. I bought 5 meters of good welding cord at Rejoice for P155 per meter. Now I connect the ground to the rebar of the house and can weld up to 6.5 meters away from the welder. It works very well for light and heavy welding using 6012 Fuji rod.
