Steel suppliers in Silicon Valley?

[FordTruckWench]

I used to buy the steel I needed from Sims Metal's New and Used yard in San Jose. That location has now been closed for about two years - either permanently, or because of, um, ... circumstances. Google has offered up these alternatives:

Alan Steel & Supply, Redwood City
Alco Iron & Metal, San Leandro
Allied Iron, Belmont
Bayshore Metals, San Francisco
RE Borrmann Steel, East Palo Alto
Campbell Metal Supply, San Jose (non-ferrous only?)
Metal Supermarkets, San Jose (newish)
Metal Werx née Gorilla Metals, Santa Clara (supplier turned fabricator?)
Moose Metal, Concord (primarily fabrication?)
Naylor Steel, Hayward
PDM Steel, Santa Clara
Pleasanton Steel and Supply, Livermore
South Bay Metals, Gilroy

So far I've only been to South Bay Metals. They had a somewhat limited selection of new material. Plus an even more limited selection of "scrap", though it looks like they once had a lot more. Any experiences with these companies, or suggestions of other options? Based on online pictures, I think my best bet would be Alco.

 

[tarmy]

I have been buying from Eddie over at Gorrilla, now Metal Works for many many years. He gets me everything I need overnight if not in stock…

He bought it from the lady that owned the old Gorilla metals…and is small…but I would rather give my money to him than Sims which is a global company…

 

[Ole Slewfoot]

I have better luck (prices) at 'fabrication' shops than those that claim to be metal suppliers, but I don't do anything that requires truckload quantities.
Pajaro Valley Fab, does good by Me, but is probably on the wrong side of the hill for you.

 

[gte718p]

With the caveat that is has been a long long time since I have lived in the area, there used to be an amazing scrap yard in the Salinas. So many options and very reasonable prices.

 

[FordTruckWench]

He bought it from the lady that owned the old Gorilla metals…and is small…but I would rather give my money to him than Sims which is a global company…

Previously, everything I bought was from Sims' "used" area. Looks like most of the shops don't have something like that.

Pajaro Valley Fab, does good by Me, but is probably on the wrong side of the hill for you.

That's probably actually the correct side, except a bit far away.

With the caveat that is has been a long long time since I have lived in the area, there used to be an amazing scrap yard in the Salinas.

Could you be talking about A&S Metals in Castroville? I was there years ago and they had an area full of random scrapped equipment. Google imagery shows it's all gone now.

 

[californiaHank]

Alan Steel & Supply, Redwood City

Haven't been there in a while, but it used to be my first choice for odds and ends - stuff like small quantities of stainless rod and plate cut to order for my DIY projects. Guy at the front desk never seemed cheerful, but always got me what I wanted pretty quickly, with no fuss, even though I was a 'nickle and dime' kind of customer.

 

[gte718p]

Could you be talking about A&S Metals in Castroville? I was there years ago and they had an area full of random scrapped equipment. Google imagery shows it's all gone now.

That sounds right. Sad if they are gone. They had a tons of machinery and equipment, agricultural and manufacturing, as well a random full sheets of steel and cut offs. It was one of the old school places, you could walk the yard and pick out what you wanted. There were two elderly Hispanic guys with a torch and a forklift who worked the yard. You pointed out what you wanted and told them how much and they gave you a price loosely based on the weight and material. You agreed on a price and then they pulled it out. Didn't mater if it was at the bottom of a huge pile. The yard had no obvious organization, but if you were looking for something specific, you told them, and they told you exactly where to look. It was never actually weighed that I remember. They where damn good at eyeballing weights. However, slip them a $20 on the way out a few time, and their ability to calculate weights seemed to slip

 

[FordTruckWench]

That sounds right. Sad if they are gone. They had a tons of machinery and equipment, agricultural and manufacturing, as well a random full sheets of steel and cut offs.

The time I was there, this junk was out front on one side of the "parking lot". That area now seems to be used to store bailed material. There's something curious in an area that extends behind the neighboring business, but I sort of doubt they'd let customers walk in past the bailing/shredding equipment.

 

[ericm]

Alan Steel & Supply, Redwood City

Haven't been there in a while, but it used to be my first choice for odds and ends - stuff like small quantities of stainless rod and plate cut to order for my DIY projects. Guy at the front desk never seemed cheerful, but always got me what I wanted pretty quickly, with no fuss, even though I was a 'nickle and dime' kind of customer.

Alan is where I go. It's been a few years since my last trip there. I heard they were closing but at least according to Yelp they are still around.

They used to have a cool scrap yard with all sorts of stuff, but that's gone. If you watched the first few seasons of Mythbusters, they went there a lot. Their selection of offcuts used to be a lot better too.

 

[Tomstir]

PD Steel Inc. and Industrial Metal Service both in San Jose.
PD I think is only open Wed, Thur, Fri......or used to be. Small (compared to Sims) and don't have any used material...... a small crew works on site making ornamental fencing and gates.
IMS...it is a big building full of aluminium and a crew cutting/strapping.....small selection of new steel (compared to the amount of aluminium) foreman that helped me was incredibly nice....said they were going to carry more steel soon. I haven't been there in almost a year.

 

[tarbellb]

Valley Iron in Vacaville is associated with All Metal Supply in Oroville

All Metal Supply was excellent when i was up there, good prices, full service, laser, plasma, cut, design, orders, delivery, you name it. Cant vouch for Valley Iron but if its the same its good

 

[Craneboy]

Naylor steel in Hayward is where I usually go - they have good customer service, you can walk in with a material list and they will have your order ready in 10 - 20 minutes. They have a pretty full set of all the typical steel shapes, angle, channel, flat bar, expanded metal, etc. They will cut your steel to length. They have no minimum order quantity.

The only downside is that they are fairly expensive - about $1.00 - $1.25 per pound, and their cutting charges are a little on the high side. All things considered though, I am pretty happy with them.

 

[drokihazan]

Naylor steel in Hayward is where I usually go - they have good customer service, you can walk in with a material list and they will have your order ready in 10 - 20 minutes. They have a pretty full set of all the typical steel shapes, angle, channel, flat bar, expanded metal, etc. They will cut your steel to length. They have no minimum order quantity.

The only downside is that they are fairly expensive - about $1.00 - $1.25 per pound, and their cutting charges are a little on the high side. All things considered though, I am pretty happy with them.

Just found this thread, I've been shopping at Industrial Metal Supply for the last year and averaging $2.15/lb. Hard for me to imagine $1/lb being expensive anymore

 

[ArcIndWeld]

IMS is where i go alot but i've found Alco to have the best pricing around here.

 

[drokihazan]

I got an instagram ad for https://www.tvbmetals.com/ in Morgan Hill.
Looking at their site, they do 4x4 half sheets of 1/4" for $235, which works out to around $1.41/lb. 4x4 11ga sheet for $78, which is just under a dollar a pound. I might go check them out next week. Anyone have experience with those folks?

 

[Lassen Forge]

My go to was Jorgensen in Oakland, but they closed down, I've sourced from Both Alco in San Leandro and Bayshore (on the other side of the bay) for bridge stuff. They also used to be a decent steel house in Berkeley but I bet it's been now long closed, what being Berkeley and all...