Source for steel plates

[Paul Symchych]

How about used sporting goods stores like Play it Again Sports for the weights used by weight lifting machines?

[jared herbert]

If you can find a salvage yard for farm tractors and combines, they will have a lot of stackable weights, if for an older unit they will be the cheapest. I used to buy them for about $10 for a 70 to 90 weight

[Mike Cruz]

Jered, that would be awesome...Now to find one in my area...

[Thomas Hotchkin]

Mike
Is this for your PM90 lathe that you rebuilt, and weights are going in both ends of base cabinet? If the RR rails are out. Used engine cylinder heads or cast iron flywheels. Any metal recyclers near you? In Portland, OR. if I need some small pieces of metal I first check with my metal recyclers, they let me look around for something that will work for me. I pay a little more then they pay for the scrap for for this service. Tom

[Mike Cruz]

Yeah, Thomas, it is for my PM90. Actually, I wasn't planning on putting anything in the tailstock end for a couple of reasons: One, I can't get "into" it...no door. Not sure if there is even a bottom to the tailstock cabinet. Two, any movement of the lathe (caused by out of balance blanks) is coming from the headstock end, so that, I imagine, is all I would need to weigh down.

I've had a discussion with someone else who added risers to his PM90 and he says, that along with extra bolting down (headstock end only), and adding about 500 lbs in the headstock cabinet and shelf, the thing won't budge...

Tomorrow, I plan to look at the local metal recyclers. May just give them a call to see if they have anything on hand of interest. May have to go browse...

[Phil Thien]

How about my wife's cornbread muffins? They wouldn't stack that well, but you wouldn't need that many of them, either.

[Brian Backner]

Mike,

Do you belong to a gun club, or know someone that does? I can get all the lead I want from the indoor range. There's usually 10-20 TONS of it sitting around in piles out back. They usually sift out the backstop sand pit in the indoor range once monthly and come up with 400-500#. The club used to sell it for scrap value but prices have dropped and with the cost of gasoline now, it isn't worth the effort.

Brian

[Mike Cruz]

Great idea, Brian. I'll check to see where my closest gun clubs are. I know there is one about 5 miles or less away from me. But not sure about range specs on them... Thanks!

[Mike Cruz]

Well, over an hour on the phone and computer, looking up and calling up shooting ranges, gun clubs, recycling centers...every place I could think of (sorry, Steve, I don't feel like driving into inner city Baltimore...good idea if it were closer, though, thanks...). Turns out there is ONE place that will sell me scrap...at 35 cents a pound. Not dirt cheap, but may "have" to work. My other option is to wait around for specific auctions, spend the day waiting for what I am interested in to come up, and HOPE that I get a decent price (better than 35 cents a pound) on tractor/skid loader plates... Ugh...

Thanks, everyone for your suggestions. I really do appreciate the help.

[John T Barker]

So many good ideas I just want to throw one in. When I think heavy I think dense lead. Were the weights for old windows made out of lead? Find someplace that kept the windows pulled out of some old buildings...I know universities upgrade stuff like that. Who gets to haul away the old stuff and sell it? (Rutgers just kept everything and sold it themselves.) I would hope out your way old building stuff is cheaper than in city areas.

John

[Eric DeSilva]

Hopefully the link works. Local estate auction--there's an 8' x 8' x 1" road plate currently going for about $20. By my reckoning, that's about 0.7 cents per pound. Problem is moving it. And cutting it up. I think my plasma cutter maxes out at 1/2". I've got a cutting torch you can borrow, but I'm not even sure my Acetylene B tanks are recommended for the gas rate needed to supply the torch. I've heard, once you get it started, you can shut off acetylene and just cut with oxygen, but that is beyond my actual experience...

http://rasmuscatalog.com/cgi-bin/mnlist.cgi

[Mike Cruz]

No, the link didn't work, Eric. Not sure if you meant .7 cents a pound or 7 cents a pound, but either way, that's cheap! I think I'd blow the bank (meaning blow whatever money I'd be saving by going the route of this big plate) with gas money, borrowing the tools required for cutting it up, and the weekend it would take to cut it. Cool idea, though. That was certainly thinking outside the box! Eric, ya know, you've never come by to see the planer all set up in my shop...

[Josiah Bartlett]

An old, seized up V8 engine is a good dead weight you can usually get for practically nothing if you ask around. Most of them weigh 400-500 pounds, and they take on a rather convenient cube form when you strip off all the accessories. You can always fill the oil pan and cylinders with sand or concrete if you need more density.

[Mike Cruz]

Thanks, Josiah, but the space I have to put the "weight" wouldn't handle a go-cart motor, let alone a V8. But, again, I like the way you're thinkin'...

[Eric DeSilva]

$0.007 it was--the 8' x 8' x 1" plate weighs in at about 2600 lbs. I hate seeing things go that cheap, but I can't really do much with 1" plate either.