Places to buy metal

 MMW is now stocking metal for sale for use in open shop, classes, and general use.  Price is by the foot at a small markup. If the cutoff is less than 3′ you’ve got to buy the stick.  I’ll have at least 40′ on hand of the following types of steel (email me if you’ll need more than 40′):

Square tube: 1/2″, 1″, & 1 1/2″
Round rod: 1/8″, 1/4″, 3/8″
Solid bar: 1/8″ x 1″
Angle: 1″ x 1″ x 1/8″

Industrial Metal Supplies (Sun Valley)– Full service supplier with fantastic showroom and good selection of cutoffs and scrap.  Free next-day delivery for orders over $100.  And open Saturday 8am-2pm.

Industrial Metal Supply Co, 8300 San Fernando Rd, Sun Valley, CA   818-729-3333

Bobco Metals (Downtown LA)– Somewhat the opposite of IMS.  Disorganized, dirty, and downtown.  Slightly cheaper, but rustier metal, and customer service is questionable.  Oddly appealing though with dive bar-esque character.  Wouldn’t guess it from their fancy website.

Bobco Metals, 2000 South Alameda Street  Los Angeles, CA 90058   (877) 952-6226

Kit Kraft (Studio City)– Best selection of little hobbyist & model making metal brass and aluminum.  Expensive.

Kit Kraft, 12109 Ventura Place, Studio City, CA 91604    (818) 509-9739

Online Metals (Seattle, WA)– Good selection of smaller stuff.  Bigger stuff too, though they’ll have to UPS it to you in 8′ lengths.  Really good info on various alloys, with weights, densities, chemical composition of alloys, etc.

McMaster Carr (Santa Fe Springs, CA)– The Granddaddy of all industrial suppliers with everything and anything industrial you might need , all shipped to anywhere in LA by the next day.  More expensive than IMS, but they’ve got waaaaay more stuff.  Great website with a ton of info.

Places to buy old wood

The Reclaimer: Sylmar CA

Elmwood Reclaimed Lumber: Smithville, MO

The Vintage Wood Floor Company: Costa Mesa, CA

Timeline Prefinished Wood: Downtown LA, CA

Design Inspiration

Flickr Page of Metal Furniture Designs for Inspiration

Not Furniture, but the best looking motorcycles anywhere: Shinya Kimura / Chabott Engineering

Patinas and Finishing

Sculpt Nouveau: A full line of patina products designed specifically for art purposes.  Premeasured, work well, and fairly reasonably priced.  Available at IMS or online.

Anyone know a good powdercoater with low minimum prices?