At my local metal supermarket, I got a quote on the stainless steel. I was surprised to find that the .083" wall thickness costs less than the .065". Am I misunderstanding what I’m buying, or is this just a case of something in stock costing less that a special order?
Would y’all just go with the 1083 in this case?
I would as long as the tubing OD is correct. Ryan can comment on this to confirm but I can’t imagine why not.
Post your pricing per ft and their contact info for us to order from too.
Thanks.
they don’t have to pay to ship it specifically for you. also may have been sitting on their shelf a while so they’re trying to sweeten the deal.
So far I’ve found that pricing of metal to be much more confusing than wood and much less transparent.
I ended up paying ~$108 CAD (~79USD) for 3x 50" lengths of .120 304 stainless. That includes a 15% discount for ordering it online (for pickup).
However in my case the price varied dramatically depending on the lengths I selected. For example 3x 50" lengths (150" total) was around $20-30 cheaper than trying to order less steel by getting 1x 50" length and 2x 40" lengths (or something of that sort… I don’t remember the exact sizes I put in). So in my case they seemed to up the price based on the complexity of cuts (or penalize smaller lengths).
I also see that you only have 2x 12" lengths which I assume you intend for the Z axis. According to the parts list, the low rider needs 4 tubes for Z, just want to make sure you aren’t cutting yourself short.
Fun fact: I originally got super excited about the Lowrider because I already had 1" galvanized pipe sitting around from a past project and figured “hey that’s perfect!”. Turns out 1" galvanized pipe at the home center is 1" ID, not OD. Once again the world of pipe measurements eludes me.
Yes I have seen weird things too in pricing. I think it’s partly stupidity on the part of the online shopping cart together with the fact the tube comes in certain sizes and they charge you for the whole piece regardless how much you actually get.
For example if your 3x50" can come from one 20-foot piece they charge you for that but the shopping cart might charge you one 20-foot piece for 1x50" and a second piece for 2x40".
Call them for a quote and you can get more rational pricing. Or maybe you could interrogate the shopping cart and reverse engineer their formula. 
If you do, I’d be interested to hear what you find.
That’s basically what I did and how I arrived at 3x50. Talking to a human would have meant waiting until business hours and I had parts to order 
I got mine at Metal Supermarkets, I guess they are all over NA.
Does it have to be stainless? I looked on the Local Metal Mart and the price for 1" 0.d. Steel Pipe for .06 Wall Thickness is 62 cents They do not show stocking Stainless pipe… or at least a fast search did not find it.
Double check that OD… When they call it ‘pipe’ the numbers are the ID, not the OD. When they call it ‘tubing’ the numbers are OD.
