Making of a saw sled

[nonidentity]

Hi all,

after checking out some the novel but accurate sleds for sawtables I am interested in making my own.

As a newbie and foreigner here in the UK, what is the best way to find out where to by some S/Steel and Aluminium from suppliers.

I am looking for sheets 6-8 mm thk by approx 500x400.

Really for an industrial level supplier these would constitute offcuts.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.


PS: yes, as usual I expect to get ripped off :shock:

 

[nonidentity]

OK,

no response - I am surprised.

Maybe I am not clear enough.

I know I could ask my neigbourhood hardware store for some materials but it would be a special order and would be expected to pay plenty........so it makes sense to go direct to a supplier since the pricing would be more reasonable. (Needless to say I find materials/tools in the UK very expensive)

But, moving on, I wish to source the materials so I can build a novel sled for my table saw.

Anyone help? :wink:

 

[DaveL]

NI,

Probably not a lot of help, but when I wanted some sheet steel, I drove around the local industrial site looking for a sheet metal fabricators. They were quite happy to sell me an end of sheet off cut and even cut it into 3 smaller pieces for me. That gave me nice straight edges for the job and let the sheets fit in the car more easily.
Try the yellow pages or google local if you cannot find one by driving round.

 

[SimonA]

Your loacal B&Q superstore will probably sell what your after......

SimonA

 

[Scrit]

There is an aluminium profile and sheet/slab distributor called Baco Metal Centres (Baco = British Aluminium Company, I believe) with depots all over the place. see Yellow Pages for details of my "local" one.

Scrit