What metal should you use for your project?
Three questions pick it: indoors or out, machined or bolted together, and does weight matter. Indoors and painted, carbon steel wins on price. Outdoors, 304 or 316 stainless and 6061 aluminum skip the paint. Machined parts want C360 brass or 1018. Match the metal to the project, not the spec sheet.
What three questions pick your metal?
Ask these before you price anything. One: does the part live indoors or outside? Two: will you bolt and weld it together, or machine it on a lathe or mill? Three: does weight matter, on a trailer, a boat, or anything you lift? Those three answers point at the right rack faster than any spec sheet.
Indoors and painted points at carbon steel, the cheap and strong default. Outside points at stainless or aluminum, which skip the paint can. Machining points at free-cutting stock like C360 brass and 1018. And when every pound counts, aluminum weighs about a third of steel, size for size. Most projects answer all three in ten seconds, and the metal that survives the questions is usually cheaper than the one that just looks right.
Which metal fits which project?
Here's the map we draw at the counter, grounded in what's on our racks. Find the project that looks like yours and start from that row; the right metal is usually the boring, proven one. Prices are CAD as of June 2026 and update daily, so treat the table as the shortlist and the product page as the quote.
| Your project | Buy this | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Outdoor railing or gate | 304 stainless or 6063-T5 aluminum | No paint, no rust streaks; go 316 within reach of salt spray |
| Trailer repair | 44W flat bar and angle, 1018 for machined fittings | 44W is the Canadian structural grade; welds clean, takes paint |
| Machined bushing or fitting | C360 brass or 1018 steel | Both cut clean and thread well; brass shrugs off damp |
| Bearing surface on a moving shaft | C932 rotocast bronze | The lead in it works like a built-in lubricant |
| Knife or cutting tool | O1 tool steel | Hardens in oil and holds an edge; a 3 ft stick of 3/16″ drill rod is $6.50 |
| Marine bracket | 6061-T6 aluminum | Bolt it with 316 stainless hardware to keep corrosion out of the joint |
| Electrical bus bar or ground strap | C110 copper flat bar | The conductor grade; a 12″ piece of 1/4″ C110 round is $12.47 |
| Shaft or axle | 1045, or chrome-plated 1045 where it rides a seal | Medium-carbon strength; the chrome surface is what seals and bushings want |
Steel, aluminum, or stainless: which do you actually need?
Size for size, cost runs carbon steel, then aluminum, then stainless. Real 12″ pieces from our racks, CAD, as of June 2026: 1/8″ x 1/2″ 44W flat bar is $5.30, 1″ 6061-T6 aluminum round is $13.75, and 1/4″ x 2″ 304 stainless flat is $26.11. Each earns its price a different way.
Carbon steel is the default for anything painted, welded, and bolted: strong, stiff, and cheap, from 44W flat bar and angle to 1018 rounds for machining, all over our carbon steel rack. The catch is rust. Bare carbon steel wants paint, oil, or a life indoors. Accept that and it's the best strength per dollar on this page.
Aluminum costs more per piece, weighs about a third of steel, and skips the paint entirely. 6061-T6 is the do-everything grade for brackets, frames, and machined parts; 6063-T5 is the cleaner-looking extrusion for trim and railings. Small parts stay cheap to try: a 12″ piece of 1/4″ 6061 round is $5.30.
Stainless is the spend-once surface. 304 covers indoor and inland work; 316 adds molybdenum for salt spray, wharves, and pool gear. You're paying for the decades you won't spend repainting: that 1/4″ x 2″ flat runs $26.11 in 304 and $29.30 in 316. Near the ocean the upcharge is the cheap part; our 304 vs 316 guide runs the numbers.
What mistakes do we see at the counter?
Three keep coming back. Buying stainless for an indoor job that's getting painted anyway: paint hides the one thing stainless is for, so buy 44W and pocket the difference. Putting 6063 in a load path: it's the architectural alloy, about half the strength of 6061-T6, so brackets and frames want 6061. And forgetting the cut tolerance.
Every cut we make is free and lands within ±1/8″. That's plenty for railings, repairs, and frames, but tolerances stack in tight assemblies. If two cut pieces meet a third inside a fixed opening, order a touch long and trim to fit, or put the slack somewhere harmless on the drawing before you order.
How do you order once you've picked?
Open the product page, pick your size, and type the length you need in inches; the price shows up as you type. Cuts are free to ±1/8″, the order minimum is $40, and volume discounts of 5-15% apply automatically as quantities climb. Order by 1pm Atlantic on a business day and it ships the next business day.
Pieces up to 96″ ship anywhere in Canada, and anything under 48″ gets the best parcel rates, worth knowing if your design can take two 36″ pieces instead of one 72″. Longer stock, up to 21 ft, moves by quote request. Local to Dartmouth? Pickup at the counter is free. And buying a handful of small pieces is normal here, not an exception: here's how small-quantity ordering works.
Still torn between two metals?
Tell us about the project instead of the metal: what the part does, where it lives, and how you'll build it. That's the conversation we've had at the counter since 1997, and it usually ends cheaper than guessing. Send it through the contact page and we'll answer with a recommendation, not a catalogue.