Metal Guides
Straight answers about buying, cutting, and shipping metal in Canada, written by the sales team that cuts it.
Start with your question
Buying answers
Where to buy, what it costs, and how ordering by the inch works.
Material guides
6061 or 6063, 304 or 316: what each grade is for, with real prices.
How-to
Cutting, welding, drilling, and finishing, the way we'd do it at the shop.
Shipping & trust
How metal moves across Canada, what MTRs are, and what ±1/8″ means.
Halifax & local
The counter, free pickup, and buying metal in Atlantic Canada.
Latest guides
What can you build from one bar of metal?
A shop's worth of first projects. One 36″ length of 1/8″ × 1″ 6061 flat bar ($8.89 CAD, July 2026) becomes shelf brackets, drawer pulls, a bench square, and a griddle scraper with hand tools. Six bars from our rack...
Why buy metal from a Canadian supplier? Duties, exchange rates, and lead times in 2026
As of June 2026, a US metal order usually lands in Canada at 1.85-2.4x its sticker price once the exchange rate, the 25% surtax on US-melted steel and aluminum, GST, and courier brokerage stack up. Our comparable six-piece basket landed...
Anodizing, brushing, or polishing: how do you finish aluminum after you buy it?
Brush it with one-direction grit steps, buff through tripoli to white rouge for a mirror, or anodize it for hard permanent colour. 6063 anodizes cleanest, bare polish needs wax to hold its shine, and prep decides every result. July 2026...
How do you drill and tap each metal? Speeds, lubricant, and bits
One formula sets drill speed: RPM = (SFM × 3.82) ÷ bit diameter. That's about 1,375 RPM for a 1/4″ HSS bit in mild steel, 460 in stainless, press max in aluminum. Oil steel and stainless, WD-40 on aluminum, brass...
Chrome-plated steel rod guide: when chrome, and when stainless
Chrome-plated rod is induction-hardened 1045 steel under a hard chrome skin, about 65-70 HRC at the surface: the standard material for hydraulic cylinder rods. It resists rust only until the plate is breached, so for food, washdown, or salt water,...
What does plasma cutting cost, and when do you need it instead of a saw cut?
Plasma cutting is priced per job, not per inch: thickness, cut length, pierce count, quantity, and the metal itself set the number. Saws and shears handle straight cuts; plasma cuts holes, slots, brackets, and full 2D shapes. Send a drawing...
Where can hobbyists buy aluminum near them in Canada?
Three real routes: a walk-in metal store if your city has one (Metal Supermarkets runs about 25 Canadian locations), the offcut rack at a local fab shop, or aluminum cut to length online and shipped. Big metros have counters; most...
Brass vs bronze: what's actually the difference?
Brass is copper alloyed with zinc; bronze is copper alloyed with tin, now a family that includes aluminum bronze. Brass is the bright, easy-machining one; bronze carries shafts and survives salt water. We stock C360 brass, C932 bearing bronze, and...
Oil, paint, or powder coat: how do you keep carbon steel from rusting?
Match the protection to the exposure: an oil or wax film in the shop, primer plus paint outdoors, powder coat or hot-dip galvanizing when it has to last decades. Prep decides the result: degrease, get the mill scale off, and...
How accurate are custom metal cuts? Saw tolerances explained
Every cut we ship lands within ±1/8″ of the length you ordered, and most land closer. That's the standard saw-cut class at metal service centres. Need ±0.005″? That's machining, not sawing, and we'll say so. Here's what a bandsaw really...
What is C110 copper? Electrical, art, and food uses
C110 is electrolytic tough pitch copper, 99.90% pure minimum, and the standard commercial copper in Canada. It's the busbar metal (100-101% IACS annealed). We stock C110 flat bar, round bar, sheet, square bar, and hex bar, cut to length, with...
Sheet vs plate: what's the difference, and how does custom sheet cutting work?
Sheet becomes plate at a line that moves by metal: about 3/16″ for steel and stainless, 0.250″ for aluminum. Same metal, different filing; the decimal thickness is the real spec. Online, enter width and length in inches, up to 48″...
Already know your metal?
Each guide covers the grades we stock, what they're good for, and what they cost. Or skip the reading and go straight to the shelf.