we not buying in this stores, period!

"Brian Kelly" wrote in message
oups.com...

wrote:
I'd like to design and build a new 2-meter Yagi antenna, and would
like to construct it using aluminum tubing and rod. Drawn tubing--the
stuff with an axial seam--would suffice.

Anyone know of a good source for this stuff in Washington DC or nearby
areas in Maryland? I've tried Home Depot and the like, but the stock
available in these places is incomplete and expensive.

Home Depot aluminum is very soft and weak and is not a very good
material for antenna-building purposes. Use high-strength aluminum
alloys like 6061-T6 or 6063-T6. McMaster-Carr is a good source for
high-quality aluminum but they don't carry much of a selection of
sizes. For ham antenna purposes your best bet is probably Texas Towers.


http://www.texastowers.com/aluminum.htm

Another route which I use is have a local friendly industrial machine
shop or sheet metal shop on tap which will buy whatever you need from
their established industrial metal supply houses and reimburse the shop
for their expenses on your behalf. Usually there are no shipping costs
involved and you can get full lengths of tubing vs. the cut 6' and 8'
limits offered by TT and McMaster. Aluminum tubing comes from the mills
in 12' and 21' lengths and can be simply cartopped home. The trick is
to surf the Yellow Pages for a local indusdtrial shop which will work
with you.

Or in some cases a private individual can buy metals directly from
local mill supply houses which sell to the industrial shops. This is a
workable approach but only in heavily-industrialized regions where a
metals distributor is within a reasonable driving range. The DC area
shuld "qualify". Back to the Yellow Pages under "metals" . . .

-Dave, K3WQ

w3rv