How To Buy Metal Online

Rapid Metals offers an easy way to buy metal online. We’re not the only business offering this – although we’d like to think that when it comes to the stock we offer and the service we provide, we are among the best. With thousands of stockists and businesses selling metal online, it’s never been easier to source metal whether you’re a commercial fabricator or machine shop or a garden workshop hobbyist. But not all suppliers, and not all products, are equal.  

To make sure you get the metal you need, at the greatest convenience and at the best price, we have prepared this guide to how to buy metal online, what services are out there and what you should keep in mind.  

Why You Should Buy Metal Online 

With multiple steel and metal suppliers available at the click of a mouse or the tap of a tablet, there is now a diversity of choice and ease of purchasing that would have been unimaginable decades ago. Buying metal no longer requires consulting trade directories or visiting multiple suppliers.  

Now you can view and buy a supplier’s entire stock online (even one as wide as Rapid Metals’, which includes engineering steel, stainless steel, aluminium, copper, brass, bronze, cast iron and more). And you can compare products, prices and offers from multiple suppliers with ease.  

Suppliers that operated entirely online can pass on their benefits of lower overheads by offering lower prices to customers – an excellent reason to buy metal online. Suppliers that have both physical and online stores may offer lower prices to online customers. And if they don’t, online stores often feature special offers, or at least make it clear to see which products are on offer at any one time.  

When you’re looking to buy metal, online suppliers provide an easy way to buy multiple types and varieties of metal in one place. A well-designed online store for buying metal online will let you sort and select by metal, grade of metal, section, size, finish and more. Rapid Metal’s online store lets you select your metal type, then see the sections and forms we supply that metal in, then the sizes we offer that section or profile in. You can set customised lengths (or other dimensions where appropriate). Your online basket will clearly show the price of each product once you’ve set your customised selections, and the total for your order.  

With an online store like this, you can purchase the metal you need for any project all in one go.  

Look For Customer Service 

When looking for online metal suppliers, you should consider more than just the products on offer. A smooth experience depends on customer service, and that becomes even more important if, unfortunately, things don’t go so smoothly.  

Check what forms of payment the seller accepts – do they take credit cards (and which ones?) and/or PayPal or Google Pay? Do they allow payment in instalments for large orders? What is their policy on order cancellations and returns? A reputable and customer-focused seller should have a clear and detailed terms and conditions section on their website.  

It’s also important to know whether there is a minimum or maximum order size – by value, number of items or physical size? A seller could offer the ideal metal at a great price, but that’s no good if you can’t actually buy the quantity you need (Rapid Metals has no minimum order quantity and will work with our customers to fulfil unusually large orders – no job too big, no job too small).  

What are the shipping and delivery options? One difficulty when you buy metal online is that metal is often heavy and bulky, and so can be awkward or expensive to ship. Check the seller’s charges and options for delivering your online order to you. Does a potential supplier have physical locations (Rapid Metals has branches in Nuneaton and Redditch that you can collect orders from, and we will deliver orders to addresses local to these branches)? 

Buy Metal Online in the UK 

Engineering Steel 

One of the metals most commonly bought by business, industry and individuals is engineering steel. This is made in a variety of grades, forms, treatments and finishes to suit different applications. Engineering steels are usually alloys to suit them to machining into specific components and are durable enough for a wide range of mechanical and structural uses. Rapid Metals supplies Bright Drawn Mild Steel and En1, En3, En8, En16, En19, En24 and En36 engineering steels. Depending on the grade, these can be supplied as block, sheet, bar and strip in a variety of sections.  

Steel Sections 

Plain steel is a basic raw material for all sorts of industries, from manufacturing and construction to science and education. You can see the full range of steel sections that Rapid Metals offers in our online store. While not all grades are available in all these forms, the range includes common types of bar, tube, strip and sheet, as well as customisable angle, box section, oval tube, threaded rod and tread plate.  

Stainless Steel 

Stainless steel has a wide range of uses because of its corrosion resistance. Whether for durable outdoor structures or as an attractive finish to a consumer appliance, stainless steel has a place. Buying online makes it easy to be sure you’re buying the grade of stainless steel that you need. Rapid Metals supplies a range of stainless steel, in 303, 304 and 316 grades. This can be shipped in flat, round, square and hexagonal bar, angle, tube and sheet.  

Tool Steel 

Tool steels are a family of high-carbon steels formulated with hardness, abrasion-resistance and high temperature limits that are, as the name implies, particularly well-suited for making tools such as cutters, drills, dies and knives. Many machining projects are best achieved by producing your own working tools and bits for cutting in specific ways. For that, you need your own stock of tool steel. With our versatile and detailed online store, Rapid Metals can provide blocks of tool steel cut to your specific sizes.  

Aluminium  

Aluminium is one of the world’s most widely-used metals, thanks to its low density, ease of fabrication, corrosion-resistance, conductivity and other qualities. Rapid Metals can supply bar aluminium  in round, flat, square and hexagonal section, and aluminium tube, channel, tee-section, angle and box section – all clearly displayed and ordered via our online store. Buying aluminium online opens up the huge range of grades, alloys and forms that this metal is supplied in.  

Brass 

Brass is an attractive and easily worked metal. From plumbing and electronics to musical instruments and model engines, brass has many uses. It’s especially popular with hobbyist metalworkers, modellers and engineers because of its accuracy and ease of working. Buying brass online makes getting the raw material for these projects in exactly the grade and form you need easier than ever. Our brass range includes brass bar in flat, round, hexagon, square section, angle, tube or sheet, with the metal in a range of thicknesses and lengths, which can also be customised to fit specific needs.

Copper 

Copper is one of the most versatile and commonly used metals in all sorts of industries and crafts. We can supply it as flat strips, round bar, round tube and sheet. The bar and tube can be shipped in lengths of your choice. The sheet can be provided in thicknesses of between 1mm and 2.5mm and fully customisable lengths and widths.