Hey I notice alot of people using L shaped aluminum and panels in there models I was wondering where you source these kind of materials from, as alot of the sites I would have used seem to have stopped selling the items. Thanks
http://www.aluminiumwarehouse.co.uk/ Never used them before but there prices seem very reasonable, not sure on postage costs though. EDIT: just checked their shipping costs and they aren't too bad really.
I mostly buy Alfer profiles. They are a bit on the expensive side but come pre-anodized from the extruder. Here in stores that supply them, they can be something like 9€/m. Local UK representative for Alfer: http://www.rothley.co.uk/index.asp Another good source is your local junk yard. I bought some 40m of 20x20mm rect. alu tube for about 20€. It was scrapped by a factory (Ruukki Oy) because the local producer (Purso Oy) had produced a defective run. The tube wall thickness was only 1.1mm as it should have been 1.5mm by spec. Also, after scrapping the material had been mishandled. Expect to find some dents and scratches here and there.
The larger hardware stores or similar ones that sell anything for your house use to have L-profiles and flatbars, some even commes pre anodized. For bigger sheats or not so common shapes, I would recomend searching for the local metal suppliers. The smaller company the better, since there is a chance that the larger suppliers don't bother selling to private persons. Try to find a local supplier where you can pick it up by yourself, since some companys don't ship small quantities (if this is not a part of their buisness). I have a local supplier here in sweden that I call an tell what I want and what lenghts. I pick it up the next day and this often ends up the cheapest since it is the easiest way for them. Try to find mosething simillar. Since you often pay for the weight you can get L-profiles a lot cheaper than the hardware stores. Good luck
B&Q should have a selection of aluminium shapes but you do have to check they're not bent because most of them are like pretzles. Moriquendi
