Let’s go ahead and address the elephant in the machine shop: material sourcing in the post-COVID world is hard, and there’s no telling when things will return to “normal.” 

Want an example? We recently got an order on a Thursday, sent the PO to our material supplier on a Friday, and found out that the material they had quoted us just days ago was gone. The next available material was 50% more expensive and would take 22 weeks to come in—up from the initial seven business days we had anticipated. 

You’ll hear these horror stories from precision machine shops everywhere. Materials are in short supply, and customers who don’t jump immediately risk facing absurdly long lead times. 

This isn’t the first time materials have been difficult to source, and it won’t be the last time. So let’s take a look at some options for overcoming this challenge. 

The Material You Need Is in Short Supply. . . Now What? 

If the material you need is in short supply and you have some flexibility, here is what we recommend: 

1. Choose a different material 

While switching from one metal to another isn’t always a viable option, one swap to consider is plastic → aluminum. There’s a standard misconception that plastic is cheap, easy to source, and simple to machine. However, it’s often cheaper and easier to upgrade to aluminum. 

Most of the resin for plastic comes from overseas, making plastic supply chains susceptible to volatility. If you need a 5” piece of plastic sheet and it’s unavailable, consider aluminum as an alternative. Aluminum is consistently easy to procure and is lightweight like plastic but even stronger. 

2. Choose a different temper of the same material 

When changing to an entirely new material isn’t feasible, another option is to use a different temper of your desired material. For example, we recently had a customer request a thin plate of 6061-T6. The thinnest available right now is 0.25”, which is thicker than they wanted. 

We suggested that they use T651 instead, knowing that the properties are similar and that we could easily procure a plate of T651 in the appropriate gauge. 

We often recommend different tempers of stainless steel, too. 17-4 stainless steel, for instance, has multiple heat treated variations (e.g., H1150, H1025, H900). Recently, a customer called out H1050, and it wasn’t available. We presented two choices: 1) we could buy standard 17-4 and send it to our heat treating vendor or 2) use a readily available H900 and save them time and money.

3. Choose a different grade of the same material

A material like aluminum comes in so many different grades that finding comparable alternatives to a specific grade is relatively easy. For instance, 6061 aluminum—the most popular grade in aerospace machining—can be a good substitute for the harder-to-find 7050. If you want to stick to the 7000s and 7050 is unavailable, we might recommend 7075. 

If Flexibility Isn’t an Option, Act Fast! 

When you absolutely need a specific material and don’t have any room for flexibility, as is often the case in aerospace machining, be prepared to act fast! With materials in such short supply, precision machine shops are left fighting for the last pieces of materials like A2 tool steel and stainless steel. 

Here’s what we advise our customers to do: If you know you’re going to give us your order, let us know as quickly as possible. That way, we can have our supplier reserve the material for us so you don’t miss out on it.

Ready to get your next project started? Request a quote to work with us!