Standard metal stock sizes and lengths

Metal is rolled and sold in long mill lengths, then cut to order. There's no single answer the way lumber steps in even 2-foot increments — the common stock length depends on the product:

These are common mill lengths, not universal — they vary by product, grade, and supplier, and a yard cuts to order. Buy online or over a retail metal counter and you'll usually get much shorter cut pieces, often anywhere from 1 to 8 feet.

Tube is named by its actual outside size. A 2-inch square tube measures 2 inches across, and a 1-inch round tube is 1 inch in outside diameter — what it's called is what you measure.

Pipe is the exception. It's named by Nominal Pipe Size (NPS), a label that for smaller sizes isn't the real diameter at all. A 1/2-inch pipe has an outside diameter of 0.840 inches, not 0.5. The NPS numbers were originally chosen to give a target bore at the wall thicknesses of the day; as wall schedules changed the name stuck, but it stopped matching the measurement.

This quirk only covers NPS 1/8 through 12. From NPS 14 and up the nominal size equals the outside diameter — a 14-inch pipe really is 14 inches across. Tube carries no such surprise, so when you measure stock to cut, be sure you know which one you're holding.

Length is where a cutting plan lives. A longer mill stick gives the optimizer more room to nest parts back-to-back, so the real question is which stock lengths, and how many, yield your parts with the least waste and the fewest unusable drops.

Profile has to match, though: a part cut from 2-inch square tube can't come from round bar or angle, so plan one profile and size at a time. NestSolver's metal optimizer takes your stock lengths and cut list and returns the layout that uses the fewest pieces — and because a metal bandsaw's kerf is wide enough to matter, it subtracts that blade width on every cut so the plan survives contact with the saw.