For some projects I spend some time in hardware stores and places like
Office Depot eyeballing some sort of ready made item (like shelve brackets
etc), that suits the needs when modified. Usually if I buy these in bulk
it comes out cheaper than the raw material. This seems to be the situation
in all 'post industrial' countries (post industrial means that everyone is
unemployed and they don't produce anything except candy, ice cream and hot
air in the form of politics and TV shows). I happen to know that this is
not the case in producing countries, where you can walk into a hardware
store and order a couple of sq. meters of galvanized steel sheet without
troubles and double-talk.

Peter

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics
(like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics