Stainless, Aluminum, Food grade parts

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I have large parrots.  They have large cages, large toys, and large beaks that destroy everything.  There are two things I need to do for them with metalworking and was looking for advice.1) Repair odd sizes cheap stainless steel food bowls.  Where can I get small quantities of thin stainless rods that would be good for thin bowl materials (assuming my skill is up to it, which it probably isn't but that never keeps me from trying).  I haven't found a good place to get these, certainly no place local to me.2) Does anybody know if aluminum is really a food grade material that would be safe for use in pet/human food consumption?  There's all those old tales about how aluminum pots are bad for you for cooking. 3) Could I work it with my stickmate?  What's a good source of aluminum rods?  I have a blacksmithing setup too, but I have yet to find an adequate material to coat the toys I might make, and powder coating is not a route I want to DIY.  Maybe you know of other coatings that would prevent rust and be ingestion safe and/or resistant?Yes, I'm clueless, thanks for any answers.Hobart Stickmate LX235
Reply:Wow.  Bad post.  More than 3 questions, and the two things I want to do are repair cages/bowels, and make somewhat complex toys (big birds love puzzles).Hobart Stickmate LX235
Reply:Thin stainless rods, how thin? Tig rod in stainless is easy to get. I get larger stainless from several loacl suppliers. You can order stuff like that online, usually in short lengths, form Graingers and places like MSC as well as online metal suppliers.As far as welding alum with your stickmate, not going to be practical. Alum stick is too hot to do thin material. 1/8" alum is about the thinnest you might be able to do, but it won't be pretty. Also the flux is very corrosive, so you'd need to really clean what ever you built that way to make it food safe.Honestly sounds like tig would be your best choice. If your sitckmate is AC/DC you could possibly use it to do basic scratch start DC tig on the stainless. Your best bet would be to get a dedicated tig with a pedal however. If you want to do alum at some point, you'd want to get an AC/DC tig, but thin alum tig will take quite a few hours of hood time to be able to accomplish. You'd stand a better chance learning to do stainless tig and being able to actually build something you could use. Originally Posted by FoghornLeghornI want to do are repair cages/bowels, and make somewhat complex toys (big birds love puzzles).