Doug's list

For vendors who sell new stuff.
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This is for links to mainstream, long established vendors you like -- or you don't, please comment on the service you've gotten from them in the past either way. Ebay stuff goes on surplus subforum, even if they are an "official ebay store" as most of those are more or less surplus vendors who cannot get more after they run out of something -- even if what they are selling is "new".

Doug's list

Postby Doug Coulter » Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:13 pm

These are the places I go to when I need it right now, and am willing to pull out the wallet. Sometimes that's cheaper than the food I eat while waiting for some other source to be found, or for them to ship.


For electronics parts:

Digikey My main source of components, fast, reliable, great service.
Mouser Where I go if I can't find it at digikey, very good too, digi is just a habit of mine.
MCM Some audio, but mainly replacement/service parts for consumer gear.
Parts Express Mostly audio and speakers
Musican's friend Looks out of place here, but you can find big audio amps cheap, good signal processing boxes, all priced for flat-broke musicians.
We use a 1.5kw amplifier we got there as a repack under $250 to drive X ray transformers....think outside the dots!

Mechanical parts and tools:

McMaster My favorite. May not be the cheapest, unless you count how doggone fast it gets to you -- their record here is under 20 hours....well under.
Grainger Used to use these guys, more replacement part oriented.
Grizzly The better grade of Chinese tools -- and it matters. Fantastic service too, and here you can actually get spare parts (including for some things Harbor sells).
Harbor freight I would never buy anything from this website. You have to go to a store and see how junky the thing you want really is first. If you get big machines from them, forget getting spares for them, see above. On the other hand, their diamond cutting wheels for dremel and hole saws are cheapest there are, and work fine....so see for yourself. By the time you upgrade one of their machines to the same features and quality of the Grizzly equivalent, you've spent more bucks than getting it from Grizzly in the first place. And Grizzly has actual good service after the sale.

Pyrex and quartz
National Scientific Great outfit I'm real happy with. Glass and quartz, packed right and you get it unbroken.

Electroplating and metal finishing
Caswell plating Good guys here -- good support too if you are a customer. Get their book, it's worth it to learn the techniques involved.

Chemicals
United Nuclear Other stuff too.
Alpha chemicals When you need the good stuff and don't mind the prices. Also, exotic metals, tungsten wire and such.

Casting metals
Rotometals Rotometals has some interesting things -- cadmium, indium, germanium, gallium and various bullet alloys, lead sheet etc. They like to ship flat rate postal, which saves a ton of money on heavy things.

Magnets:
Amazing magnets Good source for these, lots of variety.
http://scitoys.com/ Scitoys has magnets, pyrolytic graphite, and other goodies.
CMS magnetics is where I got the nice big ones for my cyclotron.
Amidon not all magnets are permanent, get ferrites here.

Vacuum:
Duh, I left out Lesker, oops. I mainly buy things from them I can't find elsewhere, but that turns out to include things like gaskets, evap heaters, and chemicals to deposit.
They are certainly convenient for those things. And even at their prices, their depo chemicals are much cheaper than at Alpha Aesar -- and often better purity to boot.

other
Eljen -- good place for scintillator materials and ancillary parts. The real deal.
Goodfellow Exotic materials with exotic prices in small quantities.
Matheson TriGas Gasses, exotic, where we get deuterium and that really sweet regulator we use here.
Lindsay Books has some good books on older tech, useful source and not overpriced.

I get most of the more normal gasses locally at HMI, a propane/welding supply shop. Prices are good there, you can just outright buy tanks and regulators (no lease baloney) and they are smart.
The number of gasses and mixes they have available is surprisingly good.
Posting as just me, not as the forum owner. Everything I say is "in my opinion" and YMMV -- which should go for everyone without saying.
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Re: Doug's list

Postby Bob Reite » Sun Nov 15, 2015 11:39 pm

http://www.speedymetals.com

Good if you just need a "one off" short length of something. They have aluminum, brass, bronze, cast iron, copper, stainless steel, carbon steel and tool steel.

Under Vacuum equipment add http://duniway.com. Slightly better price on hardware than other suppliers.
The more reactive the materials, the more spectacular the failures.
The testing isn't over until the prototype is destroyed.
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