McMaster-Carr/Grainger Alternative 6

[dalegoldston]

Looking for an alternative to McMaster-Carr and Grainger. Anyone have some they would like to share. My company no longer allows me to use these guys.

Thanks
Dale

Thanks
Dale

 

[richardl63]

MSC and Misumi are good sources I use. It's hard to beat McMaster for the range of products, convenience, and quick delivery.

Richard Lee, PE
Lee Engineering Inc

http://www.leeengineeringinc.com

 

[3DDave]

I do want to balance and say that I found McM to be very responsive to inquiries and would rather deal with any difficulties than with any other companies. I haven't found a company with a better website and an almost scary ability to nail alternate terms for when what I'm looking for is indexed under something else. In contrast, I was looking on A* for "clock radio" and it repeatedly showed things that were only clocks, no radio. And if I want to sort by characteristic, the A* website has nada.

 

[itsmoked]

and quick delivery

Except.. They have a nasty penchant for having everything one day away in Los Angeles except one item that is invariably in the $#@%^ Eastern warehouse. This means you have to breakup your order and pay a fortune to get that one item in less than a week.

As for their site; I agree they have a great search engine. (As compared to 3M where they come back with "Nothing Found" when searching for their cornerstone product part numbers) But, McM's site doesn't let you go back in your browser. Nor do the numskulls allow you to copy the page URL and give it to someone. Find anything in their stock and then try giving someone a link to the item.. It makes their site useless to help someone with "get this part".

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[3DDave]

I never needed a page URL - just a part number. Drop that in and it goes right there.

You need to work in the Midwest. Ask your management about making this sensible relocation for their business.

(Eliminated an extra word from holding down the repeat word key too long.)

 

[itsmoked]

You need to work in the Midwest

Afraid of buffalo stampedes.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[BUGGAR]

I bought a new sander specifically for preparing test specimens to a specific finish. I should have checked on the availability of the sanding discs required for our purpose. Our procurement spec now ends with “ as provided by Walmart or equal”.

 

[dalegoldston]

One data point on "no significant changes."

We had a customer, unsatisfied with the lifting attachment arrangement on our component, that went to McM to get an eyebolt blank that they threaded to match our bracket**. We suggested that instead we redesign the related bracket to fit their lifting arrangement, but the customer is always right. Back and forth over this with multiple false starts and begging for what they wanted. After nearly a year of tooth pulling it's all settled.

Cue up a decade and they come back for new buy, long term spares. There are minor problems as any production restart might have, but the one that bites the worst - that eyebolt blank. McM's supplier changed the loop and added material so now the customer hook doesn't fit, but no one knows this until the units are on the runway ready for installation. And there went another few grand in creating a drawing to bore out the blank to a diameter the hook will fit in.

At least the blanks were cheap. Sigh.

**It's too long to get into, but there were a bunch of missing requirements and a serious desire on the part of the customer to isolate their various subcontractors that led to one, retrospectively, poor decision that snowballed into over $20k program cost for a place to use a lifting hook with under 200 lbf capacity.

This is part of it, for sure. They do tend to change part numbers and suppliers so it becomes a guessing game if the part from 10 years ago is the same.

Also want to go on record. Some of this is funny as hell!


Thanks
Dale