@dogface , +1 on McMaster-Carr, it'd rare that they don't have what you need in any good-sized shop. Any day, they beat Fastenal, hands down!!! @hikerduane, +1 and then some, on Old Coleman Parts, how Mike can keep track of everything and make it run seamlessly is quite a achievement, IMO! Murph
It's a great tool to have in the fettling kit. Better than the standards & not one you can get just anywhere
McMaster Carr certainly has damn near everything,, but not quite. They are lacking in 1/16" brass NPT fittings, as I recently discovered. Their shipping system is Byzantine, and based on a structure only known to the Illuminati, but it appears to function well and deliver parts ahead of schedule. You can do better on price, but if you need eight feet of item bar on Monday, they generally get it right and on time.
I've been a McMaster Carr customer for as long as I can remember. Not cheap but if you need an odd ball fitting or 1 sq ft of something they'll most likely have it. Online ordering is convenient but I kind of miss thumbing though their 4" thick catalog while sitting on the crapper. Ben
The British company Rohan has impeccable customer service. For us on this side of the pond, Rohan makes travel clothing and some insulated layers as well. Excellent quality and excellent materials. I tried a couple of items after reading online reviews and now have integrated various pieces into my daily wardrobe. Free shipping from the UK, free returns to the UK. Can't be beat. Phone support is excellent as well as email support. I've bought and returned multiple shipments all without hassle. This is true even for clearance sale items.
Ain't that the truth. I miss the old days sitting on the pot trying to figure out where they hid the stuff I wanted. The McMaster catalog was at least twice as thick as the King James Bible, printed on similar paper, and equally instructive in it's own way. It used to sit next to my "Machinery's Handbook."
If you ever need traditional boat gear, Classic Marine, in the UK, has always been superb to deal with. https://www.classicmarine.co.uk/ Very good products, fair prices, excellent customer service. They've gone "above and beyond" for me on a couple of occasions. Alex
+1. Not inexpensive, but if you need a classic block or something, they are one of the few places to order off the shelf. Toplicht in Germany also does well. Less rarified, great selection and service, and feature the Hanse regulating burner. Don't ask the Missus. You won't get far.
iRobot, the maker of Roomba robot vacuum cleaners. They're pretty robust, but things do wear out. When that happens, they have excellent online troubleshooting and repair guides and videos. All the parts are modular and simple to replace with a phillips screwdriver. If you need to speak to a human, it's easy and they're helpful and polite. If a part fails significantly before its MTBF, they replace it free, and you don't have to send the old one back to them. My daughter's broke and (after briefly trying to wheedle my help) she troubleshot, ordered the part, and fixed it herself. ....Arch
