"These are a few of my favorite things..."

"These are a few of my favorite things..."

Have you ever stumbled across a website that you just cannot get enought of? No, not hotbabes.com, but one you just like to explore for hours on end. Well, I found mine a few weeks ago and the packages just keep rolling in.

I'm sure most of you here probably already know about the McMaster-Carr Hardware website, but if you don't, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I don't know if this place has a storefront or not, but if it does, I would most likely end up getting locked up in there after it closed at night. This place has everything. Whether you want to start your own independant nation and hold up in the badlands of North Dakota, or simply get some cool hardware for your restoration, this is the place.

For instance, after screwing up my chrome moly tubular push rods the other day by cutting them too short, I still had the little chrome tips left over. I logged on to my account at McMaster-Carr and found 6' lengths of the exact same material as the ones I had ruined (and paid over 100 bucks for) for a little over $3 a foot. I bought 12' of the stuff. I also found some really cool flat head milspec screws to attach my new crank damper with.

If you've never been to this website, www.mcmaster.com,
go, go now. You won't regret it.

Re: "These are a few of my favorite things..."

Tabcon said:

I don't know if this place has a storefront or not,

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Nope, closest to a storefront they have is a "will call" counter. Place your order over the phones provided (or previously over the Internet), then a few hours later the friendly man behind the counter hands you a box (or if necessary, forklifts start piling pallets on the dock :laugh: )

With that much stuff in stock, they have to be using machines to both pull stock from the shelves and replenish it; so no way do they want the public in that area.

Re: "These are a few of my favorite things..."

Good place and prices are decent on many items.

They're one of our main vendors for my college engineering lab, so looking through their catalogue is part of my job.

Re: "These are a few of my favorite things..."

Without McMaster, I don't think I'd be able to do my job at work. Or at least, not as efficiently. We buy from them almost daily. Also, their website has to be the best in the business. It just walks you through when looking for something.

Re: "These are a few of my favorite things..."

I agree, their website should be a model for anyone offering this type of service, British auto parts included. Not to mention any names, but a few of the Triumph parts websites are so cockeyed, I don't even bother trying to shop there.

Re: "These are a few of my favorite things..."

Tabcon said:

I agree, their website should be a model for anyone offering this type of service, British auto parts included. Not to mention any names, but a few of the Triumph parts websites are so cockeyed, I don't even bother trying to shop there.

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I go there, but it is irritating having to go page by page because the search engine never divulges anything...that would be a site that goes by three consonents

Re: "These are a few of my favorite things..."

I wish I had 1% of the money the company I work for spends at Mcmaster in a years time. :eeek: There's a semi permanent tab at the top of the browser. the other one is for here :laugh:

They have a really good engineering staff too, if you call and say I need a widget that does XYZ and don't know what to call it, a few hours later this nice guy calls you and tells you that you need a fantasmic whizmatron, it's in stock but in Ohio and we can overnight it if you would like.

Re: "These are a few of my favorite things..."

Wow! They have <span style="font-style: italic">fantasmic whizmatrons</span>?

I've been looking for one of those!!

Re: "These are a few of my favorite things..."

Nial,

I had two,but broke one,& lost the other one.

- Doug

Re: "These are a few of my favorite things..."

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: "These are a few of my favorite things..."

prb51 said:

I go there, but it is irritating having to go page by page because the search engine never divulges anything...that would be a site that goes by three consonents.

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Yea, I agree with you there, but have you ever been to a couple of these British parts places and the home page resembles the label on a bottle of Dr. Bronner's soap?

Re: "These are a few of my favorite things..."

Like many of you, I use McMaster both for home and work. I started buying from them in my first engineering job perhaps 20-25 years ago. I can't imagine what I'd do if I couldn't use them as a resource. Were you to visit my garage, not only would you find several items from McMaster... almost every Zip-Lock bag I have parts in carries the McMaster label. We have a never ending stream of empty McMaster bags at work and I just hate to see anything go to waste.