ULINE is another B2B with a great site. Basically McMaster-Carr for the shipping department.
Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
381–390 of 501 posts
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#382Earlier quoted context omitted.
and Canada, though only to business and school addresses only.
Pro tip: Use M.D. after your name and you're a business. I AM an M.D. but friends I've given this advice to over the years have had success in impersonating a business with this title.
Sole proprietorships are businesses. One could just put their name in the “company name” field.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#383Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pro tip: Use M.D. after your name and you're a business. I AM an M.D. but friends I've given this advice to over the years have had success in impersonating a business with this title.
Sole proprietorships are businesses. One could just put their name in the “company name” field.
Sometimes there is no company field. In that case go to M.D.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#384[dead]
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#385Mechanical Engineer and product designer here. I've been using mcmaster daily for 20 years to do my job. It is definitely the standard by which all others are judged. I'll gladly pay 2, 3, 5, even 10x the price to get it from McMaster. The service, the CAD models, I have what I need the next day. As an example of the level of their service, you can send them a box of loose parts, no part numbers, no markings, and the…
High school shop/engineering teacher held a copy high: "Everything you will ever need, is in this book.".
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#386Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe because the site is hard-coded for the US imperial system? Why not go to the site and take a look. They, obviously, sell both metric and imperial bolts (and everything else). It's not like Americans don't occasionally need metric bolts.
> It's not like Americans don't occasionally need metric bolts. It’s becoming a lot more common than not in fact. Automobile industry for example is pretty heavy on using metric bolts / screws. It’s not a recent thing either, a 2004 F-250 I used to have had many (most?) bolts as metric.
The US automotive industry started their metric push in the 1970s, and was mostly done in the 1980s for everything new. There are still a few parts from the 1960s and before that work just fine and so haven't been redesigned (and thus the bracket it goes on in a mix), but if there was ever need to redesign that part it would be all metric.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#387For all the shade interface designers get around here, folks sure do talk a lot about great interface design!
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#388Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's a good place for well priced bolts if I'm not worried about next day shipping but need them to not be made of pot metal?
Where are you finding pot metal bolts? Your best option should be anything from Ace/Home Depot/Lowes. The matte finish ones are zinc galvanized, that’s just the protective coating. They are made of carbon steel and are graded according to standards set by organizations like SAE. Hardware stores will have grade 2 bolts for the most part (or the metric equivalents). These will be made with weaker steel and will be cut…
While the bolts at home depot are made of some form of iron they often are not graded at all. There is a reason: they wouldn't pass any quality tests. The graded ones are probably okay, I'm not sure as I wouldn't attempt to use anything they have in something important as I have no way of knowing something didn't get put in the wrong bin by mistake.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
DDP is probably the only good solution here for most EU customers, but frankly the hassle and expense of doing business in the EU is what keeps most US e-commerce companies from entering the market.
I tried googling DDP but couldn't find it - do you know the URL?
It stands for 'Delivery Duty Paid', i.e. customs charges, import tariffs, taxes, handling charges are included in the price and don't arrive as an unwelcome surprise.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#390Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not at all. My rate is very high, so saving a day of my time saves them way more. The burn rate on some of these projects is hundreds of thousands, millions a day. Saving time when your on the critical path (as mechanical design typically is) is worth that much. Once the design is finished there is a whole army of manufacturing engineers and sourcing folks that can drive the cost down. That's not the niche that mcmas…
If it's a commonly used item, it would be much more efficient to pay an entry level CAD guy to draw up a parametric screw part. Add in toolsolids of all the subtracts that the component will do (taps, CBore, clearance), and supplier call outs. It starts to become efficient.
Drawing up a component is quick, sure. Measuring and specifying is not as quick and easy, and you won't necessarily have appropriate metrology equipment or trained personnel on site.