Parts suppliers

[labb]

Which parts supplier would you say that you get the best response from (Doug doesn't get to play). I just recently place orders for a build and here is the deliveries I got.

Hoffman- Order placed 7/27--shipped 7/27
Mouser--Order placed 7/27 --shipped 7/27
Tube Depot--order placed 7/27--shipped 7/27
Hall amplification-order placed 7/22--shipped 7/22
McMaster-Carr- order placed 7/26--shipped 7/27
Triode Electronics-order placed 7/26--shipped 7/27
Weber--order placed 7/1--has not shipped yet

That is great response from all but one..It is really great when you consider that all of these orders where under $100 each. It is a big deal to me as a DIY'er that we have suppliers that we can purchase from that have no minimum orders and they treat us as if were are high dollar customers. We owe them a great big Thank You. It is guys like Doug that make it possible for us to continue with this habit forming hobby they call amp building.

[Tone Junkie]

Weber always takes a little longer I think there running a little lean on staff trying to stay afloat.
 But then they always took longer than every one else.
Bill

[Fresh_Start]

I've ordered from all of those except Hall and Triode.  My experience with the others has been similar except for Weber.  Never had a problem with shipping times from Weber, but I've only order speakers there and expected it would take a little while to make what I ordered.  That's different from pulling parts off a shelf.

Doug is superhuman!

McMaster Carr is pretty amazing too.  Their catalog is enormous but I've always received shipments really fast - almost as fast as Hoffman.

BTW it took me a little while, but I figured out that multiple shipping charges will eat up a lot of money fast.  Built an Excel spreadsheet for my second build and discovered that over 10% of the cost was shipping because I'd tried to find the lowest cost source for each part.  Doesn't work...

Order as much as you can from Hoffman!  Plus he doesn't cheat you on shipping charges like some others do.

Cheers,

Chip

[labb]

You are correct about single sourcing to save on shipping charges. Just that I haven't found one source for everything..In defense of Weber what I ordered from them was the little matching transformer, wbalun,  for a xlr lineout. They probably have it wound on demand. It is a $2 item and I did order 6 of. A supplier can hardly handle the paper for that.

[PRR]

> shipping charges will eat up a lot of money fast

Bad enuff on half-gram resistors. I buy used books; here's a recent invoice:

Sales Order Number: 74741163
Book Price:US$ 1.00
Book Price:US$ 1.00
Book Price:US$ 1.00
Book Price:US$ 1.00
Book Price:US$ 1.00
Shipping Price:US$ 12.91
Total Order Amount:US$ 17.91

Shipping is nearly 3X the value of the books. (And the shipping, while rounded, is not over-charged. This lot will be too big and heavy for the mailbox.)

My one experience with Weber was 3 days book to ship. Not unusual for small shops. "Weeks" might justify a follow-up. However business is so bad it is hardly worth going to work, and it IS high summer, everybody has to take the kids to the beach and wear them out.

[RC_cola]

I have been in the McMaster-Carr warehouse in the metro Atlanta area, its huge! The have a conveyor system which the boxes move along and when sealed and labeled go directly into the shippers truck in the dock.

I went often to a Grainger store on the east side of Atlanta and items you would typically need many of at one time they would just have two or three on hand. Now if you needed some styrofoam cups they had many large cases on hand all the time.

[loogie]

Despite what they'd have you think the problem is neither deficit nor debt;  it unemployment and its demand.  I got a speaker from Weber in a week and that more than anything says something about demand.  If Doug had a wide selection of metal film 1 watters I wouldn't have to buy from anyone else.  #1 vendor worldwide.

[Fresh_Start]

+1 Loogie

I hate to say it, but Doug's tiny metal film resistors don't work for my 52-year old eyes.  There's always something else that I need from Mouser/Newark/wherever that Doug doesn't carry, so I order Vishay CCF-60 metal film resistors:
http://www.vishay.com/docs/31068/ccf60.pdf

They're big enough that I can see the color bands, AFAICT they're rated to 1 watt, and they're 1% tolerance (not that I care beyond 10% for most applications).

Confession complete.  I'm guessing the profit margin on metal film resistors isn't great anyway so I hope I shouldn't feel guilty.

Chip

[Frankenamp]

I went often to a Grainger store on the east side of Atlanta and items you would typically need many of at one time they would just have two or three on hand. Now if you needed some styrofoam cups they had many large cases on hand all the time.

That seems to be a common feature of Graingers. The local branch in Hayward CA usually averages about 50% of what I order as a 'walk-in' customer. The rest is usually down in San Jose... They will usually ship the missing items to the local store for free if I want to come back later- if I want them shipped then I have to pay shipping. The good thing about 'em is the outside sales rep is pretty aggressive with discounts- if you ask. Example: HID starters for my outdoor fixtures are about $60 ea. I beat up the counter guy (nicely) using the Big Company Name and pricing agreement schtick- and hammered the price down to $53 (Big Company Price) For some strange reason the tax showed up on the reciept as upstate New York rates instead of California's bay area 10.5% {thats funny- and cheaper}. The store didn't have enough on hand anyways so I fired off an email to the local rep and the price dropped down to $28 ea when I picked up the balance next morning. Graingers is one big toy store. I want to check out the SoCal McMasters, that's gotta be amazing. Once Mcmasters gets the PO from (the Big glass Company's) twisted and arcane purchasing system, it's usually there the next day- almost as fast as Doug.

 
To quote myself from another post last week: I ordered some parts Thurs at Oh-Dark-thirty. Didn't bother to check the mail Saturday, didn't think there'd be anything till Monday earliest, finally checked the mailbox for junk mail Sunday morning and it was already there! Bravo-Zulu!

I tried Newark for some Harting connectors that a 'suit' wanted to have Toyo stick on some of their injection molding machines... because everyone else was out, and waiting on the same boat from Germany- and the 'suit' had to get them to Japan like, next week. Even calling in special favors from someone in NY and using every trick in Dale Carnagie's book, the parts didn't get to Japan until the next week air freighted. I hope Newark's domestic service is better. I blame at least half of it on my own companies bloated bureaucratic accounting system...

[dpm309]

How about Antique Electronics in Tempe, AZ.  If you order before noon, they will ship the same day and depending on where you live, you can receive the order the next day.  Also free shipping if order is over $100.  There are still several things I order from Doug such as the turret lugs.  For some reason Mouser doubled the price of these a while ago and their quality is nowhere near Doug's.

Dan