One place for all ???

[Me.Participant @me1]

or as it seems many places for the things I need……

What am I on about – well basically trying to get all the bits and pieces I need together to get myself set up.

My machines came with some tooling, some of it quite nice and usable but a lot "tired and used".

I put a small shopping list together to get the bits I needed but unfortunalty all the tool suppliers I have been using never have all the things I need.

Ive tried 3 of what you might call "the big boys" (mostly initials and a Greek sounding time keeper).

Unfortunately they don't have all the bits i need in one place and hunting around each site to pick up the things is costing me a fortune in postage.

I have a budget to spend each month on picking up the items but every time I think i'm getting somewhere with the items I get knocked back by "not listed" or "not stocked here".

Is there a one stop shop or is that too much to ask.

[Me.Participant @me1]

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

With supply difficulties at the moment I doubt any of the ME suppliers are able to keep their stocks upto date as much as they would like

[Bo’sunParticipant @bosun58570]

I think Jason's right. Shop around or be patient seems to be the name of the game.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

That used to be the good thing about the ME show when it had lots of suppliers attending. Lots of people did all their annual shop there and maybe also picked up pre-ordered stuff to save postage.

On the other hand most people can't afford to buy more than a couple of things at a time so it isn't much of a problem.

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

Join a local ME Society if you haven’t already – they often hold rummage/disposal sales of which once we can all meet up again there should be many as there will be 18month’s or more pent up supply by next autumn.

[Henry BrownParticipant @henrybrown95529]

Having done a similar exercise over the past 18 months (and thoroughly enjoyed it!) I'd recommend that you prioritise what you need for your immediate projects. Don't just look at the big boys, except for reference, there are lots of lesser known sellers and plenty of second hand bargains to be had on the infamous auction site, facebook also has some good pages where good engineering tooling pops up.

[GingerLatheParticipant @gingerlathe]

Posted by Me. on 11/02/2021 16:00:02:

or as it seems many places for the things I need……

What am I on about – well basically trying to get all the bits and pieces I need together to get myself set up.

My machines came with some tooling, some of it quite nice and usable but a lot "tired and used".

I put a small shopping list together to get the bits I needed but unfortunalty all the tool suppliers I have been using never have all the things I need.

Ive tried 3 of what you might call "the big boys" (mostly initials and a Greek sounding time keeper).

Unfortunately they don't have all the bits i need in one place and hunting around each site to pick up the things is costing me a fortune in postage.

I have a budget to spend each month on picking up the items but every time I think i'm getting somewhere with the items I get knocked back by "not listed" or "not stocked here".

Is there a one stop shop or is that too much to ask.

Not sure exactly what you are looking for. I've used arceurotrade a number of times with good results. RDG Tools have a wide selection with average quality for the most part,

[Me.Participant @me1]

Thanks for all the replies – unfortunately no ME clubs where i am to join or rummage unused tools.

Ive tried Arc and RDG and unfortunately they don't hold (ALL) the items in stock – either they will have 3 or 4 things and then the other 5 items I need are not stocked by them, so I will try the other and they might have 6 out of the 10, but not the same cross over of parts.

I must have spent £70 on postage in the past 2 months getting what I need from 4 or 5 different suppliers.

I'm not sure if it is a supply stock issue as it seems when I enquire if they stock the part ive had replies of – "no, sorry don't stock those" or "very little demand for those so we don't stock".

Ebay is not that easy to get the tools either – most searches turn up with re-sellers sites, who don't actually stock the part they just buy it from the supplier when you place the order, or China based sellers or worst of all UK, based tool agents with in my opinion way over priced second hand items.

Ive not been into this for long but i quickly realised that old tooling is just that – old and worn, with all the will in the world a 50 year old lathe chuck will have been used – A LOT – so why sell them for the same price as you can get and new one.

I'm sure there are some low use items which would be worth taking a punt on but they are few and far between.

Rant over – Thanks

[JuddyParticipant @juddy]

I would be asking myself, if the tool suppliers don't stock what I think I need is there a demand for it why doesn't anybody else need these tools and do you actually need them yourself or will ever use them.

They don't stock them because nobody uses them, there are probably better items that do the same job or its the wrong tool in the first place.

[Me.Participant @me1]

I don't think its that, as the next supplier I try does stock that item – for example I need a arbor for a boring head – it has the 1 1/2 x 18TPI thread – a common boring head i suspect – mine came with a MT2 (tang) arbor I want to use a ISO/BT 30 arbor. One supplier sells the arbor the other doesn't. They have all the other types including the boring head but don't supply all the different arbors to suit. They do sell a whole new item – boring head and INT 30 arbor but not separately.

 

I just thought someone might know of a tool supplier that held a larger stock base.

Edited By Me. on 12/02/2021 09:12:09

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

Unfortunately this is not uncommon most suppliers will have their supply train which also means they do not stock an item because they don't deal with x supplier. I do a lot of woodwork (wanting to set up a machine workshop as well) and i find this to be the same in this field.

It is just a fact of life unfortunately that we have to work with.

[Oven ManParticipant @ovenman]

Part of the fun of buying tools is searching them out. I can spend hours looking at all the different suppliers websites. If I could get everything from one place life would be quite dull. I accept the point regarding postage but for me it's not really a big show stopper.

Peter

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Me, I'll doubt you'll find any one supplier that will stock everything in any field, even the supermarkets have some different things/brands and I don't even know any industrial suppliers that sell everything. Very often it will depend on what customers they are aiming at and what deals they can get from various suppliers and of course it will also depend on their stock budget and storage space and probably administration costs.

Regards Nick.

[Steve PaveyParticipant @stevepavey65865]

Posted by Me. on 12/02/2021 09:09:25:

I don't think its that, as the next supplier I try does stock that item – for example I need a arbor for a boring head – it has the 1 1/2 x 18TPI thread – a common boring head i suspect – mine came with a MT2 (tang) arbor I want to use a ISO/BT 30 arbor. One supplier sells the arbor the other doesn't. They have all the other types including the boring head but don't supply all the different arbors to suit. They do sell a whole new item – boring head and INT 30 arbor but not separately.

I just thought someone might know of a tool supplier that held a larger stock base.

You’ve picked out the one example of an item that is actually difficult to get hold of. I spent a long time trawling various sites for an iso30 boring head and as you say all those listed seem to be anything other than iso30. I did find one in the end from a U.K. site (pretty sure it was RDG), the downside being that it came with a set of those awful and useless cutters in a cheap wooden block. I am now trying to find some decent tools to fit it, without much success.

I don’t think there is such a thing as a one-stop shop though. As others have suggested, maybe best to buy with the next job in mind. One supplier I can recommend for hard to find items is Jurassic Tools.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

You are unlikely, especially in these times, to find one supplier who can provide everything that you need.

Over the years, I must have used nearly ten different suppliers, for different items. Some specialise, such as just cutting tools, or Taps and Dies, in other cares, it may be that the particular item is only stocked by that particular vendor.

In other cases, you may have a choice of three or four (What is basically the same machine may be offered by four or mor importers, but in a different package and colour scheme. In some cases the device that you want is not available for your machine, but one for another can be adapted.

(In my case a Vertical Slide for a Sieg SC6 was fitted to an Engineers Tool Room BL12-24 with a simple adaptor )

Materials can sometimes be obtained locally, and possibly more cheaply in a large quantity, than by mail order.

It may be, that over the years, for various reasons, (service, technical back up, quality etc ) you build a better relationship with one supplier than another, and they supply most but not all of your needs.

Having bought machines and accessories from four or five suppliers, some are more likely to get repeat business than others.

You have to match the horse to the course, and be prepared to be flexible..

Howard.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Even if you do find a supplier with all the items would you place the order if some of those items could be bought cheaper from a different supplier particularly if the price difference were equal or more than the postage?

Also over time you tend to find out which suppliers tend to have the better quality offerings even if it looks like the same generic item on the website so you may be less likely to purchase from one than the other. Of the names being mentioned here I would always tend to use them in a particular order only going to one if I could not get the item from the others.

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