Remember that the largest automotive manufacturers near the Great Lakes region are in....
(drum roll)
Canada...
Sometimes, the paperwork is worth the effort. Especially when their $ is doing well against the US dollar.
Now Mexico is another issue.... Lots of manufacturing, no real technology... Parts don't sell down there too well, but equipment might. NAFTA makes Canada easy and I presume Mexico easy too.
Well, going to the P.O. and wasting 40 minutes to an hour to fill out paperwork for small profit, is not worth it, I suppose that for people who sell recurring stuff in big lots, it is different.
The problem is that while NAFTA, GATT and the WTO do indeed make international trade easier, it is easier for the mega corporations, not the individual or small/micro business.
This does not seem to be plot of some kind, but just the economy of scale. The paperwork is about the same to import one drill or tap, a cargotainer full of drills and taps, or for that matter a ship load drills and taps.
The network of freight consolidators, custom brokers, letters of credit issuers, and bonded warehouses can be daunting to the individual, but business as usual to the corporations.
Some items such as eyeglasses seem to move into the US with not problems, but specialty machine tools such as magnetic sine bars seems to be much more difficult to import directly.
Unka' George [George McDuffee]
------------------------------ Watch out w'en you'er gittin all you want. Fattenin' hogs ain't in luck.
Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), U.S. journalist. Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings, "Plantation Proverbs" (1880).
Christopher, I was at the post office today (government liquidation sent me a certified letter stating that some crap that I bought a year ago, has been reclassified secret and I have to return what is left). While there, I asked whether shipping paints and aerosols was allowed, the answer was a firm NO.
Huh? McMaster-Carr has a more usable web interface than MSC's. McMaster also takes care to cover a slightly different line than MSC. There's overlap, sure, but I often know in advance which of the two I'll be ordering from on the basis of what I need that day.
Grainger covers yet another type of product, again with overlaps to MSC and McMaster, but again unique in what they have.
I'd say they all do just what we need them to.
What about McMaster has you thinking they "operate(s) from the Stone Age"?
Well they damn well better pay for the stuff. I think the only way they could avoid payment is if it was obtained under false pretenses. After all they took Iggy's money when they sold it to him, they took his gas tax when he bought the fuel to put in his pick up and they took the excise tax on his tires.
Seems to me I recall reading somewhere that private property may not be taken for public use without just compensation.
Pay for it? they will just send the US marshal or the fbi and take the stuff. Friend of mine had a ULR system out of gvt surplus in the sixties. It was classified at the time but somehow it was offered for sale. They showed up with men and guns.
By the way the ULR was a scanning and jamming system for radio signals. It swept the band and could jam a number of signals at once or just display them where they were. This was one of the pieces of equipment on the Pubelo when it was sunk.
I do not know, I forgot to call them, will try to remember tomorrow. (re another poster) I doubt that men with guns will barge into my house without warning, that would be very sad as it would lead to an outbreak of instant lead poisoning.
Nevertheless, I will comply with the law in every respect, as I have no interest in spending time in prison. I think that they will probably not give me enough. I am also concerned that stuff that they sold me was not exactly as listed. I am quite confused as to what it is that they want exactly out of that lot.
I doubt that they will give me a worthwhile refund on what I have left.
There is some kind of "agreement" that lets them take back what iis reclassified and provide refund based on purchase price. I cannot do anything about it.
A while ago, during (likely government sponsored) anthrax scare, I was hassled by GAO about a medical incubator that I sold to some Kentucky turkey farmer. I was afraid that they would somehow try to make me the anthrax scapegoat due to lack of better ideas, but they went away after I provided them with the farmer's info.
McMaster-Carr blows MSC and Grainger away in terms of web ordering.
Compared to
formatting link
every other e-commerce site sucks rocks. Really. The McMaster-Carr search engine is so cool that I have a freaking orgasm every time I type in a search term. I start typing in "gear puller" and before I can hit return I'm seeing the catalog page for gear pullers. I start typing in "phillips machine screw" and before I can hit return I'm not seeing not one choice of screw heads, but dozens of choices of screw heads (OK, many of them aren't phillips, that's all right). Scroll down a little bit and I can actually sort based on actual meaningful parameters, not just stupid catalog text hits. Wow.
McMaster-Carr almost always - for a grand total of $4.00 for shipping and packing - gets me my order next day. That is so utterly amazingly cool. And I'm just an ordinary joe-six-finger, not a giant corporate entity.
Now, MSC and Grainger are pretty good too. The lines of tools and tooling carried by the three are not identical. If you're looking for a motor, or a pallet full of bathroom cleaner, then the choice is different. But for middle-of-the-road tooling, hardware, even bulk materials, I order from McMaster-Carr five times as often as the other two.
Same here, though my McMaster:Grainger:MSC ratio is more like 30:2:1. Mouser Electronics' online ordering system is the only other that I use that's in the same league as McMaster's.
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.