Small Parts Inc. got gobbled up by Amazon and turned into "Amazon Supply".
Which is no doubt great for Amazon, but it seems that the first thing they dropped was all the nifty small parts, leaving behind an online plumbing store.
Today I'm looking for precision ball or butterfly valves for low-pressure application with tubing in the 1/16 - 1/8" ID range.
Does anyone know of a supplier of small amounts of such valves? Better yet, does anyone know of a good replacement for Small Parts?
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B
Bob La Londe
I used to buy my alignment pins from Small Parts by the bags of 100. Last batch I got was a lot of 500 from an Ebay vendor. Same place I had to go for the chrome plated brass ball valves and one way check valves I use for air and coolant lines.
Good luck, and let us know how the search goes.
C
Cydrome Leader
ugh.
amazon supply has one of the worst search engines ever created. It always returns garbage that's not what you were looking for, and then you have to click on the site 50,000 times to view what they have.
paper catalogs blow this garbage away.
T
Tim Wescott
DigiKey has totally spoiled me. These days, I often find manufacturer's part numbers for stuff I want to design by first using DigiKey's parametric search engine.
If someone could replicate that for mechanical parts, they'd own the WORLD.
P
Pete C.
McMaster did, and they do...
C
Carl Ijames
They don't have the mfg info online, you have to call for that, but I think
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has the best search engine for mechanical stuff. It used to be even better when they simply returned the catalog pages, (made browsing sooo easy when you weren't quite sure what you needed but could get close with a search) but now they create results screens with bits of catalog pages with all the "extraneous" results deleted, which I hate for some reason :-). Yes, you can just click on one part and then click on "show catalog page", but why break what wasn't broken? The amazon supply site sounds like they are imitating MSC or Grainger - yuuuch. Great companies, terrible search engines. I've very disappointed to hear that Small Parts is gone.
For valves that small I would go to the analytical chemistry chromatography supply world. Try Scientific Instrument Supply in NJ
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or Restek, or some HPLC supply houses. They guys at SIS have always been great to talk to, they should be able to steer you right if they don't have what you need.
DigiKey has totally spoiled me. These days, I often find manufacturer's part numbers for stuff I want to design by first using DigiKey's parametric search engine.
If someone could replicate that for mechanical parts, they'd own the WORLD.
T
Tom Gardner
Try the pet store in the aquarium isle.
J
Jon Elson
Well, that's certainly sad news!
Jon
L
Larry Jaques
Talk about a total loss of raison d'etre...
I wonder if
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would work for your needs.
G
ggherold
Sad news about small parts inc. (So I should toss my catalog?) I too like McMaster-C. The index in the back of the catalog is a work of art. Online searches of M-C are OK, but I sometimes find they miss things and it's best to page through the catalog.
Do you have a McMaster-C catalog Tim?
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(there are some pvc ones too.. 1/8" was the smallest I saw in a quick search.)
George H.
R
robobass
Am Mittwoch, 16. April 2014 05:04:53 UTC+2 schrieb Carl Ijames:
I too am a big McMaster fan, but I do have a beef regarding their secrecy a bout suppliers. I was sourcing bearings, and McMaster couldn't give me some of the information I wanted. I asked if they could put me in touch with th e manufacturer, and they said no. A bit of google and I was soon on the pho ne with the producer and got the info I wanted. When it came to ordering, t hey didn't do small orders, but had the McMaster part numbers on hand, so I was right back to McMaster to place my order.
Yes, too bad about Small Parts, but personally I never found them very usef ul for me. It seems though that Amazon Supply has extremely good prices at least.
T
Tim Wescott
I looked again at McMaster's site, and saw some stuff that I had overlooked -- I had seen their "pipe sizes" categories, but not their "tube sizes" categories.
They still don't quite have what I want, but it's a lot closer.
T
Tim Wescott
That's a good idea. Just now I found something that might almost sorta work in the McMaster catalog, but at a gold-plated price. I'm looking at a hobby application, so there's a mismatch there.
I'll try the local pet stores and see if they have boats to their aquarium isles. Or maybe I'll see if they have aisles that I can walk through that have stuff.
While I'm at it, maybe I'll try not to give people s*it for typos?
Nah.
R
robobass
Yes. Please do continue to jab at us illiterates for our poor grammar and s pelling. I'm sorry. I don't write well. But, at least when I do write it ha s something to do with metalworking, and I think, with all do respect, I so metimes have something reasonably intelligent to say. If you would prefer t hat I stop posting, just say so and I will. I'm sure that the "Obama is a s ecret Nazi" posts are better composed, but will they be more valuable to y ou?
R
RED
Small valves can be had from Live Steam Railroad, boating and stationary steam engine model suppliers:
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-Rich
W
whit3rd
Can you use luer-type valves and fittings? That's pretty standard chemical lab stuff nowadays.
T
Tom Gardner
And, they have PUPPIES!
D
dpb
Chill dood, but it never hurts to improve on a weak point...
Personally, as Larry says below, I thought it a very good pun in the given case, accidental or not...then again, I'm one of those who tends to love the 'orrible pun, so what does that say? :J)
...
I forget who is supposed to have said something on the line of "it takes a poor mind to only have one spelling for a word"???
J
John B.
Andrew Jackson: "It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word", in answer to John Quincy Adams denouncement of him as "a savage who can scarcely spell his own name."
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