"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 7 Feb 2017 18:24:30 -0700, "Bob La Londe"
wrote:

I've been buying these 100 at a time from McMaster-Carr
https://www.mcmaster.com/#57455K51 for a $1.90 each. I'm starting to use
them up quick enough that I'd like to see if buying 250 - 500 might find
me
a better price somewhere. I've checked obvious places like Amazon, MSC,
Carr-Lane, and EBAY. Essentra has nearly nothing. Zoro's website is
about
worthless when you search for something they don't even have and get 6000+
results. I used Google's site search and most of Zoro's stuff was more
than
twice the price.

That's really strange. I found Zoro on eBay a few years ago and have
bought dozens of things because they had the lowest prices. Free
shipping over $50 and if you have a smaller order, just $5 to ship,
including 6' sections of allthread. I wonder if their website is
priced differently than their eBay sales.

I just tried the website and picked the first odd thing which came to
my brain, feather duster. 7 hits, no strays. So I tried something I
was sure they didn't have, feather picker. 0 hits, no strays, so I'm
obviously not getting the stray crap you have seen. I have argued
over that at the Home Depot site and, I think, McMaster, though.


1/4-20 female insert phenolic handles. I don't want the ones MSC has that
have a formed thread. I want one with a female insert.

The long life of inserts pleases me, too. Plastic threads usually
don't last beyond a couple R&Rs.


They get used on lead, tin, and pewter casting molds, so I don't really
want
to get away from the modest heat handling of phenolic. My local screw
vendor doesn't have them. I asked.

I put an extra ceramic knob on my portable BBQ lid and found that the
insert was glued in. Though it hasn't fallen off, maybe a phenolic
handle is in my future, too.


Last time I looked around McMaster had the best price, but I was only
buying
20 at a time then. Maybe they still do.

Not being rich, I always shop around for the best value. eBay,
Amazon, Zoro, McMaster, Enco (now MSC, $$), and maybe HD. Quite often,
I find a better version of what I was looking for at a lower price
than I'd hoped.


I am down to pulling handles off my own molds for customer molds, so I went
ahead and ordered 100 from McMaster, but I may order a few sample pieces
from Essentra and see how they compare for next time.