On Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:56:17 -0600, the infamous Morris Dovey
scrawled the following:

On 2/15/2010 1:26 PM, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Sat, 13 Feb 2010 10:43:29 -0600, the infamous Morris Dovey
scrawled the following:

the last time I needed aluminum (in a form not available at Ace
or Menards or TruValue stores) I spent three months trying and literally
could not get _any_ US company (neither manufacturer nor distributor) to
talk to me - and ended up having to buy a 25km minimum order from a
Pacific Rim supplier.

So, what did you build with sixteen _miles_ of foil?!?

I built a whole bunch of prototype absorber/exchangers for testing and
some fewer production units to ship. It was a Good Thing that the stuff
was exactly what was needed, because I still have a healthy supply.

I should hope so.


[ That supplier was a Japanese firm with a production facility on
Taiwan. Dealing with them was an incredible experience of win-win
negotiation, amiable mutual respect, and complete absence of any kind of
BS. A flurry of e-mails over two days got us to price/quantity levels we
could both accept - I drove to the bank to do an EFT, and when I got
home ten minutes later, there was a "Thank you for your order and
payment" e-mail in my Inbox. Less than two days after that the order had
been produced and was airborne from the factory en route to Des Moines.
It was exactly what I needed and the quality was uniformly excellent. ]

It's wonderful to work with honest people who glisten with integrity,
isn't it? Ordering from off shore can be much scarier than working
with people inside our borders.

It really _was_ scary, since I knew nothing about the folks with whom I
was dealing - but I can't imagine how they might have treated me better.
I won't hesitate to do business with that outfit again.

What was the cost of those miles, if I may ask?


Locally, anodizing services are expensive, and I'm not confident that
I'd end up with the quality I'd need.

That's when you find a friend who's out of work and create a business
for them which serves your purposes, too.

Sure, right after one or the other of us wins the lottery.

What can an anodizing plant cost? =:-0

--
It's a great life...once you weaken.
--author James Hogan