Just got back from Fastenall. They are about 250 ft from my plant back
door.

I am working on a tooling plate and the spray can of layout fluid is
empty. They used to have a big display of both spray and brush on the
wall behind the counter.

Now the employee has no clue what layout fluid is. He looked it up on
the computer and "oh, there it is. Nope, no stock!".

Did Lowes or Home Depot buy out Fastenall or just begin using their
method of stocking stuff?

I will bring some from home. My GM says only Amazon stocks everything,
and I'm beginning to believe that.

Paul

On 4/9/2018 3:04 PM, Paul Drahn wrote:
Just got back from Fastenall. They are about 250 ft from my plant
back door.

I am working on a tooling plate and the spray can of layout fluid is
empty. They used to have a big display of both spray and brush on the
wall behind the counter.

Now the employee has no clue what layout fluid is. He looked it up on
the computer and "oh, there it is. Nope, no stock!".

Did Lowes or Home Depot buy out Fastenall or just begin using their
method of stocking stuff?

I will bring some from home. My GM says only Amazon stocks
everything, and I'm beginning to believe that.

Paul

MSC stocks the most as a one party source. McMaster-Carr is second.

Fastenal is expensive, non-responsive to quote requests, doesn't accept
cash, and locally doesn't stock much. 90-95% of the stuff I look up on
their website shows ships from mfg or ships from warehouse. Motion
Industries and OneSource have similar issues on local stock. I can
think of maybe 3 things I've bought at all three combined in the last
five years. Not for lack of trying.

Machining supplies I usually go to MSC. I get my same old discount I
got from Enco so its not badly priced, and I can get it next day in most
cases for the price of ground freight, or in a couple days for free
freight. Their billing and accounting can be a pain. More so since I
pay at time of sale. Now I make sure to check stock and location before
ordering.

Bulk metals I get from a metal vendor. Aluminum I buy locally at
Remington Industrial. Nuts and bolts I mostly get locally at
Copperstate Bolt. 4140 comes Alro if the weight is enough to get good
pricing. Smaller quantity I shop around.

McMaster Carr gets the first nod for most misc hardware and small
quantity materials. MSC does have a a lot of that stuff too so I price
check them against each other. MSC is faster if I opt for their red
upgrade option.

Bob La Londe wrote in news

On 4/9/2018 3:04 PM, Paul Drahn wrote:
[...]
Did Lowes or Home Depot buy out Fastenall or just begin using their
method of stocking stuff?

I will bring some from home. My GM says only Amazon stocks
everything, and I'm beginning to believe that.

Paul

MSC stocks the most as a one party source. McMaster-Carr is second.

Fastenal is expensive, non-responsive to quote requests, doesn't accept
cash, and locally doesn't stock much. 90-95% of the stuff I look up on
their website shows ships from mfg or ships from warehouse.

And "ships from warehouse" sometimes takes unreasonably longer than it should. Here in
Indianapolis, one of the Fastenal branches is literally right next door to a Fastenal
warehouse, and it *still* usually takes several days.



Store is to the north, warehouse to the south.

Doug Miller wrote:
Bob La Londe wrote in news

On 4/9/2018 3:04 PM, Paul Drahn wrote:
[...]
Did Lowes or Home Depot buy out Fastenall or just begin using their
method of stocking stuff?

I will bring some from home. My GM says only Amazon stocks
everything, and I'm beginning to believe that.

Paul

MSC stocks the most as a one party source. McMaster-Carr is second.

Fastenal is expensive, non-responsive to quote requests, doesn't accept
cash, and locally doesn't stock much. 90-95% of the stuff I look up on
their website shows ships from mfg or ships from warehouse.

And "ships from warehouse" sometimes takes unreasonably longer than it should. Here in
Indianapolis, one of the Fastenal branches is literally right next door to a Fastenal
warehouse, and it *still* usually takes several days.


My local Fastenal branch has been astonishingly cooperative. They do
have to order things in, but I've pestered them with tiny special orders
for small fittings and hardware, which they fill gladly. $10 here,
$15 there, no problems. I think the smallest was maybe $5. The one oddity
is they always ask for a company name. I tell them I'm retired from a
large local employer, pay with my personal credit card and everybody is
happy. The service isn't instant, but a few days to get $5 worth of
obscure parts shipped at no added cost from a few hundred miles away
does not seem bad.

My $.02,

bob prohaska

On Mon, 9 Apr 2018 16:01:14 -0700, Bob La Londe wrote:

4140 comes Alro if the weight is enough to get good
pricing. Smaller quantity I shop around.

I have an Alro nearby, but I almost never buy from them because I'm a
hobbyist and only need small qantities. Went in there one day, and a
36" piece of O-2 was almost 3x what MSC and McMaster for the same item.
I would be willing to pay a little more to support them since they're
maintaining a presence here, and paying local taxes - just not 2x-3x
more.

Their prices used to be far more in line with other vendors but
something changed.

--
Email address is a Spam trap.

On 4/10/2018 8:35 AM, Bill wrote:
On Mon, 9 Apr 2018 16:01:14 -0700, Bob La Londe wrote:

4140 comes Alro if the weight is enough to get good
pricing. Smaller quantity I shop around.

I have an Alro nearby, but I almost never buy from them because I'm a
hobbyist and only need small qantities. Went in there one day, and a
36" piece of O-2 was almost 3x what MSC and McMaster for the same item.
I would be willing to pay a little more to support them since they're
maintaining a presence here, and paying local taxes - just not 2x-3x
more.

Their prices used to be far more in line with other vendors but
something changed.


I only get decent pricing from them if I buy several hundred to a couple
thousand pounds. A few months ago I bought several bar length pieces of
4140HT oversize 1" x 6" x apx 12' flat bar and several pieces of 4140HT
TGP round rod in various sizes. Their price was better than any other
quote even including truck freight to my shop. Their one each price was
quite a bit higher than any other quote.

For thin pieces of tool steel Admiral steel has some some stuff listed
on their website for knife makers that is quite competitive. Nothing
thicker than 1/4" though if I recall.

Tool Steel of California has decent prices on some tool steels as well,
but I always price check. Often my discount at MSC when paired with
orders over 149/299 discounts respectively makes MSC the better choice
for small pieces. Especially since I get free freight.

I do often check McMaster-Carr, and have several pieces of O1 on the
shelf that came from them. I also check Speedy metals, Online Metals,
and a few others when shopping for small pieces.

It pays to shop. Once in a great while I even find a good deal on steel
on Ebay. Iggy sells labeled salvage there, but I don't recall his Ebay
handle.

Discount Steel is almost never the best price, and I have had issues
with order fulfillment with them. I cancelled my last order with them
because they never filled it and never let me know they had a problem.