McMaster-Carr Rocks!

I ordered a panel mount coupling from McMaster-Carr yesterday at lunch. I checked their site this morning to see if it had shipped yet, and it had already been delivered. 18 hours from order to delivery is pretty darn good when I didn't pay for faster shipping.

I'll post pics of the build once I finish my Xtreme cooler mash-tun.

They do rock, don't they? :rockin:

The only thing I dislike is that they don't tell you the shipping charge at checkout, so if you're ordering something like stainless steel mesh, be aware that they ship flat and it could cost you more than you expect. Pretty sure they just pass along their actual cost, but it would still be a huge improvement if that could be calculated at checkout (although I'm not sure if that's feasible or not).

They do indeed rock. They have a warehouse on both coasts, so unless it's something outrageously large, 4 days is probably your longest lag time. My girlfriend bought 50' of 6' tall fiberglass mesh for a project, and it was at our door the next day...

totally awesome.

oh, and somewhere on this forum, someone's listed all the o-ring sizes for all the kegs, all with McMaster Carr part numbers...

kvh

But they won't deal with new Canadian customers.

It makes sense that you got it that fast, they're located in Ohio and I believe they ship stuff out several times a day. I know that if any of the OSU motorsports teams order something from there we get it in 12-24 hours (so long as we put the order in by phone).

I work in a lab and if I need to order anything I check McMaster first. They are so fast because they have warehouses all over the place and if the local warehouse doesn't have it they just ship overnight from the next nearest. I think they invested a good deal in infrastructure and it has paid off.

They have great, knowledgeable customer service and no talking computer queue.

I have 3 or 4 diverse hobbies, and so far, all of them have had tie-ins with McMaster-Carr.

#1, overclocking computers, and cooling the CPUs in them. Pumps and cooling lines, and other hard-to-find hardware.

#2, restoring old power tools. (Specifically, old Shopsmith ER machines.) Numerous parts!

#3, right here!

And, other places I've worked at, they depend on getting repair parts there!

steve

the_bird said:

...
The only thing I dislike is that they don't tell you the shipping charge at checkout... but it would still be a huge improvement if that could be calculated at checkout (although I'm not sure if that's feasible or not).

Click to expand...

I work for a quasi-competitor to McM and I can tell you it is not feasable. Especially when you carry as many items as they do. Some items are not stock items, they have no idea what the shipping weight will be until packed and they don't determine which McM warehouse it will be shipping from until the order is processed. Plus, they sometimes have to drop ship from a manufacturer, but that's rare.

They've really come a long way in the last few years. They used to be known as a place that would have the item you needed in stock, but charge you dearly for it. I remember an old boss joking that any purchasing agent who bought from McM on a regular basis wouldn't be a purchasing agent for long. But now that they have built the company up, that isn't so true any longer. They're really giving Granger what for!

I ordered a bunch of copper fittings from McMaster last night, they were shipped as of like 10:00 this morning. Can't ask for much faster service than that.

Not sure yet was the shipping cost will be, but since it's all little stuff I trust that it'll be modest.

What I love about these guys is that they could easily impose a minimum order size and limit themselves essentially to big corporate accounts, yet they have no problem dealing with my $25 order in a timely, professional manner.

Order on a Monday afternoon, have it on Tuesday morning! We use McMaster at work all the time. Here is my latest from them (completely stolen from The Great Refrigerator Project - can't remember where I found that):



This is the CO2 manifold for my upcoming keezer project

OVERNIGHT SHIPPING FOR $4?

That's IT?

MAN, these guys absolutely :rockin: :rockin: :rockin:

I don't feel so bad about ordering the wrong size reducing coupler and having to place another order last night...

Once, I ordered some phenolic rods, that only came in 3 foot lengths. (I only needed 4 or 5 inch pieces.) So, I ordered 3 of them, because they were so cheap. They came in a cardboard shipping tube, about 6 inches longer, with padding in both ends, and wooden plugs. This tube had a 3/8ths inch wall thickness, and would dent a 57 Buick!

As I remember, shipping was under $3, from LA. (And, that included the $4 worth of packaging!)

Yep, M-C ROCKS!!

steve