Suppliers

In no particular order except for the broad categories, a list of places that sell stuff that is relevant to our interests. Personal experience of these, good or bad, would be useful on the discussion page.

Wholesale / reseller / discount accounts

I (daveio) have registered (and will maintain) lhsmail.com and hooked it into Zoho's webmail, with the intent of centralising wholesale/reseller/discount accounts under wholesale@lhsmail.com. The intent is to avoid single human points of failure for taking advantage of the discounts. The login details are available for active members by logging into chomsky with your LDAP credentials, and executing cat /home/daveio/wholesale/credentials.txt. Individual reseller account credentials are stored as notes in the Zoho web interface - please add any you already have set up, and if possible change the email address to wholesale@lhsmail.com.

London services & workshops

Plastics/laser cutting/engraving

Main article: LaserCutter

• Hamar acrylic. "Hamar tend to turn things around in a couple of days. They can do all sorts of complex plastic fabbing as well as simple cutting. Excellent variety of materials in stock." Apparently, they don't have much of what they advertise in stock. Open Monday-Friday 8:00-17:00. Awesome 'scraps bin' mostly at £1 per piece.

• 4D Model Shop Lasercutting, 3D printing, vinyl cutting. "They have a proper shop with racks of sheet material. They also sell the tools and laser cutting services. A quicker way of getting sheet material, but you'll probably have to cut it yourself." Monday-Saturday 9:00-18:00 (9:30 on Saturday)

• http://www.trentplastics.co.uk/ various plastic machining (have dealt with them, Levi was very helpful get the order in before 3pm and they'll dispatch it next day, plus if you don't see it on their website call and ask as they have more in stock than is on there). Open Monday-Friday 8:00-17:00 (16:30 on Friday)

• Laser/Make Well-priced lasercuttig in Finsbury Park/Haringey area

• Digits2Widgets 3D printing house in Camden

• Denny Plastics 16, Mitre Bridge Industrial Estate, Mitre Way, White City, London W10 6AU, UK

• Blueprint model shop site is down, and their Facebook states it's permanently closed

• https://wholesalepos.com/ Wholesale POS offers a wide range of Acrylic rod, tubes, aluminum composite sheet, Foamex PVC sheet and many more. That is available in a variety of colors, shapes, and dimensions. You can place your order 24*7 we provide online services.

• https://www.ema-models.co.uk/ 14 Beadman Street London SE27 0DN the source of EMA Plastic Weld acrylic solvent (Methylene Chloride) but also stockists of various plastics

• http://westlondon.amariplastics.com/ Amari Plastics 202 Riverside Way Cowley Uxbridge UB8 2YF Large sheet materials such as acetate

• B&Q also sell styrene sheet - a cheap but inferior alternative to acrylic

Other fabbing

Not a recommendation, just is just a list of places we've found nearby.

• http://londonsculptureworkshop.org/ non-profit metal and wood workshop in Bermondsey
• http://www.imakr.com/ in Farringdon; a 3D printer shop providing a print-on-demand service.
• http://www.theplasticshop.co.uk/
• http://www.trylon.co.uk/
• http://www.razorlab.co.uk/
• http://www.inition.co.uk
• http://cncworkshop.co.uk/ (Tottenham)
• http://www.cutlasercut.com/ (Vauxhall)
• Turning Earth Pottery studios in E2 and E10
• Machines Room Open again in Containerville (near old LHS site)
• https://www.prodpoint.com/
• Fablab London City has a larger Epilog laser. Membership, training etc. also required. gone. Founders started http://www.greenlab.org/
• 1plus2d just up Kingsland Road -DanC gone?
• http://www.metropolitanworks.org/ Seems to be a japanese lifestyle oriented site
• http://www.getsortedfor.com/ Gone? Site is down
• http://www.spacesaversplus.com/ Gone? Last tweet in 2012 and site is down

London retail or trade counter

Electronics

• RS has most things, more professional. 4 london trade counters, including one in Bermondsey
• Cricklewood Electronics A real shop, with little drawers of stuff & everything.
• Cool Components Sparkfun type stuff. No more will call in Clapham anymore, however. Still UK based but moved out of London.
• Retail site for the Scientific Wire Company - unusual wire : enamelled, knitted, litz etc. Now in Dunmow in Essex.
• Oomlout for some easy Arduino starter kits. In Halifax

Hardware

• Search ebay for nearby auctions ending soon
• Clerkenwell screws All manner of screws etc. and some tools Wholesale Division of Clerkenwell Screws which has product lists
• Networking infrastructure
• One Stop Metal Shop One Stop Metal Shop: Used to be local but now moved out to Essex
• North London Plant Hire North London Plant Hire, 4-16 Shacklewell Lane, E8 2EZ: Sells 2.5 and 3.2mm welding rods, doesn't sell MIG supplies
• MachineMart MachineMart sells 1.6, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.25mm Clarke welding rods
• Iron foundry Cambridge Heath
• Amadeal Parts for minilathe etc. harryuk123 on Ebay

See also Lab_24#Nearby_shops or Editable map of material supplies in London (feel free to add to / change this too).

Art Stuff

• Atlantis Art is a large warehouse-sized art shop with all kinds of things. Probably not cheapest for things like liquid latex, silicone moulding materials etc but it's there and it's reasonably priced for large sheets of paper, melinex (laserable clear sheet - useful for stencils), higher quality art supplies etc. One thing that caught me out - they have a vast selection of airbrush media but no hardware !
  • Atlantis was most recently near Old St and prior to that, various locations around Whitechapel and Brick Lane. Now moved to a bigger space in London Fields. It's a whole yard with parking, addressing complaints about the Whitechapel locations.
• Cass Art nearest branch is probably Islington. The "large" shop in Islington isn't as big as Atlantis. Range is slightly less upmarket than Atlantis as well. Know your prices before going - a lot of it claims to be cheaper than retail but actually isn't cheapest available elsewhere.
• Cornelissen & Son Holborn area. Pretty shop. Stocks some interesting papers, vellum, parchment, etc but take a shopping list with you if you're buying anything other than standard packs of papers as their paper stock is hidden away downstairs. Can be a bit on the pricey side but check out their clearance section for decent priced artists brushes.
• London Graphics Centre Covent Garden area. Useful for obscure graphics things. Prices are a little on the high side but generally they have higher quality materials anyway.
• Cowling & Wilcox branches nearest/easiest to get to from the Space would be Shoreditch High Street & Soho. A mix of art supplies and craft supplies. Middle of the road for quality/prices.
• Shepherds Falkiners in Victoria. The best selection of retail paper in London, with helpful knowledgeable staff. If you need large quantities, then there are paper selectors from Antalis and GF Smith on the arts & crafts shelves, but for 1-10 sheets or for art tissue/handmade paper, Falkiners is the best place there is.
• Great Art, Kingsland Road (not far from LHS Cremer St location).
  • Warning #1 : they don't carry anything like the website's stock in the shop.
  • Warning #2 : website NSFW due to auto-start voiceovers.
• Bauhaus-shop The most amazing art materials shop I've ever been in. Reminds me of Foyle's bookshop in Charing Cross Road, pre-modernisation, though better organised: floor after floor of unexpected treasures. Unfortunately a bit of a trek, as it's in Berlin, but do visit if you're in the area. Or just want to gorge yourself for a week or so.
• Caplin Glass Good source for glass and mirrors at sane prices, according to discussion on the mailing list Jan '19.

• Paintworks Nearest to the (former) Space, on Kingsland Road. Don't know anything more about it Akki14 (talk) Extremely good for its size, often with good deals on short-dated paint or ink. Eithin (talk) 00:29, 29 October 2013 (UTC) Closed? Link doesn't work

Casting, resins, etc.

• Tiranti, sculptors' tools, materials & studio equipment
• 4D Model Shop, model making materials
• Atlantis

Fabric and Sewing Materials

• Dalston Mill Fabrics On the Ridley road market, close to the center of Hackney.
• Ultimate Craft Large stock of haberdashery, 149 Stoke Newington High St, London N16 0NY
• Rolls and Rems Large stock of fabric at reasonable prices, 21 Seven Sisters Road, Holloway, London, N7 6AN, closes at 5.45pm
• Woolcrest Textiles 6 Well St, London E9 7PX
• Curtain Factory Outlet, several locations, Finchley N12. Aladdin's warehouses of all manner of textiles.

Plywood

• Creffields (Timber & Boards) Ltd, good for sheets of ply
• D W General Wood Machinists Ltd
• Travis Perkins
• Volund Timber Ltd, for battens
• Jennor Timber, Lockfield Avenue, Enfield EN3 7QL, or 13 Braintree Rd, Ruislip HA4 0EJ. Laser grade birch ply. Not listed on their website, but they do it - it's in their catalogue, and they know their stuff. Give them a call.
• Catford Timber Closed in 2017
• Fulham Timber

London-based, primarily mail order

• Earthshine Electronics Ran by a Hackspace member. Arduinos and other parts (can always be found on hackspace IRC) Discounts for LHS members on request.
• Robosavvy Robotics, Sparkfun, Makerbot spares. Popular online forum for humanoid robot enthusiasts (mail order next day delivery)
• skpang S K Pang - Sparkfun products and other parts
• E M A Model Supplies Plastic weld solvent, plastics, casting, tools
• S&M Tools & Hardware Hand & power tools for model making, engineering, jewellery, DIY, etc.

Networking infrastructure

• CMS
• Comms Express

Various

• AliExpress.com - great for bulk orders from China.
• Banggood - great for bulk orders from China. Sells like an eBay marketplace. Marginally more reliable and sometimes much faster than AliExpress.
• Amazon (next-day with Russ's Amazon Prime account) - equipment is often cheaper
• TechnoBots - electronics and some very nice hardware components, gears, pneumatics, chains, pulleys (10% Hackspace Membership discount code available - contact asc/ascen on irc)
• Bolt & Bearing in Enfield. Good prices, excellent range. Unit B5/Valley Link Ind Est/Meridian Way Enfield EN3 4TY Tel: 020 8805 7250
• Chronos Engineering supplies, tools etc. - Have showroom in Dunstable (5% discount but some things need to be ordered in first)
• Modelfixings Every type of nut, bolt etc. you can imagine, including very small ones.
• Fix8 Like 'Modelfixings' but more cost-effective for large numbers.
• A2A4 Stainless fasteners, screws etc.
• Mindsets Online formerly MUTR Various interesting stuff mostly intended for school science labs
• Cole Parmer - chemical equipment
• Micro-Tools Europe - Small tools
• BB Engineering Supplies Wide selection of mechanical, pneumatic, electrical bits. Poly belting.
• Beers of Europe, King's Lynn A truly amazing selection of beer.
• RDG Tools - machine tools and accessories, free postage, generally reasonable prices.
• GLR Distributors - metals, steam engines, tools. Geocities-style website.
• Allendale Stores I first came across this company at a model engineer's exhibiton, trading as Machine DRO and selling cheap glass scales and display units. They now seem to have branched out into a complete hacker's delight - SMD rework stations, RC data loggers, machine tools, wifi aerials .. all those chinese things at more or less chinese prices, but in Hoddesdon. One to watch.
• MetPrep Supplies hard to find wet/dry sanding belts used in preparing metallurgical samples and what the belt sander was originally used for
• Camden Some fairly unusual books (by no means all about steam)
• Westfield Fasteners Nuts & bolts
• HCL Clamping Fasteners
• HacMan's suppliers list
• The College Engineering Supply Primarily a mail order service for model engineers. Materials for casting, sheet metals, tubing, tufnol, etc.
• Direct Plastics various plastic supplies including PEEK
• TBS Polycarbonates range of sheet plastics
• Zapp Automation CNC components - steppers, bearings, ballscrew etc
• Astro Media Educational scientific items
• Engineer's Mate bearings, fixings, all sorts of mechanical bits. also on ebay.
• Gimson Robotics nice motors and gearboxes
• Stationary Engine Parts (and all sorts of useful tools, belting, gasket, plastigauge ..)
• Tiny jet engines
• Everything

Jewellery, watch & clock repair

• H S Walsh and Sons Ltd materials, tools and equipment
• Cookson Gold tools, supplies, art clay, etc.
• Bellore Ltd tools and supplies

Electronics

• Farnell has almost everything, more professional. Owns CPC and Newark. Note CPC are sometimes cheaper than Farnell for the same items
• RS has most things, more professional, usually more expensive (especially for small orders).
• Cricklewood Electronics Common and rare semiconductors, resistors, capacitors, soldering equipment, etc.
• Rapid Usually cheaper than RS or Farnell for run-of-the-mill parts. Website search often sucks - try to get a paper catalogue
• Online Components Has a pretty large catalog of electronic components, much like Digikey or Mouser
• Mouser USA based but free shipping. >£50 Like farnell but often a little cheaper.
• Digikey USA based but free shipping >£50. Like Mouser but bigger range, typically a little more expensive
• TME.eu electronic components, cheaper than RS, next day shipping is £5.20.
• Toby UK Specialising in board-board and signal-board connectors. Potential UK supplier of hard-to-find extra long pin headers as used by the Arduino platform.
• Northern Connectors Specialist connector distributors. Mainly bulk deals but order threshold is low.
• Seeed studio
• Sparkfun electronics
• LinkSprite Open source electronics, pcDuino, communication modems.
• Tindie - electronics marketplace like Etsy
• Oomlout Arduino & DIY electronics
• Bits Box - electronic components
• Hobby Tronics Yorkshire based well sorted mail order, sparkfun stuff, their well made own versions and components.
• Barend Hendriksen Holland. Interesting RF parts.
• Keytronics Obsolete IC supplier mail order, can also be found with small parts at radio rallies.
• mark⁵ Obsolete and hard-to-find electronic components.
• MMS Electronics - SPI/I²C graphic LCDs (pricelist)
• Mega Electronics PCB-making supplies. Their products are also sold by Farnell and Rapid but may be cheaper from Mega.
• Modtronics Australia PIC32 Wireless Development Boards. RFM69HW breakout boards and modules.
• Smtstencil Cheap polyester SMT stencils. Quick service.
• Goodwill, Ultraleds, Led-tech - A gazillion kinds of LED
• Sure Electronics (China) Interesting selection of electronic stuff.
• Ciseco Microcontrollers, radio modules, Raspberry Pi expanders
• Proto-pic good for soft-circuits stuff and various electronics
• Tayda Electronics
• ShenZhen2U Cheap Chinese PCBs - about 3 weeks delivery
• Tinker Tailor electronics stuff for wearables

Metals

If you are ordering any metal always ask if they can throw in a few off cuts of sheet steel for welding lessons! Delivery costs can be really expensive for some of these suppliers so don't rule out going to somewhere like Metal Supermarket if you can get there.

• http://www.parksidesteel.uk.com/ (Next Day)
• MetalSupermarket Stocks Aluminium, Steel and Bearing Bronze. Retail counter at their warehouse near Acton.they are a walk in service. Delivery isn't their strong point apparently, but well priced if you can go over, open at weekends.
• IMS Stocks Aluminium and steel
• Aluminium Warehouse Seems to have a good selection and very very good prices (and prices listed on the website!), but watch out for delivery costs.
• Metals4U Good selection of metals (including aluminium, steel, brass, etc.) and welding equipment, and reasonably priced. Prices listed online.
• Doré Metal Services Relatively cheap and good selection. Have to call/email for quote though.
• Orion Alloys Moderately priced, but the prices aren't listed.
• Smiths Metal Centres Have physical presence in london (N1 4BZ) but very very expensive. Avoid.
• Noggin End metals
• CPM, Birmingham - no review
• Metal Stock t: 01977556515 Very helpful & friendly. Good selection & prices.
• One Stop Metal shop, very local! Fairly expensive.
• Aluminium Brazing Rods
• Hindleys Stock metals and plastics, and most kinds of tools and consumables, often surprisingly cheap, delivery seems cheap compared to some others on this list as they use normal post.
• ClickMetal do various bars, shapes
• FH Brundle cheap steel apparently

Other

• Acton: [1]
• Near Peckham: [2]
• Morden: [3]
• West Drayton: [4]

Timber

• M P Building supplies
• Whitten Timber
• British Hardwoods
• Free pallets: There are usually loads of unusual sized pallets outside the front of Howdens/ HSS hire at the bottom end of the Caledonain Rd.
• Leaside Wood Recycling Project down? their site is down, but can't find confirmation if it's still open or not

Fabrication

• Cut-tec Laser cutting and engraving metal, wood, and plastic
• Charles Day Laser, Waterjet, Flame, and Plasma cutting, primarily metal oriented

Laser Cutter consumables

See: Equipment/LaserCutter - Consumables

3D printing

• WeDo3dPrinting (operated by a member of Sheffield hackspace)
• Shapeways 3D printing company using laser sintering. JimM uses them a lot.
• iMakr iMakr.com 3D printing
• Prodpoint 3D printing
• 3D Hubs 3D printing peer-to-peer service
• [5] 3D Printing Services

PCBs

Although homemade PCBs have been succesfully made in the hackspace, there are occasions where commercial suppliers are more convenient - where you want larger numbers, or very detailed etching, or the advantages of solder resist, silk screen etc. See Guides:PCB_Fabrication for a full list

Sculptors' supplies

Including stone-working tools, casting supplies, clay, plaster, plasticine, resins &c. http://www.tiranti.co.uk/ near Gt Portland St station. Knowlegeable staff, good range, not incredibly cheap though.

3D Scanning art & sculptures. Covering Kent, London & all of UK. https://www.surfacescan.co.uk/3d-scan-art/

Beer

Go to Four Vintners - it's "about 25% cheaper than Majestic" and closer. Don't waste the beer money on the local offie (although they are friendly and helpful).

Kris Wines, Camden - Belgian, Bavarian and British beers Permanently closed

Meat

https://thegingerpig.co.uk/

Biohacking

See biohacking suppliers

Secondhand Tools

If you're looking for second-hand hand tools, the following lists were culled from a mailing list post and other sources. Feel free to add detail if you check any of these places out.

In the London Area

• C. Demetriou Zingas is a DIY shop that sells power tools, timber, paint and piping. They also sell some second hand items. Open hours seem a bit unpredictable, so might be worth calling first.
• Brick lane - theres a small but tardis-like 2nd hand/antique store just off the top of brick lane, on the west side - possibly Bacon Street - in there you will find a massive selection of old and used hand tools.
• Workaid has a shop in Chesham. They mostly send tools to developing countries, but also sell a lot of them off on site. These are all refurbished/sharpened, since that's what they do, but they're also always looking for volunteers.
• Peetamber from Tools For Self-Reliance comes over to the hackspace around once a month. He's always got a nice selection of older hand-tools, usually of excellent quality. He usually announces on the mailing list when he's coming over.
• There is a guy who's sometimes at Greenwich Market or Spitalfields Market with old tools
• There are tools second hand, as well as new tools at reduced prices, sold at Nine Elms Sunday Market, Vauxhall, SW8 2LF

By mail order

• Antique Tools
• Second Hand Tools, also have an outlet in the antiques village on the promenade in Lyme Regis.
• Tool Bazaar
• Stewart of Reading Surplus electronic test equipment
• Pennyfarthing Tools

Classified ads and junk sales

• engineering machinery , materials and small ads
• amateur radio rallies have lots of interesting junk and random components. Rallies have been in decline in recent years, but Dunstable Downs near Luton in May is always worth a trip.

More lists

• Artists, Jewellers, Metals and other supplies
• PCB manufacturers
• G3SEK's list (electronics, radio, metalwork)

Discounts

Some online sellers offer distributor prices to hackspaces provided a minimum order level is met.

• Cricklewood Electronics Discount to Hackspace members on request
• Adafruit
• Dangerous prototypes
• Earthshine Electronics Discount to Hackspace members on request
• Technobots 10% Hackspace Members Discount (email asc / ascen)

If you're interested in aggregating your order to obtain these discounts please provide details

Free Samples

Perspex.co.uk: Colour selector, Sample request

Castle Fine Arts Foundry (bronze casting): free wax - click green 'free wax' icon top right of page.

Things we might want [6]

eBay

I have dealt with these on ebay and received from good to outstanding service from them

• the solderman soldering equipment (artag)
• acuflow syringes (artag)
• crodnet components (artag)
• Spiratronics components (artag)

I have dealt with these sellers in the real world (and sometimes also on ebay) and will gladly use them [again].

• pyedpyeman surplus radio gear (artag)
• fazerblazer machinery and manuals (artag)
• nezretroussez components and military radios (artag)
• pcefficient ex-corporate IT equipment (artag)

These sellers seem to have particularly interesting and relevant products, but I haven't dealt with them yet.

• vinyl cutting blades (artag)
• John Stevenson from rec.models.engineering (artag)
• gas-filled tubes (artag)

Abroad

• Tokyo hackspaces's guide to akihabara

Spaces

If you need somewhere to hold an event, the hackspace may be suitable. See Guides/Planning an event for some notes about how to organise an event at the hackspace. If the hackspace is too small, or booked up, or inappropriate in some way,  : here are some useful suggestions (unwieldy pdf).