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.

London services & workshops

• Blueprint model shop They have a laser cutter, and may also do plastic board.
• Hamar acrylic (ask for Terry). "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."
• 4D Model Shop "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."

Others to try:

• http://www.theplasticshop.co.uk/
• http://www.trentplastics.co.uk/
• http://www.trylon.co.uk/products/acrylic.htm

London retail or trade counter

• RS has most things, more professional. 4 london trade counters
• Cricklewood Electronics A real shop, with little drawers of stuff & everything.
• Maplin chain, more hobbyist. Getting really poor at actual components.
• Cool Components Sparkfun stuff. Personal callers now allowed by appointment.
• Kris Wines Wine and a great selection of beer.

London-based, primarily mail order

(not known whether personal calling is allowed)

• Earthshine Arduinos and other parts (can sometimes be found on hackspace IRC)
• skpang S K Pang - Sparkfun products and other parts

Mail order

• Farnell has everything, more professional. Owns CPC and Newark. Note CPC are sometimes cheaper than Farnell for the same items
• RS has most things, more professional.
• Rapid Usually cheaper than RS or Farnell for run-of-the-mill parts. Website search often sucks - try to get a paper catalogue
• Toby Every type of connector you could possibly want.
• 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
• tinker.it
• Amazon (next-day with Russ's Amazon Prime account) - equipment is often cheaper
• Bits Box
• Barend Hendriksen Holland. Interesting RF parts.
• Keytronics Obsolete IC supplier mail order, can also be found with small parts at radio rallies.
• Metals4u Metal stock, Aluminium, Steel etc. - Welding equipment.
• Hindleys Stock metals and plastics, and most kinds of tools and consumables, often surprisingly cheap
• Mega Electronics PCB supplies. Their products are also sold by Farnell and Rapid but may be cheaper from Mega.
• Beers of Europe, King's Lynn A truly amazing selection of beer
• PCBCART PCBs from China. Very cheap once you get over a square foot or two. Reliable, Quality generally good. A gazillion options - funky resist & silk colours (Matt black is cool!) , thicknesses etc.
• Screenbond UK based PCB house with unusually low tooling costs (typ £40). 1 & 2 layer only. Can do 24hr turnround if you have deep pockets.
• Eurocircuits EU based PCB house - several proto services. Fairly cheap for stainless SMT stencils.
• PWT UK based full-capability PCB place for stuff Screenbond can't do. Typically cheaper than Eurociruits for 4-layer
• PCB-Pool Proto/low-volume oriented PCB service, not the cheapest these days but offer a free stainless SMT stencil.

Classified ads and junk sales

• engineering machinery , materials and small ads
• amateur radio rallies have lots of interesting junk and random components

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)