Suppliers

From London Hackspace Wiki
Revision as of 19:58, 5 September 2010 by Artag (talk | contribs) (→‎Mail order)

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:

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

eBay

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

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

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

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