Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

I recently did my own hunt for suppliers of Metric hardware to fill out my personal stocks. I thought I'd share my findings on what was worth looking at:

http://www.mcmaster.com Major supply house. Great selection. If you can't find it here, you may not be able to find it at all.
Pros: Wide Selection
Cons: Price. Have to order by the box. Won't ship internationally, including Canada.

http://www.grainger.com/ Major supply house. Very Good selection. Many local pickup points in metro areas (one about a mile from me).
Pros: Wide Selection, Local pickup for many.
Cons: Price. Have to order by the box.

http://www.mrmetric.com/ Good selection plus some hard-to-find sizes.
Pros: Carries unusual sizes as well as common ones. Sells any amount. Small quanty prices are decent. Free shipping over $50.
Cons: Larger quantity pricing isn't the best. $6 shipping on small orders.

http://www.boltdepot.com Good selection of common sizes. (I know several people here have ordered from there.)
Pros: Sells any amount. Decent quantity pricing starting at 100 pieces.
Cons: $6 shipping tiny orders, typical orders are $13 to west coast

http://www.albanycountyfasteners.com/ Good selection of common sizes.
Pros: Sells any amount. Decent quantity pricing starting at 25 pieces. Free shipping over $15.
Cons: $6 shipping on small orders

http://www.ebay.com
This is a category that Ebay doesn't excel at. Nearly everything is there if you do the work to find it, but buy-it-now+shipping pricing isn't great. Perhaps some of the auctions are worth it, but I'm not that patient.

http://www.amazon.com, http://www.amazonsupply.com/
Like Ebay, common stuff is there if you look. Price points all over the place. Free shipping with Amazon Prime membership or if over $35 ($50 for amazonsupply) in many cases.

Not mentioned: A whole bunch of sites with outrageous prices and/or no metric selection to speak of.

If anyone has another site worth mentioning, feel free to mention it.

I'm giving albanycountyfasteners a try, I just made a $36 order. I chose that for competitive price, free shipping, and having more flexible quantity price points.

I have used albanycountyfasteners several times and have received excellent quality fasteners.

Thanks! I just spent $200 replenishing my supply here, LOL.

I use BoltDepot ALL the time. They are in MA so shipping is next day for me.

Flateric wrote:Thanks! I just spent $200 replenishing my supply here, LOL.

AAAAnnnnddd. Apparently the company I ordered from is making too much money to want any of mine because they refused to ship my order to Canada.

Surprising considering the state of the economy and all. It's not like we are on the other side of the earth US companies! We are your largest and most friendly boarder.

Mcmastercar really really makes me angry. The outright flatly refuse to sell you anything or ship anything to you even if you make shipping arrangements for them. grrrr

@Flateric If we had invaded Canada as I recommended in 2011, that wouldn't have been a problem.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_89_ ... 2528832011
Don't forget Amazon. If you're a an Amazon Prime member, free 2nd day shipping often makes them the best deal. The vendor to look for is Small Parts which is a company Amazon acquired back in 2005.

Good feedback. I edited to add Amazon and Amazonsupply, plus added a note about McMaster's policy.

Little web research shows McMaster got burned/fined a few years back for letting stuff get to embargoed destinations. They decided to stop selling internationally rather than deal with export regulations/paperwork. With some exceptions for some extant customers.

I get a lot of my fasteners from McMaster if my customers specify them... otherwise, for small quantities I go to the local Ace Hardware.

For the typical stuff we need here and for R/C hobby fasteners, RTL is a great place to deal with....

https://www.rtlfasteners.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

McMaster is an excellent supply house. I don't ship to Canada either, too much hassle. A few of my customers ship it to a town at the border and then that guy ships it over for them.

So, some one has a metric kit already?