This is the best news ever, Amazon now has a industrial & scientifc (beta) section – They have metals, plastic, mechanical components, fasteners, wire, springs and of course tools. I’m going to see if I can make a complete project with just is available on the new section and save the list of parts/tools as a “wish list” or something shareable. Then anyone could read the how-to and hit buy it now. Also, it might be fun to make a SketchUp library with all the parts/materials from Amazon Industrial & Scientific and have an easy way for folk to get all the things they need for a project. Amazon gift certificates just got a lot more valuable, hopefully Digikey will do gift certificates soon too, or just sell through Amazon… [via] Link.
14 thoughts on “Amazon.com – Industrial & Scientific”
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Resist the commoditization of the Maker culture…
Reuse, repurpose, recycle.
sure… dont buy what you can make, dont make what you can find, etc…
sometimes folks need tools too though :-]
While the “meta” search of amazon for housing multiple retailers under the amazon storefront is appealing, since they’ll add more retailers as time goes on, I’m still pretty sure that I’ll just keep patronizing small parts inc. (http://www.smallparts.com) for this kind of stuff for now. Especially since there seems to be a pretty big mark up on amazon ($3.05 for a 3/4″x12″ ABS rod on smallparts’ own website versus $4.50 on amazon)
Also keep in mind that big industrial supply companies (like McMaster-Carr) often have very good prices compared to boutique shops like Small Parts.
Kaden, that’s fine as far as it goes, but some of us don’t have ready access to arbitrarily large piles o’ junk. So the Small Parts catalog, and Amazon’s new service, is handy.
Resist? Why? If these services enable me to build what I want to build, on my terms and at my pleasure, why would I resist them?
I can appreciate the convenience factor, absolutely. I’d never do grocery shopping at the 7-11 though.
The pricepoints (as noted)are a tad unrealistic, and it’s all so …beige.
If I have to break down and buy components I’d much rather embrace the random surreality of stuff from AS&S (http://www.sciplus.com/) which is better value, and better entertainment, even if you do end up having to tweeze your plans to make things work.
So did Amazon buy McMaster-Carr?