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Fastenal Canada

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Anyone have experience with Fastenal? I got all excited by their hardware selection & listed CDN distributers. Only to discover that oh-so-familiar Canuck Unobtanium syndrome: 'not available within your city, province, country, hemisphere, quadrant of milky way...'. Exaggerating of course, but just wondering, are local distributers willing to source or is the usual PITA where I can get from China at 30%

https://www.fastenal.com/products/fasteners/pins/spring-pins?term=roll+pin&r=~|categoryl1:"600000 Fasteners"|~ ~|categoryl2:"600108 Pins"|~ ~|categoryl3:"600120 Spring Pins"|~ ~|sattr01:^M5$|~
 
Bugger. That's what I figured.

Another lead. I used Spaenaur a long time ago. Anyone else recently? They were kind of clunky ordering because I wasn't a business but did get what I needed at the time. I'll call tomorrow & get the scoop. A lot have gone to min $ order.
http://www.spaenaur.com/catalog/#E110/z
 
Fastenal here is a rip off anyways, they're on par with acklands. They've sold me smaler quantities of things, but for a lot more than they should have been. I didn't actually click on the link you provided as it looks to be malformed but if you are looking for roll pins goto bolt supply or blackfoot industrial. Both of those places I have had good experiences and they can get you quite a bit of stuff.
 
I did call Bolt Supply originally. Some odds & sods inventory but not what I was after (specifically 5mm dia roll pins of various lengths for my lathe). I have other irons in the fire so this may pass, but actually Spaenaur might have potential. I applied for account, no min$ constraints I could determine. Not really an inline basket as such, more email orders which is no biggy. The only catch might be box-o-whatever quantities. If they come in a 100s at a specific length & I need 5, then back to the drawing board. I think that's the issue I faced with my metric fastener needs before.
 
Go with mcmaster I ordered shoulder bolts for a job I did I needed 20 and with shipping they came next day and were about the same price. I went to fastenal before and tried to order to support local companies but they were a 7 day order to get the bolts in I can't wait that long when I'm working on a job.
 
Are you getting your McMaster orders through a company name? Because I called them a week ago & it was same status they have for some a few years now - they don't ship to Canada (meaning non account regular Joe individuals). I have 'my ways' but that's the official line AFAIK. Actually for kicks because this came up on another forum, I filled some objects in the online basket & riiiiight up until the credit card info it gave me the No Go end of story. I know some folks who work at companies or institutions who still get items from them, but they have $$ orders & GST#'s etc.
 
Ya I just put my company name in for the shipping and pay with credit card I haven't had a problem with them not shipping to me the only time they wouldn't is when I tried ordering aluiminum they won't send it over the boarder.
 
Tom O: yes I checked PA. They have kits, unfortunately all IMP. I need metric.

SorrelCreek: You are my new best friend! Can I wash your truck or other errands? ha-ha. I found a workaround to ordering but they charge a dinger fee. So I try & keep it to things only MMC sells or lightweight combo's. I'm curious about your aluminum issue. Is that extended to all metals or just that? I used to order from the a long time ago & this is kind of why they threw in the towel with non-commercial orders. The paperwork was killing them. I remember they had to fill in different anti-dumping tariff codes between fasteners of the same kind - these ones made in USA, these ones came from Asia. Well, lets see what Trump comes up with :)
 
Spaenaur was very accommodating. Just set up an account & place order (by email, not really set up yet for online shopping cart yet). The catalog is ginormous. Haven't quite figured out pricing other than to send in for quote. But alas they are a box-quantity company. So if you need 100 of whatever, good place. Onsey-twosey or mixed bag-o-items, maybe not a good fit. Depends though, some min qty packs are lower. So I would say they are about the same as Travers in that respect, but probably more hardware selection.

That's why for more common stuff like cap screws I always drift back to KBC. They will do odd quantity box breakups for a small surcharge. So I just save up my inventory list & include with another order or when they have a sale as I think they are 25$ min (but flat 9$ ship).

John, check KBC for dowel pins (hardened both import & HoloKrome) drill blanks (hardened) & drill rod (as in oil/water/air heat treatable). Wasn't quite sure what you meant.
 
I've got a few dowel pins in stock but believe they're all SAE; if a guy wanted to make his own from drill rod, I have access to that in metric.

Probably could special order metric dowels but it would have to be box/minimum buy quantities. If someone wants to toss together a group/bulk buy I could look further in to this but my focus in procurement and not distribution.

Spaenaur has some nice selection but even at reseller level, I've found that they are pricey. On the more common stuff (screws, bolts, etc) there is much better pricing I can get elsewhere. Workplace has got a nice little smattering of SS in SAE & Metric in bolts/soc caps and have been topping off my trays since those come in splittable quantities and the folks filming (series) FARGO have been hitting me up frequently for set design stuff...they have an affinity to Phillips-head since those are not as common in Canada and they want everything 'visually correct' e.g. setting takes place US.

Funny how living beside the Yanks makes us feel undersupplied...imagine how Mexican people may feel.
 
KBC used to stock metric dowel pins. I've had no problem with Spaenaur over the years ordering directly. I usually order in box lots, however. I used to get Spaenaur through Triad Fasteners, but they went belly up more than a year ago.
 
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