Alternative to McMaster-Carr that ships to the EU

[nolindan]

There have to be EU & UK equivalents to McMaster Carr. But, they do seem to be hard to find...

[Tin Can]

Old McMaster Carr catalogs sell high

https://www.google.com/search?q=new+...t=gws-wiz-serp

[Richard Wasserman]

I used to order often from Mcmaster. My shop was near Grand and Ashland, and if I placed the order by 11am it would be delivered by 3pm. Several times when something was out of stock in their Chicago warehouse they shipped it by air from their Los Angeles location at their expense. They had knowledgeable people you could talk to for advice. Best company I ever bought from.

And then there was the time when I ordered 1 plastic bucket and they sent 1,000. We had a lot of buckets until they picked them up the next day.

[peter brooks]

Raptor Supplies will apparently get almost anything from McMaster for folks in the UK. I've got no idea what their markup would be but I bet it's not insgnificant.

That probably isn't much help to Lasse though. Whatever your political views the UK leaving the EU was a disaster for anyone who liked to buy on eBay from Europe (or anything in fact from Europe). Add import tax, then VAT, then the Post Office charge you for the privilege of having them collect those taxes on behalf of the government... Ho hum.

Yes, Jose provides a great service. I started by getting a lock ring for a Nikon enlarger lens, then he made me flange for an Ilex 5, and an Ilex 5 front thread to TTH 2" 24tpi adapter (so I could mount an RVP)... He is currently making me an adapter to mount a standard 62mm filter to the front thread of a Compound 3 (for a convertible Symmar). He certainly knows his threads

[Tin Can]

I used to order steel in any size from McMaster cut to order

They farmed it out I think locally

4X8" X 1/2"wall thick 10 ft long 4 off

I arc welded into a Cummins big engine cradle.....often

Bolt on a water brake Dyno and run it till failure

Decades of that

speak up, I am deaf!

I did use protection

but tuning some engines requires my bare hands and ears

We also ran the Fire Truck Cummins Death test

No oil, no coolant full blast at startup until it stopped and became junk.

$100K gone

Just following orders

[lassethomas]

Raptor Supplies will apparently get almost anything from McMaster for folks in the UK. I've got no idea what their markup would be but I bet it's not insgnificant.

That probably isn't much help to Lasse though. Whatever your political views the UK leaving the EU was a disaster for anyone who liked to buy on eBay from Europe (or anything in fact from Europe). Add import tax, then VAT, then the Post Office charge you for the privilege of having them collect those taxes on behalf of the government... Ho hum.

Yes, Jose provides a great service. I started by getting a lock ring for a Nikon enlarger lens, then he made me flange for an Ilex 5, and an Ilex 5 front thread to TTH 2" 24tpi adapter (so I could mount an RVP)... He is currently making me an adapter to mount a standard 62mm filter to the front thread of a Compound 3 (for a convertible Symmar). He certainly knows his threads

No, that isn't much help I'm afraid . Likewise, getting things from the UK is much more expensive after Brexit with both customs, handling and VAT added. Same thing I guess. Well well...

[lassethomas]

Just a quick follow-up so that anyone finding this thread later on can get wiser perhaps.

I ended up using a forward shipping service that provides a US adress and then re-ships internationally. I used https://www.stackry.com/ as suggested by someone in the thread, but I think several others are providing a similar service.
McMaster-Carr had no issue with shipping to my Stackry US address, they actually did that overnight.
Stackry then re-shipped in 4 days I think, and the rest took 15 days, including 6 days of custom handling in Sweden. So all in all 20 days from order 'till delivery. Not quick but it worked for me.
In this case using Stackry probably made shipping cheaper. I got a quote for shipping to Sweden from McMaster-Carr of $60 before they rejected my order.
Actual shipping cost was $9.05 for the first leg to Stackry and then $35 from Stackry to Sweden. More than $15 less than the first quote.
Handling fee, customs and sales tax in Sweden would have been the same regardless of sender in the US.

So all in all. It works, is a bit quirky and slow, can save some money (at least this time). Not for casual shopping that can be found elsewhere, but for things you really need it's a life saver.