What's Your Favorite 'Better Than Average' Import Tool Dealer?

[Bob La Londe]

From the R8 Mumbo Jumbo Thread:

Shars.com is your friend for quality tooling at a reasonable price. I use eBay a lot as well. I have bought a lot of tooling from both places with good results.

I was going to start a thread the other day titled "What's Your Favorite 'Better Than Average' Import Tool Dealer?" and mention Shar's in the comments.

I've had pretty good luck with Shar's for both quality and service.

Generally I don't care for Harbor Freight. especially since the kid cut 75% of their product selection, but they have a few things that are a good deal. Their service is not good, and they seem to be aiming towards the Hoe Depot / Rigid warranty model of closing you in to basically invalidate it through hoop jumping. They do have a couple things that aren't bad. I am really happy with the larger horizontal bandsaw I have (7x12 I think). They also stock a set of pretty much low end TiN coated HSS endmills. That set is pretty cheap, and to be honest the quality matches, but I have purchased it twice in the evening or on a weekend to allow me to finish a job instead waiting until Monday to buy an over priced carbide mill from one of the few local stores who stock a few, or waiting for an on-line order to come it.

[reggie_obe]

They're gone, but my supplier of Cheap Crap from China was Enco.

[PStechPaul]

Little Machine Shop is a good vendor.

[Bob La Londe]

They're gone, but my supplier of Cheap Crap from China was Enco.

For now many of the old Enco products are still available at MSC. The problem with MSC is you need to tell them you just won't buy the stuff at catalog price when you open an account. I get a discount commensurate to Enco pricing on all/most orders now. They do have discount codes at almost all times. If you don't use one its almost always overpriced. My price is usually a little better than the discount code price and its applied automagically.

[Bob La Londe]

Little Machine Shop is a good vendor.

I've bought a few things from Little Machine shop and overall I agree. They are pretty good.

[RB211]

Shipping costs often kill the deal for me

[Ohio Mike]

This same topic repeats several times a year.

My list...
Shars / Discount Tool
All Industrial Tool Supply
KBC Tool
T&S (Tool & Supply Co)

All these sell name brand and the ubiquitous white box "China" items.

[Paul Alciatore]

I don't know if it is my favorite or the one that I would go to first, but I have had good luck with Grizzly. I have purchased two vertical mills, a floor stand drill press, a 3-in-1 sheet metal machine, two 4x6 band saws, a 10" rotary table, a track saw with extra track, a bench grinder, and a number of smaller tools from them. None of them were perfect but all were serviceable. Grizzly seems to be there if you have problems. How far this goes, I have never tested the limit of it. My overall impression of Grizzly is that they are priced higher than the average importer, but they also seem to have better QC than most.

I did recently purchase a pair of 5" milling vises from Shars and I am quite happy with them. At least for now, they are on my list.

Note on Harbor Freight: A few years ago as I was in the process of removing my shop from storage and setting it up here, at my home, I found myself in real need for a drill press. I had a bench style DP, but it was still in storage and it is limited in capacity. I had planned to purchase a larger one at some point. Well, that point had arrived and it would not have been easy to dig out the one I had. So I looked around. I had purchased a Grizzly 20" DP before for my last employer, but their prices had gone up and there would have been around $150 added to that for shipping. Funds were short so I looked at the HF 20" DP and it seemed similar to the Grizzly that I had previously purchased. And they had a local store so there would be no shipping charge. It was $450 plus tax. So I bought it.

Overall it is a lot like the Grizzly. Some of the features, like the depth stop are different. And it runs with a bit more vibration: some better belts helped, but did not eliminate that. Other minor things like unequal lengths on the spider arms. Overall, it has drilled a lot of holes for me, so I am happy with it. And I paid less than HALF of what the similar Grizzly model would have cost. Perhaps even just one third. I can afford the new belts and some other mods/upgrades.

Would I buy a lathe or a mill from HF? I don't think so. But one never knows.

[nickel-city-fab]

In no particular order:

Little Machine Shop
KBC
Travers tool co.
Shars
Grizzly
eBay
Victor
Accusize (really good quality)

[QSIMDO]

For now many of the old Enco products are still available at MSC. The problem with MSC is you need to tell them you just won't buy the stuff at catalog price when you open an account. I get a discount commensurate to Enco pricing on all/most orders now. They do have discount codes at almost all times. If you don't use one its almost always overpriced. My price is usually a little better than the discount code price and its applied automagically.

They did that automatically with my Enco account when it switched over.

Anyway, Shars, Banggood on inserts, MSC, Grizzly, some products at Somma Tool, Glacern but I'm not sure if they're import or not.

[Ringo]

All Industrial has free shipping over $75,,,,,and I have used & abused that.
They once ran a sale on surface plate, 12x18x4 $79. Free shipping eh?
Sure enough I got a shipping notice, tracking number. Keep in mind they are west coast I am east coast.
I was the arse of the day, when I got the tracking to say 'out for delivery' I set up a lawn chair & cooler waiting for the UPS driver to hoof the thing to the door.
He sweaty, bent over, half crippled asks me 'what the hell is that'?
I said I got a Pet Rock.

[nickel-city-fab]

All Industrial has free shipping over $75,,,,,and I have used & abused that.
They once ran a sale on surface plate, 12x18x4 $79. Free shipping eh?
Sure enough I got a shipping notice, tracking number. Keep in mind they are west coast I am east coast.
I was the arse of the day, when I got the tracking to say 'out for delivery' I set up a lawn chair & cooler waiting for the UPS driver to hoof the thing to the door.
He sweaty, bent over, half crippled asks me 'what the hell is that'?
I said I got a Pet Rock.

ROFL you too?? I waited for a free shipping deal on eBay and got a new Grade A rock that way... same as yours.

[Doozer]

https://www.absimporttools.com/

[darylbane]

Nobody has mentioned CDCO. I have bought alot of stuff from him, over the years and ..its all been quite acceptable.

[Tobias-B]

Yeah, I was just missing Enco the other day, too. Bandsaw blades, of all things... I usually beat them up before I truly dull them, so quality is lost on me...

Travers did me once on shipping, so they dropped to the bottom of the list (4 things listed as 'in stock' were back- ordered, and they shipped them one- at- a- time, $20 shipping each time. Bzzzzt)

I got the 12" rotary table from Enco, once, on the 'free shipping' deal. It showed up in a crate...

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