Supply Sources
A list of sources and what we've bought there, at what price. Use this forum when the material is not specific to a particular device.
General Suppliers
- Ponoko sells a range of laserable materials.
- Inventables lots of maker suitable materials, many are not laser safe.
- Ikea sells lots of small wooden items (spoons, coat hangers, wood cutting boards, etc) that can be laser etched as great gifts.
Plastics
Acrylic: Cast and Extruded. Cast has a more uniform size and will produce a better raster effect. Extruded works well for cutting; thickness can vary a bit across the sheet. Cast has a paper protection on both sides that can be removed after lasering. Extruded comes with a PVC plastic protection layer on both sides that needs to be removed before lasering. Commonly comes in 3mm, 6mm, and thicker.
Port Plastics
South SF bay area
Profession Plastics
South SF bay area
Calsak Plastics
San Francisco and Hayward Calsak Plastics
Tap Plastics
Tap Plastics web site A large selection of acrylic plastic, both cast and extruded. Usually have a bin of remainder odd size pieces for a few bucks each. They also sell a lot of other plastic products that are not laser safe. Ask them before buying something besides acrylic.
Delvie's Plastics
http://www.delviesplastics.com/ Source for Cast Acrylic sheets, 1/16" thick to 2" thick. They also carry badge pins and clips. Delvie's Plastics is a full line distributor of Rowmark Engraving Materials.
U.S. Plastic
http://www.usplastic.com 800-537-9724 Good source of sheet plastic. They ship it rolled up in a tube. I cut the roll on the power shear at TechShop.
- Sytrene0.030 40x72 $10 + $10 shipping
- PET-G (Vivak)0.040 24x48 $18 + $10 shipping
Wood
Moore Newton
San Leandro. https://moorenewton.com/
Monday-Friday: 8am to 4:30pm
Saturday-Sunday: Closed
Hardwoods San Jose
San Jose and other locations https://hardwoods-inc.com/hardwoods-san-jose/
Carries a full line of wood sheet goods, including Baltic Birch plywood, as well as an extensive selection of domestic and exotic hardwoods. If you take your Maker Nexus badge, and let them know that you are a member of MN, you will be able to use our pricing level.
They also deliver orders over $350, so larger orders can potentially be delivered directly to MN. Coordinate with staff in advance to use this option or delivery will be refused.
Monday-Friday: 8am to 4pm
Saturday-Sunday: Closed
Woodcraft
San Carlos https://www.woodcraft.com/stores/san-carlos
Has a large selection of great woods. Some plywood panels, pre-cut.
Monday-Friday: 9am to 6pm
Saturday: 9am to 5pm
Sunday: 11am to 4pm
Home Depot
Sunnyvale and other locations https://www.homedepot.com
Precut 24x18 panels of several plywoods. Many have a nice finish on at least one side. If you want cheap stuff, look for "door skins" - thin plywood sanded on one side.
Monday-Saturday: 6am to 10pm
Sunday: 7am to 8pm
Mayan Hardwoods
Paso Robles. http://www.mayanhardwood.com/
Monday-Friday: 7:30am to 4:30pm
Saturday: 8:30am to 12pm
Global Wood Source
Campbell. https://www.globalwoodsource.com
Monday-Friday: 9am to 4pm
Saturday: 9am to 3pm
Sunday: Closed
Metal Structure
Aluminum Extrusion
Misumi These folks specialize in parts that can be configured at the time of order. I found them referred to from some web sites as a low cost source of accurately cut aluminum frame parts - 2020, 2040, 4080, 2525, etc - just about any size member that is made. You can order cut to length, but also with holes at locations you define and stuff like that. You can also buy stuff like a plate with four holes. You specify all the specs of size of plate, location of holes, size of holes, etc. It's like they've made a bunch of parametric designs and provided a web-interface that lets your specify the parameters and them to set a cost. Cool, cool, cool. These guys are also the referenced "best quality" linear guide rails. But pricing is about 5X a part you can buy from China.
Bearings
A specification for "all possible bearings" is the NTN Bearing Corporation catalog available on our member share drive.
This Amazon seller has a lot of smaller bearings. There are also Amazon sellers with multiple regular bearing sizes.
Aluminum Posts
Amazon seller with a drop down for lots of sizes.
All Metals
Industrial Metal Supply - Formerly Campbell Metal. Near SJC. Full-range metal supplier. Campbell metal also had a large selection of aluminum plate/bar remnants in their “rem center” (~$3.50/lb, $35 minimum), not clear if Industrial Metal still has this or not.
Sims Metals San Jose - Scrap metal buyer and reseller.
Alan Steel Redwood City (no web site) - Primarily a scrap/salvage yard, with a large selection of steel of all kinds and smaller selection of other materials. Prices can be arbitrary, but the selection is unbeatable.
Metal Supermarkets A franchise.
Coast Aluminum in Hayward.
Metal Parts Cut to Order
Send Cut Send You upload a DXF file, pick the material and get an instant quote. They cut it and send it with free shipping. Laser cut metal, plastics, and composites.
Fabworks On-demand sheet metal services. Laser Cutting, Bending, Hardware, Countersinking, Tapping, and Powder Coating for Aluminum, Steel, and Stainless sheet metal. Upload a .STEP file (e.g. output from OnShape or Fusion 360), and get instant quotes (with excellent prices). Turnaround time is quick, and there's free shipping too.
Fittings
Hinges, locks, pen parts, etc
Brusso hinges are excellent.
Interesting Bits
Things that you might not know you need.
LED sign standoffs can be used to illuminate etched acrylic. On Amazon
Tamper Resistant nuts and bolts. What a wild assortment of clever ideas. Some are similar to security by obscurity - special tools needed. on McMaster Carr
