Earlier in the month I posted about DIN-mounted terminal blocks. A couple of readers recommended Automation Direct as a great distributor for these types of things.
While I already had orders for the terminal blocks set up elsewhere, I found Automation Direct to be an attractive place to order some other things:
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- 22 mm pushbuttons
- 22 mm pushbutton enclosures
- Aluminum DIN rails
- Circuit breaker
- Pressure sensor
I’ll look at Automation Direct the next time I need to reorder some pneumatic cylinders or fittings as well.
They offered great prices, some decent information that helped me with product selection (I wasn’t sure about which circuit breaker would suit my application), and as a bonus there’s free 2-day shipping on $49+ orders.
Their website works a little differently than other suppliers I’ve shopped at, but I got used to it quickly.
So thank you all for recommending Automation Direct! I can’t speak about their customer service yet, as my order was fulfilled without incident, but I can attest to their good prices, the decent quality of their products, and fast shipping.
I don’t have enough experience with Automation Direct to recommend them, but I can tell you that I will definitely be ordering from there again.
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Similar places I’ve ordered from before include Allied Electronics (I’ve had a bad experience there recently), Newark (Element 14), DigiKey, and Mouser Electronics.
Norm
I haven’t used Automation Direct, but they have popped up online when searching for parts.
Have you tried McMaster-Carr. They have the best website I have ever seen for parts. My only complaint is they don’t list the manufacturer, but you can email and ask, I’ve done it a few times.
Stuart
McMaster Carr is great, but sometimes they can be consescending and difficult to deal with.
They promised me a catalog but never sent it.
When I complained about receiving aluminum bar stock that had several huge saw gouges in it, they told me that it’s meant for industrial applications, and that I could return it on my dime.
I kept getting locked out of the site once, and they wouldn’t clear it. I ended up missing the same-day order window.
Norm
Wow. We order for business (I’ve been doing it 10 years) and haven’t had any problems like that.
Stuart
Here was my inquiry to McMaster after receiving the damaged aluminum:
Hi, I just received my most recent order, and one of the items is not to my satisfaction. Item 8975K853, 3/16″ x 3″ x 36″ aluminum sheet has rough saw marks along its face. While I understand that the mill finish would be dirty and unpolished, I did not realize that the sheet would also be damaged with saw marks and gouges along its uncut face. I need to use the aluminum tonight so I will not be requesting a return or replacement, but just wanted to express my disappointment. Should I expect similar damage to mill-finish metal materials in the future, or was this likely a freak occurance? Thank you very much, Stuart
And their response:
However, our products are for industrial use and material such as this multipurpose aluminum is not an item that expected to have a smooth, perfect finish.
The material I’ve received from other suppliers has always had unmarred surfaces, even if not “finished.”
What am I expected to do, use a surface grinder to remove 1/8″ saw marks gouged into the middle of some bar or sheet stock?
Maybe it was the “rough” part that gave then the wrong idea of what I was complaining about, but I thought “damaged with saw marks and gouges along its uncut face” was pretty clear.
This was 6-1/2 years ago. I’ve placed plenty of orders from McMaster since, but I buy raw materials from elsewhere whenever I can.
Visbert
McMaster-Carr catalogs are hard to come by. For some reason they don’t print very many and seem to have arcane rules for who can get one. You can actually find them for sale on ebay. I meet the criteria and get one every year, but some people who order 10x more than me don’t.
I do also buy aluminum stock from them and occasionally get pieces with the marks you describe, but it’s rare. Since I fully machine parts on all sides, it doesn’t matter to me. From your experience, it seems they expect my type of usage.
They are very good about returns, even years after a purchase. You do have to pay to ship to them though.
Satch
Stuart, this is my experience as well with the big wholesale type places. If you are a large account they focus on you and the average buyer is just a guy bugging them on the phone it seems. I work for an orginisation that has a LARGE account with Grainger. The pricing and service can be incredible at times. Other times the prices are faint inducing but they do get it to us fast ‘for the ones who get it done’. Anyone approaching off the street had better bring smelling salts so they can be revived when they see the prices in their catalogue.
Steve
Just wait ’til you get AutomationDirect’s catalog in the mail….many hours spent perusing on the throne.
Farid
Thank for sharing your experience with Automation Direct. We have had good experience with them too, but we do not use them very often.
I use McMaster Carr frequently and have had excellent service. I often get answers for datasheets or other info in less than an hour, and almost tr always can order by 5Pm ad get my the stuff the next day using standard Ground shipping. Sadly, all it takes is one bad customer rep, or a bad day to ruin the experience. My guess is the reps that handle customers with company accounts are perhaps more experienced and tend to be more responsive.
Digikey is my favorite to search for electronics parts since they have a fast website with very good filtering in the search engine. Never had any significant order issues.
Mouser is great for for parts as well. They do smaller quantities on some items that Digikey won’t (like Phoenix and Weidmuller Terminal blocks). Same with Allied.
Newark is OK, but to get reasonable prices, you have to use a company account, otherwise very expensive.
Had an interesting issue at Allied about three weeks ago. I needed to order parts with 2-day delivery. The website claims cutoff time of 8-pm for next day and 10PM for two day shipping. I was right on the 5PM line when I tried to place the order and I needed to call in the order to get it on the company account (our purchasing agent was out and could not do it online). Allied’s phone system automatically redirected me to the local office, which was closed already. No matter what number I called, including the national customer service line, I ended automatically rerouted to the local office. I even tried local offices in different time zones across the country. again same result. After an 1.5hours of trying, I gave up. Ended up having to call the local office next morning and having to pay for overnight shipping. What’s the point of having late shipping cutoff if you can’t talk to anyone?
Stuart
Mouser: Good prices, great selection, I’ve never had to deal with their customer service, and I love that they print line numbers on part bags.
Allied: Great prices on certain things. I ordered recently and it took 3 days because for unknown reasons due to how the order was processed, my CC bank was declining it due to an unmatched address. I tried another CC from a different bank and it triggered a fraud alert call. I was missing a part from the order and there were incompatibilities with 2 parts listed as compatible in the catalog, and they made it right. On some things Allied has unbeatable pricing. But they don’t list line items on parts bags, making big orders a hassle to sort through upon receipt.
Digikey: I haven’t ordered from there in a while, but I think the experience was positive.
Newark: They have higher prices, but sometimes unbeatable pricing. I’ve used a 15% off coupon code twice now – VNEW15 – although it doesn’t take the full 15% off certain items. I ordered equipment from there before, via quote. I was looking for an $1800 price for 2 pieces of test equipment that retailed for $2065 before tax and shipping, or $1925 inclusive. They got it down to $1796 and $1947 total.
Now with the 15% code, it takes it down $1962 for the same equipment. *shrug*
I like McMaster’s simplicity.
I recently ordered some wire, and had to make sense of Belgin’s twisted wire and Alpha’s multi-strand. Making things weirder, Alpha had 2 kinds of the same gauge with one being $20 more for inexplicable reasons, and even their website wasn’t clear on the difference aside from thinner outer jacket insulation.
At McMaster, pop in the type of wire, the gauge, any other sorting characteristics, and you get their hand-picked ones to choose from. It’s easier to make sense of at times, frustrating other times when one has a particular brand or SKU in mind.