Harvey Tools distributor in the North East or North Central

Can anyone recommend a good 21st century Harvey Tools vendor? Ideally north east or north central. I need to order a few cutters from them and all the vendors I found seem sort-of hard to deal with.

There is a distributor list on their site,but you can try PTS out of Jackson,Mi.
Production Tool Supply

Yea I got several off their site. I need two cutters that add up to about $75. First company who's site i got onto didn't work, I called them $100 minimum. Sure I could order more, I've played that game. I called another one they are going to email me a quote. What a pain! It seems like there ought to be someone out there that is a little better with customer service. I will try PTS if this second one does not pan out. Maritool has me spoiled!

I'm in the Chicago area and on the recommendation of PM member Barry Weeks, I use WR Hammond Co. in the Twin Cities. Why? Because it's easy. Go to their web site:Walter Hammond Poke in the Harvey part number, and it will come right up. As far as I know, nobody actually stocks this stuff, it all drop ships from Harvey in Mass. anyway, so one supplier is going to be as fast as another, provided they actually place the order. I've gotten good service from WR Hmmond, and they are easy to deal with.

Dennis

Thanks that's helpful. Non-stocking is no problem as long as they will drop ship. It's the ordering process that is the killer.

Remember when you NEEDED!!! a Harvey Tool, and you could call them up and get it??

A while back, I needed one of their oddball little long endmills that it seems only Harvey
has, and I tried my new "local" distributor... Huge hassle to get a quote, and then "you've
got to open an account" and BLAH BLAH... Lets just say I never got any tools and made
due with a home made modified tool (it broke) at the end of that job, I actually ended up using a little
.050 carbide ball from the hardware store, it came in a package that was labeled Dremel.

I don't think your issues are uncommon. I haven't really thought about Harvey, or looked at
them since then. I know they make good stuff, and I've never been disappointed, but I don't need
the hassle.

Bobw said:

Remember when you NEEDED!!! a Harvey Tool, and you could call them up and get it??

A while back, I needed one of their oddball little long endmills that it seems only Harvey
has, and I tried my new "local" distributor... Huge hassle to get a quote, and then "you've
got to open an account" and BLAH BLAH...

Click to expand...

That's what I like about ordering from WR Hammond, it's almost as easy as McMaster. Poke the numbers in the web page, checkout the shopping cart and pay via credit card, and I get a confirmation e-mail, usually within the hour. Items come direct from Harvey, usually two days later. I'm sure I could get next day from them if I really needed it, but then I'd have to talk to someone.

I buy occasional other items from them, that they stock; their prices are better than McMaster, certainly better than MSC, and you can order by brand, which is a problem with McMaster, so I only go to them for cutting tools if it's a dire emergency. I've never had a sales call from WR Hammond, but have dealt with them via phone when a bogus charge somewhere else caused our credit card to be canceled, and they were easy enough to deal with. It's the kind of operation Harvey could be running themselves, but for whatever reason, they ended direct sales fifteen or so years ago.

I have no interest in WR Hammond except as a satisfied customer.

Dennis

+1 on Walter Hammond. I have been using them here and there for a few years. Good customer service, and they usually have the odd ball stuff I cant seem to easily find somewhere else.

Great that's what I am after. I did wind up ordering from the local outfit but it is still awkward, lots of emailing and calling. This will be good for next time.

Buying local ain't what it used to be. I like the idea of buying local but it's been more than once that I went out with the intent of buying something that I think I can get nearby then after 2 hours of driving around town come home empty handed and order it from McMaster.

Pete Deal said:

Buying local ain't what it used to be. I like the idea of buying local but it's been more than once that I went out with the intent of buying something that I think I can get nearby then after 2 hours of driving around town come home empty handed and order it from McMaster.

Click to expand...

It's also guaranteed to get you a cold sales call, another time waster, that's what that "call for quote" business is always about. I don't buy enough to make it worth a salesman's time to drive all the way out to see me, but I do now apparently buy enough from Harvey (diamond coated miniatures) to make it worth their while to send me a current catalog. All I want is a decent web site where I can place an order in anticipation of my next needs in those few minute slots of dead time that come up now and then. I really don't care who makes the mark-up on the order... I've been in business long enough to know that buying direct doesn't make things any cheaper; a manufacturer has to protect his distributors mark-up or he will soon be out of business. It's volume that drives price down, but there are some things where my volume is never going to amount to much. I just want low hassle.

Dennis

I still do not get why, in 2018, I am buying shit like this through a distributor.

Harvey/Helical is idiotic for sticking with forcing sales through useless middlemen. There are zero decent excuses for making me buy product through a third party who brings zero value to the transaction (no technical acumen, 90% of the catalog isn't stocked, no significant discount from MSRP).

sometimes i forget how lucky i am to be 18 min away from any harvey tool i need.
we also use dxp distributers