Mcmaster Carr equivalent in Germany?

I'm going to be setting up a small shop in Munich Germany and I'm trying to do a bit of research finding tooling and industrial supplies venders that have online ordering. Are there any companies like Mcmaster Carr and MSC in Germany? I'm also looking for any recommendations on where to buy cutting tools in Munich.

WNT, I’ve bought from WNT and when out of stock in UK they ship from Germany.

Metal Cutting Tools | WNT

Change country with flag link top right of the page.

Also I believe MSC in UK will ship to Germany

https://www.mscdirect.co.uk/CGI/INPAGE?PMPAGE=international.html

Walter Tools

The new Walter General Catalogue 217

Local to Munich is Hoffmann:
Hoffmann Group | Werkzeuge in hochster Qualitat

Their main walk-in shop is in Nuremberg, though.

I use msc in the uk, they ship to Germany, some of the msc stuff is shipped from Germany by the postmark, there isn't as yet a McMaster Carr in the uk, they won't ship there either for some reason (eu import laws made up in Brussels, if your setting up your going to find out about them!)
Mark

For cutting tools and tools in general:

Hahn&Kolb
Hofmann Gödde
Sartorius

For nuts and bolts and materials you have to go to completely separate vendors. In that sense MSC and McMaster do not have equivalents in Germany.

I use Fabory for fasteners in Europe. I also use individual vendors for specific tools.....Google is your friend. I would love to buy in the US, but it is becoming increasingly cost prohibitive because of shipping cost. This has several facets. First, the VAT is calculated upon import on the purchase price plus the shipping cost, so any inflated shipping is a double whammy. I just priced a welding flange sold by the pair on Amazon.com for $7.74. Amazon then quoted the shipping cost of $98. This of course is ridiculous because the combined weight of these flanges was only 10 oz. I have no idea how that was calculated, because the actual mail cost is well less than $20 for sure and the VAT is 21% of the total. I suspect this is punitive, perhaps because the vendor doesn't really want to sell internationally and doesn't want to say no. The US Government is truly stupid here. The Chinese are beating the Americans like red headed step children. The Chinese post office charges very low postal rates for exports, effectively subsidizing their industry. So , what happens is you often see free shipping on eBay and Alibaba from Chinese vendors. If you add that to the fact that the customs authorities in Europe consider that VAT tax transactions cost more than the revenue they receive for transactions less that 20 Euro, no import tax is charged for small purchases. The net result is if your Chinese item is acceptable to you, there is no viable competition. Everyday, the amount of quality items from China is increasing, so the US and Europe is truly missing the boat.

There actually are a bunch of e-commerce sites offering industrial supplies such as Cromwell, Zamro and Amazon. These sites normally only deliver to the country they operate in + only offer local brands. Then there are tons of specific category sites but don't offer a wide catalog as mentioned above.

For American stuff, try Raptor Supplies; based in the UK and deliver to Germany too. They also source US industrial parts outside their catalog so might be able to help you with mcmaster parts

Finding industrial supplies in Germany is actually very tricky. One of the biggest issues is language and not just for non-native speakers. There was a recent thread here on this very issue. Technical German is virtually a completely different language and is mostly unknown to even native German speakers that are not involved in the specific trade the item is intended for. Further complicating this is that item names are often regional within Germany. This issue is also present in Dutch to some extent as well. This makes searching the web for sources very difficult. Add to that, the propensity of European traders not wishing to ship outside of their respective countries adds more difficulty. Then there is Amazon, if you can source an item sold by Amazon, it is often not shippable to your location or the cost of shipping is prohibitive, but if you do source an item, the price to the buyer can be amazingly good. However, selling on Amazon is an absolute nightmare. It is impossible to calculate all the seller costs. Costs often arrive from Amazon 90 days after the transaction many times totally unexpected. Additionally, selling on Amazon across the EU invokes a VAT responsibility for every country an item sells in. This essentially violates the very premise of the EU that states VAT is due at the point of sale. So, if I in Germany, buy an item in France, I pay French VAT. However, if my firm trades out of Holland and I sell an item in Italy, I now must files VAT taxes in Italy as well as Holland and for that matter every country in the EU I sell in. It is a nightmare and just another hidden cost. The net effect is that there are no long term sellers on Amazon in Europe. Amazon is a scam heavily biased against sellers.

I deal with this sourcing issue almost daily being a resident of Germany. I often search eBay.com, eBay.de and eBay.co.uk looking for items in English from sellers in China. Yes, I have suffered the Chinese quality issue, but in recent times, the quality has greatly improved. However, I rarely buy cutters from China, the quality is no where good enough.

and you better prepare for the local price level too.

I buy a lot on ebay germany.
There are many sellers for small parts and fasteners.
Bolts, pins, shafts, springs, bearings, o-rings, gaskets, tools, metals etc... you find everything and prices are reasonable

Hi,

you need to specify what type of tools you`re looking for

Machining related tools are at first glance not simple to find but after a while you`ll be stunned how many real shops and online shops there are.
One thing you need to know that anything "industrial" here means carbide (= huge Vc).
Quality HSS tools aren`t cheap here but the difference in quality compared to chinese HSS is humongous. Take my word for it.

High End online shops (quality and $$$).
They have tooling catalogs weighing 15 lbs and they have this stuff on stock

Hoffmann was already mentioned Hoffmann Group | Tools to make you better.
They are anything but cheap however probably the best online shop for quality tools. Ordered today, delivered tomorrow. I mean that.
Wrong tools order ? Return at no expense to you.
Absolutely mindblowing but again: Not cheap.
Also selling their own brands Garant and Holex (good stuff)



Hmmm I prepared a somewhat longer with plenty links but I can`t postit here I try a pm


NB Nope. no such luck posting my longer post not even not as a pm

Disregard this post

steve-l said:

Finding industrial supplies in Germany is actually very tricky. One of the biggest issues is language and not just for non-native speakers. There was a recent thread here on this very issue. Technical German is virtually a completely different language and is mostly unknown to even native German speakers that are not involved in the specific trade the item is intended for.
.

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I would like to go on the record that above statements are actually not correct. Especially "Technical German is virtually a completely different language". German is not Japanese.

There are of course technical terms not widely used in normal house-keeping, but that is just like in the US.
Ask your secretary what a Blanchard grinder is, or a shaper, or broaching, or a screw machine (may want to hold off on the last one).

If in Europe there is no need to buy anything in the US, possibly with very minor exceptions (inch stuff?) or due to currency fluctuations. There may not be a one-stop-shop like McMaster in Europe (I think), but McM is really a convenience store, where you pay extra for the convenience. That is also a key reason for Würth haven gotten so big in Europe. Bad planning means just in time ordering, means extra cost for the convenience. If you have a steady production going you'll hardy work like that. Yes I know Würth also seems to have unique stuff, but really they just put their name on stuff.

Martin P said:

I would like to go on the record that above statements are actually not correct. Especially "Technical German is virtually a completely different language". German is not Japanese.

There are of course technical terms not widely used in normal house-keeping, but that is just like in the US.
Ask your secretary what a Blanchard grinder is, or a shaper, or broaching, or a screw machine (may want to hold off on the last one).

If in Europe there is no need to buy anything in the US, possibly with very minor exceptions (inch stuff?) or due to currency fluctuations. There may not be a one-stop-shop like McMaster in Europe (I think), but McM is really a convenience store, where you pay extra for the convenience. That is also a key reason for Würth haven gotten so big in Europe. Bad planning means just in time ordering, means extra cost for the convenience. If you have a steady production going you'll hardy work like that. Yes I know Würth also seems to have unique stuff, but really they just put their name on stuff.

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Martin,
Much of what you say is correct, but you have missed the point. In most places, if you want something, you can Google it or search Amazon or eBay.........it just doesn't work in Germany. I never stated that tools and tooling were not available here, but the searcher needs to know first what to look for and very specifically where the item is sold and that is the mystery that does not exist elsewhere. Further, my comment on the language is spot on. A recent example just recently discussed is "Bench Centers", the translation of this is inconsistent across the country. There are multiple translations and to be thorough, the searcher needs to know all of them.......it is a nightmare here. Consider also, that the firms you mention that offer tools and tooling do not advertise on Amazon, eBay nor are their catalogs available with a Google search. So, without specific personal knowledge of what and where, the searcher is without a solution. You also just made another bold statement that there is no need to buy in the US and everything there is available here as well. Yesterday, I was looking to buy a digital read out for my BP clone. This machine is already equipped with a 3 axis DRO, but nothing on the quill. Guess what? Not available in Europe. Those advertised were all from the US.

I am sorry, your assessment of the German language is odd to me, and I am German. I suppose you just have not picked up enough of it yet.

As to stuff not being as findable on google, yes it may be more difficult, since on-line sales are not as strong in Germany percentagewise. But Hoffmann Gödde has an online catalog. They probably all do. I think it sucks and I prefer to work with the printed catalog. The McMaster online catalog is the best I have ever seen, but product quality itself can be spotty.

Of course specific spare parts not really sold in one place require going to the where the market is. Some with people buying Deckel parts from Germany. But you do not have to go to the US to buy a BP clone. To buy such in Germany makes you special, as the church lady would say.

Martin P said:

I am sorry, your assessment of the German language is odd to me, and I am German. I suppose you just have not picked up enough of it yet.

As to stuff not being as findable on google, yes it may be more difficult, since on-line sales are not as strong in Germany percentagewise. But Hoffmann Gödde has an online catalog. They probably all do. I think it sucks and I prefer to work with the printed catalog. The McMaster online catalog is the best I have ever seen, but product quality itself can be spotty.

Of course specific spare parts not really sold in one place require going to the where the market is. Some with people buying Deckel parts from Germany. But you do not have to go to the US to buy a BP clone. To buy such in Germany makes you special, as the church lady would say.

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You are correct. In Germany, I am truly an oddity. I know of no one here that has a rather complete machine shop in his house. It's just not done in Germany as a hobby. You have no idea the trouble I had with the local power company trying to get approval for all my 400V, 3 Phase power wiring!

test 12345..12345 (wasn't able to post my reply to this thread) (forum software timeouts with the links, trying to edit them non-active links)

Not aware of any mc-master-carr equivalent but these I'm familiar:
(not necessarily the best options locally but they ship to Finland without begging and prices are very reasonable)

www.schraubenhandel24.de
www.tbs-aachen.de
www.svh24.de
www.hoffmann-group.com
www.shop.santool.de

And wurth has spread like a cancer here in Finland and they carry lots of various products:
www.wuerth.com

captain-trumpet said:

Hi,
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.
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Hmmm I prepared a somewhat longer with plenty links but I can`t postit here I try a pm


NB Nope. no such luck posting my longer post not even not as a pm

Disregard this post

Click to expand...

Try unselecting the " Automatically parse links in text " checkbox in post options.
Seems that forum software calls quits if there is more than a couple of links in one post.

Martin P said:

The McMaster online catalog is the best I have ever seen, but product quality itself can be spotty.

Click to expand...

Are you able to buy direct from McMaster in Germany? We can't do that in UK and I had assumed that the rest of Europe was the same. If it is possible in Germany, I might consider ordering via friends in Germany and then forwarding on to UK.

owenhooker said:

Are there any companies like Mcmaster Carr in Germany?

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Von Meister Bruchwald

billmac said:

Are you able to buy direct from McMaster in Germany? We can't do that in UK and I had assumed that the rest of Europe was the same. If it is possible in Germany, I might consider ordering via friends in Germany and then forwarding on to UK.

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McMaster is very strange. Even though they are a heavy supplier to the US Government and agencies, they will not ship overseas to anyone, including military APO addresses, let alone normal or commercial addresses. No exceptions.