Where in Canada?

I know there are a few Canadians around, where do you buy tools in Canada? I have been using KBC but I am kind of tired of getting screwed over by them vs their USA prices. They charge Canadians about 33% more. I asked them why and I guess we are easier to get bent over. Todays order for $182 would have been about $135 in the USA and they have free shipping over $100. In Canada you have to spend over $375 to get free shipping! And the Canadian dollar has been about the same as US for a long time, no excuse there. They make a vain attempt at hiding their US pricing on the web if you have a Canadian IP, not hard to get around.

Tell me where to buy!!

Thanks,

Grumpy

Where in Canada are you? Notice, that I used "Canada", instead of "hell."

Ottawa, like you said. Connaught is in Ottawa so it can't be all bad, only reason to be here.

2 spots to go in Ottawa

For full brand representation
Legere Industrial Supplies Ltd., @ Ottawa, Canada – servicing industries throughout Ontario and Quebec with quality tools and machinery.

Cardon's for used and new (you need to ask the guy on the counter to see the new stuff. They also carry basic gunsmithing tools like Grace
cardon Home Page

Ian Robertson said:

Ottawa, like you said. Connaught is in Ottawa so it can't be all bad, only reason to be here.

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Connaught ? ? ? Is that a social disease ?

Busy Bee Tool, Kennametal, Thomas skinner, Greggs Distributors. For a lot of machine tooling I use tools4cheap in Harvard Massachusetts, Jeff loves Canadian money. For chemicals like sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, potassium nitrate and sodium hydroxide, Univar provides excellent service and will sell in 50 pound pails if you say pretty please. They will want to see your Federal Firearms license with the gunsmithing clause to prove that you are making bluing salts and not bombs if you want potassium nitrate. If you are storing more than 50 pounds of these chemicals the city may require you to placard your storage areas and have a dangerous goods and an explosives license especially for potassium nitrate. There should be a plastics and fiberglass supply store in your city you can get accraglass runny and Marine-tex. Every city has a half dozen of those places. Accraglass runny is known as US Composites #635 Thin Epoxy. I buy it by the quart for $40. Drill bits I buy on-line bulk with whoever is cheap and sells Dormer and Norsman. Half the price of anywhere else and they ship no duty because they are tools and are light enough to go through the mail. Same with slot mills, end mills, shells, slots saws, carbide, trepans, convex cutters and HSS.

KBC is 2 minutes down the block from me. Every time I go there for something they are out of stock. Or they only carry it in their Vancouver branch. I bought a garbage pail from KBC once. They have lots of woodworking stuff but I can buy that for half the price at Totem Building supplies.

Connaught is one of the finest ranges in the world, I can shoot 900m there twice a week, 20 minutes away. I will try greggs and tools4cheap. I bought my lathe (awesome!) from Legere, 10 minutes down the road but they have very little in stock. Cordon is okay if you have half a day to drive and browse. Looking for the basics to order on the web. Don't use chemicals much. Busy Bee is pretty much crap all around. Used to own Robertson Composites so I know where to buy drums of epoxy and have forgotten more than most known about this stuff. Big orders from the USA I bring through my broker in Ogdensberg NY.

Thanks for the help guys, maybe I have it covered? Hoped I was missing somthing.

I see that AB is now rated as the best place to do business in North America, speaking of hell.

I see that AB is now rated as the best place to do business in North America, speaking of hell.[/QUOTE]

Don't tell anyone but, we made that up. We need more Newfies to work in the oil patch. The last batch we got all froze to death. We threw the in the bodies in the Milk River last spring and let them float to the USA. The guys in Havre Montana, who work at the Fresno dam complex are still scratching their heads. Newfie skulls are VERY hard and ding up the blades in the turbines real bad.


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We deal with MSC, but we are a big company, and cost isn't as relevant as getting here in a hurry! KBC is way over priced and the minimum order is a PIA for the individual. We use Thomas Skinner and Ackland Grainger too. Kennemetal too because most of our carbide tooling is made by them!!!

I order some stuff from KBC as they do have a decent selection, decent stock and usually fast shipping when I'm in a jam, but they are indeed a bit on the pricey side. though I usually order over 375 and get the free shipping.
Locally I mainly deal with DGI/doall for OSG taps and some other stuff, or when I need 1 or 2 of something. Otherwise I order from the US, mainly Maritool.
Canada is just a pricey place to do machining in, machines cost a heck of a lot more too.
Prices have actually adjusted a bit compared to 4yrs ago when everything was still double.

Ian, if I'm not mistaken I believe you may be the man who made a nice 6br with a red stock I got to see a few days ago. Very nice work!

I order all my tooling from the US, if you are a small buyer it is hard to get a good deal in Canada. If you need cheap Chinese tooling try Shars, they will ship by USPS.

Ian Robertson said:

Connaught is one of the finest ranges in the world, I can shoot 900m there twice a week, 20 minutes away. I will try greggs and tools4cheap. I bought my lathe (awesome!) from Legere, 10 minutes down the road but they have very little in stock. Cordon is okay if you have half a day to drive and browse. Looking for the basics to order on the web. Don't use chemicals much. Busy Bee is pretty much crap all around. Used to own Robertson Composites so I know where to buy drums of epoxy and have forgotten more than most known about this stuff. Big orders from the USA I bring through my broker in Ogdensberg NY.

Thanks for the help guys, maybe I have it covered? Hoped I was missing somthing.

I see that AB is now rated as the best place to do business in North America, speaking of hell.

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Ahh Robertson Composites. I have used quite a number of stocks that had your finger prints on them over the years Ian. You decided to get out of the fumes while your liver was still smaller than a football and there were only two or three conversations going on in your cranium at any given time I take it?
I keep expecting Stu Reid to pull the pin and join the french foreign legion, or start some sort of wacky religious cult, but the isocyanates in these modern epoxies and paints actually seam to be making him more lucid and sane than he has been in years. Which in it self is quite an accomplishment, considering that Stuart doesn't need to drink to wear a lampshade at a party. I'm nominating him as a poster boy for Union Carbide this year. LOL

Just bought some tools I wanted at Sowatool.com site called Thomas skinner to place the order as it was over $100 free shipping and was shipped direct to my house...seems several of the machine tool distributors are using a central sales depot called Canada's tool crib have not placed order online with them have just called retailer and had them place order and picked up from retailers store. If you go to Machine Shop Equipment, Machine Shop Supplies, Fabrication - Moore Industrial then to online catalog

speerchucker30x3 said:

I see that AB is now rated as the best place to do business in North America, speaking of hell.

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Don't tell anyone but, we made that up. We need more Newfies to work in the oil patch. The last batch we got all froze to death. We threw the in the bodies in the Milk River last spring and let them float to the USA. The guys in Havre Montana, who work at the Fresno dam complex are still scratching their heads. Newfie skulls are VERY hard and ding up the blades in the turbines real bad.


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now that is funny, no wonder the Milk river doesn't have any Goldeye's or Sauger's in it!

Ian, no one in Canada competes pricewise with US Machine shop Suppliers. I buy mostly from Ebay or Enco, remeber U.S.P.S. shipping only, no FEDEX or U.P.S.!!!!! Enco has discount codes that can save money as well. Mc Master Carr will not ship to Canada anymore because U.S. Homeland Security has scared them off.

I think next time I will try to order from KBC in the USA and have them ship to my broker in the US, we'll see if they notice. Speaking of Homeland, I see I will have a battle with Brownells tomorrow on what they won't ship to me (not gun parts, I don't even try). I brought some 7075 in from the US a while ago, had to swear that I would not use it to build anything nasty or they would put me in jail. Interesting how the USA has become "mother knows best" to the world. What they don't seem to understand is that they have no controls inside the country so once inside anything could happen, if they are really worried. I am very glad Canada is not playing the ITAR game much. Making stocks with the right epoxy is not a health issue. It really is black magic in a lot of ways hence all the alu stocks you can now buy, easy off the shelf technology. It takes some skill to produce a good looking fibreglass part so employees are very important, it's not just loading a machine, very labour intensive.

Hi There; I'm in Toronto and have had some of the same complaints with KBC. Not sure what sort of items you are buying but I have found Amazon to be a surprising resource. I was on a quest for a fairly large dovetail cutter for my milling project and found that Amazon was about $40 cheaper than KBC for the exact same Niagara cutter. The dollar amount qualified it for free shipping and there were no hassles with brokerage. Also arrived when it was supposed to.

Cheers, Erik

Here in the Vancouver area we have a reasonable number of suppliers to choose from, including KBC. The place I use the most--because they're closest--is Technicut Industrial. They're a small, independent, one-store operation so service is good and personal and they can pretty much meet or beat prices of other suppliers, also including KBC.

Example: I just picked up a set of cheap parallels. KBC catalogue price is $70; I got them from Technicut for $50. No hassle, no run-around, no shipping.

A lot of the stuff we get here on the coast comes from suppliers in Edmonton--Sowa, KAR Tool, etc. When I was back there a few months ago visiting one of our daughters I visited a few suppliers just to see what they could offer. Since the stuff was distributed there I thought I might find some deals but that didn't prove to be the case. On the half dozen items I price-checked Technicut was cheaper in every case. Not always by a lot but enough. To be fair though, I think if I were "known" to some of the Edmonton dealers I might have gotten better prices than just some stranger walking in off the street...

I am in the same boat, I live about 175km from the closest decent tool store. I rely a lot on internet and I more than often end up with junk if I do not do my homework.

Out of curiosity, Ian you said you used to own Robertson Composites, I tought you were still involved in the business ?

Cheers
GST

LKeithR said:

Here in the Vancouver area we have a reasonable number of suppliers to choose from, including KBC. The place I use the most--because they're closest--is Technicut Industrial. They're a small, independent, one-store operation so service is good and personal and they can pretty much meet or beat prices of other suppliers, also including KBC.

Example: I just picked up a set of cheap parallels. KBC catalogue price is $70; I got them from Technicut for $50. No hassle, no run-around, no shipping.

A lot of the stuff we get here on the coast comes from suppliers in Edmonton--Sowa, KAR Tool, etc. When I was back there a few months ago visiting one of our daughters I visited a few suppliers just to see what they could offer. Since the stuff was distributed there I thought I might find some deals but that didn't prove to be the case. On the half dozen items I price-checked Technicut was cheaper in every case. Not always by a lot but enough. To be fair though, I think if I were "known" to some of the Edmonton dealers I might have gotten better prices than just some stranger walking in off the street...

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Does not work that way here. The distributors are used to the oil patch here. The majority of their contracts are big oil companies and for the most part they are still living in the 70s. They don't care what the price is for smaller stuff they just give some one a P.O. and go down and pick it up. There are a couple small outfits like West Tool that are different but not price ways. No matter what you want Alibaba and his 40 thieves will bend over backwards to have it for you tomorrow. They even stock stuff like double lead taps and die's but you will pay double or four times more than you would on line. That's why I do 90% of my buying online. I suppose it would be nice to buy Canadian and be able to just go down and pick things up. But the point spread in the prices is just to big. A lot of times its almost quadruple. I just sent Jeff Beck another $600 this morning.

I ordered this set 23 piece ER40 R8 from Jeff today and it cost me $150.00 plus say $30.00 shipping.
Tools4cheap LLC Online Machine Shop Tooling Store: ER 40 23pc Collet Set w/ Holder,ER Collets and Chucks

The closest a Canadian supplier can come is KMS at $389.00 for a 15 piece set of comparable Chinese collets.
Magnum 15pc Morse Taper 3 Collet Chuck Set [MAG-CCS15P3SAE] - $389.99 : KMS Tools & Equipment from Vancouver BC, Selling quality tools at affordable prices all over Canada. Largest powertool, handtool and woodworking machinery retailer in Canada.

I have some Sowa brand collets I have bought locally at $40.00 each which would be $920.00 for 23 collets with no holder and they run no closer than the Chinese ones. Its not like I haven't been using the Sowa and the Chinese collets back to back for a couple of years daily and I do put a dial indicator on them off and on to check integrity. If I am missing something here and there is justification in paying $900 for a set of collets over $100 for something that seams to be working as well some one had better explain it to me because I'm not seeing it. Its like that with most machine tooling here and because of it I buy from America on line. Even machines are like that. I bought a mill from a guy Regina, Saskatchewan that frequents PM. He orders direct from China and sells out of a bay. I think I saved neerly $6,000.00 by buying it from him. I am waiting for him to get a lathe for me. Modern tools and Wallace Machinery sells pretty much the same machine and it would cost me about $2500 to $3000 more.

Speer, who are you dealing with in Regina? I do work at the refinery almost every spring and I am planning to buy a mill next year, could pick it up at the same time.

Cheers GST

Forgot about this place have ordered several annular cutters and some endmills that are nice also a lathe chuck from them for the price is okay but some tools one should spend more $$$..ACCUSIZE INDUSTRIAL