August 30, 2020
I was going to write a letter to McMaster-Carr to thank them for their excellent service and amazing selection of parts. Then I thought, maybe a blog post would mean more to them. They’re not exactly a boat parts store, but over the years, Legacy has had many pounds of McMaster products added to her heft.
(Yeah, this is going to be a US-centric post as that’s where McMaster is located. So yeah, I thought I’d use pounds instead of kilograms!)
In the US, West Marine has grown so large that there was little room for the independent marine store and almost all of them have disappeared. I don’t really have anything against West Marine other than the fact that the diversity of marine products available in the US is not what it used to be. McMaster-Carr is a source for some very diverse products. As an example, below is an example of just one of many pages of hose clamps – 4200 different stainless clamps!
And here is a small sampling of stainless sheet metal screws. One page out of 1074 products, each in a multitude of sizes.
I’m always surprised at the variety of parts they carry: electrical, plumbing, paints and glues, plastic parts, too many to list. Their service is excellent and when I was ordering parts from them, they’d often ship the same day I placed my order. McMaster’s prices are also MUCH BETTER than similar items at West Marine.
The reason I’m going on about them now is that I’m so grateful for the 3D models available on their website – I think there are models for most of the available products. There is also a ton of detail about the various parts. While I haven’t been ordering from them while cruising, it’s nice to know that I could, and the models have been invaluable in the parts I’ve been 3D printing.
So, thank you McMaster! Check out their selection for yourselves. -Rich
