I’d like to submit to everyone another find. For many years I’ve been using Parts Express for the dozens of small parts, the “glue” needed to put together a system. I was a little annoyed that Parts Express recently listed some Neutrik XLR connectors at $1.99 but when I went back they were almost a buck more. No biggie but they didn’t mark the price as a special good only for a few days and I needed a lot of connectors. Well, I started checking around. Markertek now has very competitive prices on sundries.
http://www.markertek.com
Markertek has an exhaustive paper and on-line catalog. Although they are directed towards broadcast (with stratospheric prices) they stock many elements common to all electronics, video, audio and data installations. Most especially those little items you need to complete a project, some at very modest prices.
In particular:
Cage Nuts - you know those funky clips that house a nut for your SKB or Gator rack case? SKB sells them for $1 a throw but they throw in a black 10-32 truss head phillips screw and plastic washer (yup, now you know how a hardware guy will describe it). Markertek has just the clips for about 55 cents apiece without the screw in quantities of 25.*
XLR / Neutrik - they carry Neutrik XLR connectors for as low as $1.99. They also carry many kinds of Speakon connectors at reasonable prices.
An item I was looking for was a 10-32 thumb screw. A thumb screw is essentially a knob that has your desired thread on the opposite side. That 10-32 thread is the same as the cage nuts and what most racks use. It doesn’t make sense to use them to install your gear but suppose you wanted to put a dress plate on the rear of an SKB box? The thumb screws can be removed without tools. Kind of expensive @ almost $3.00/screw but less than some of the stuff at Orchard. Do you need an illuminated pen to write in the dark? They have them too. Take a look for all sorts of stuff. If you’re like me you’ll be saying wow I didn’t know anyone made that!
For the record, I have no financial interest in Markertek nor do I know anyone that either owns or is employed by them.
*I was so annoyed at being asked by SKB to pay $1.00 per cage nut I went to a local fastener vendor to see if they could get them cheaper. They can. They can get them for 27 cents each. Unfortunately it is a special order item and they need to order in quantities of 1000. Anyone want to buy $243 worth of cage nuts? I'll take the first hundred.
http://www.markertek.com
Markertek has an exhaustive paper and on-line catalog. Although they are directed towards broadcast (with stratospheric prices) they stock many elements common to all electronics, video, audio and data installations. Most especially those little items you need to complete a project, some at very modest prices.
In particular:
Cage Nuts - you know those funky clips that house a nut for your SKB or Gator rack case? SKB sells them for $1 a throw but they throw in a black 10-32 truss head phillips screw and plastic washer (yup, now you know how a hardware guy will describe it). Markertek has just the clips for about 55 cents apiece without the screw in quantities of 25.*
XLR / Neutrik - they carry Neutrik XLR connectors for as low as $1.99. They also carry many kinds of Speakon connectors at reasonable prices.
An item I was looking for was a 10-32 thumb screw. A thumb screw is essentially a knob that has your desired thread on the opposite side. That 10-32 thread is the same as the cage nuts and what most racks use. It doesn’t make sense to use them to install your gear but suppose you wanted to put a dress plate on the rear of an SKB box? The thumb screws can be removed without tools. Kind of expensive @ almost $3.00/screw but less than some of the stuff at Orchard. Do you need an illuminated pen to write in the dark? They have them too. Take a look for all sorts of stuff. If you’re like me you’ll be saying wow I didn’t know anyone made that!
For the record, I have no financial interest in Markertek nor do I know anyone that either owns or is employed by them.
*I was so annoyed at being asked by SKB to pay $1.00 per cage nut I went to a local fastener vendor to see if they could get them cheaper. They can. They can get them for 27 cents each. Unfortunately it is a special order item and they need to order in quantities of 1000. Anyone want to buy $243 worth of cage nuts? I'll take the first hundred.