Local electronic parts?

[dst]

It's a veritable brick and mortar nightmare for electronics parts. I live in the Boulder, Colorado, area. I had two Radio Shacks in the area until a year ago. They were great for picking up parts you needed ASAP. Also in Boulder, there was Saunders Electronics, basically a cluttered storefront with a two level, dusty warehouse off to the side where the guy had about any electronics part you wanted offered in bin after bin. Geeks like us could go in there for two hours and just look around. All kinds of wire, bins of surplus transformers, any cap, resistor or coil you needed. Tools, meters, solder, clips, connectors. It went belly -up a couple of years ago. Now there is poop. It's all on line. Here is classic example I lived this week: my old 52 inch Westinghouse LCD TV down in my man cave went black two weeks ago. I read about this set on line and all kinds of folks were talking about a bad capacitor being the culprit. I took the main board out and found the troubled cap. Looked OK, but, what the heck, I may as well change it. I needed a 470 uf, 15 volt cap. The famous McGuckin's hardware in Boulder had a few small 4-packs of caps by Philmore. One pack had a 470 uf 25 volt cap. I bought the pack for $4.50. I got home and my Radio Shack soldering iron was not heating up and my trusty Radio Shack butane soldering iron leaked like a bucket with holes when I filled it the butane. Back into Boulder to buy a $13 Weller iron. Took the old cap out, popped in my replacement, stuck the board back into the TV and it worked great. I don't mind ordering on line, but I also like a local place for quick needs or emergencies. The little cap pack at McGuckin's was pretty much a miracle find. After years of having it all within 5 miles, I am SOL now and have to order everything on line. Another example: I bought Pete Millett's PCB and Nutube buffer/preamp. I ordered all the parts from Mouser. Several caps in order were on back order. Not shipping until Feb 13. Yes I can order somewhere else, but would be nice just to have place to buy them. Such is progress for us DIYers

[Pete Schumacher]

We're lucky here in the St. Louis area. We do still have a local electronics shop with all kinds of cool electronics parts.

[davidB]

Your Jaytronics story reminded me of another 'tronics'.

When I was a kid, 60s-70s, there was a place in Philadelphia called Plasmatronics. The crazy old man had a box marked 'explosive bolts'. When I asked what that meant he said "try some- you'll find out" then laughed wildly. I looked it up. They were meant to blow off a plane's plexi cockpit roof when ejecting in flight. I still can't believe they were disposed of as surplus.

Of course, it was in Phila. that another surplus dealer(Herbach&Rademan) was accidentally sent a Norden Bombsight in the eary sixties.
The item attracted the attention of a couple of fellows with funny accents, and the bright enough clerk told them that someone had dibs on it, if he doesn't come by some particular day, it was theirs. They checked on it a few times, when he told them it was theirs, he had some DIA, FBI, whatever agents in the side room, and they were arrested, turned out to be Soviet agents trolling the surplus stores, looking for certain tech items, apparently not necessarily for the operating principles, but methods of manufacture.

Sometimes it's an interesting world.

[PWR RYD]

It's getting really sad for the few of DIY electronics geeks. Our last local hold out electronic parts store, Jaytronics, just folded a few months ago. I knew the owner was getting up there in age (80's maybe) and his daughter was running the place. I swung over there to pick up some 1/4 Watt metal film resistors, the door was locked??? Stopped over there a week or so later, same thing....???? Then a coworker told me he saw on WasteBook that there was going to be an auction the next weekend for everything at Jaytronics :( I can only assume the owner died and his daughter didn't want to carry on). They had everything, and their prices after tax were totally in line with online places like Digikey if you added shipping.

[kenrhodes]

P.E. Is a solid vendor. I would like to point out Arrow electronics for another source, they often have free shipping and a huge selection.

[stephenmarklay]

I will certainly look at DigiKey. I ordered everything for the project right here at Parts Express.

[Millstonemike]

DigiKey in 48 hours?!? What shipping method? Maybe I need to switch things up, I normally go Mouser and it takes close to a week. This is mainly for amplifier parts.

Dan

And for several small order parts from DigiKey, shipping was less than $4.

[stephenmarklay]

I could get lucky and find a power resistor at ACE. They do have some stuff. I may bring a multimeter and check if they have any close to the 5 ohm I need.

[dcibel]

saabracer23 I don't recall there being any shipping options. In Canada, it's $8 flat rate for orders less than $100, and free for orders over $100. Maybe the shipping situation is different in the US.

[saabracer23]

Everything I've ordered from Digikey has arrived within 48 hours, and the shipping cost very reasonable. It's hard to compete with that at a retail store.

We still have a local electronics store where I live, I'm certain the only reason they are still in business is because they deal in test equipment and bulk cable for the local trades. The retail cost for basic stuff like resistors only makes sense if its something you need today, in which case $5 for a 5 cent resistor is just fine.

DigiKey in 48 hours?!? What shipping method? Maybe I need to switch things up, I normally go Mouser and it takes close to a week. This is mainly for amplifier parts.

Dan

[dcibel]

Everything I've ordered from Digikey has arrived within 48 hours, and the shipping cost very reasonable. It's hard to compete with that at a retail store.

We still have a local electronics store where I live, I'm certain the only reason they are still in business is because they deal in test equipment and bulk cable for the local trades. The retail cost for basic stuff like resistors only makes sense if its something you need today, in which case $5 for a 5 cent resistor is just fine.

[davidB]

Where the heck are you? Recently happened on a remaining ratshack in Glens Falls/Lake George NY. Only fifty miles but two hours away- oh well, almost useful.

I happen to use a local HVAC supplier for its limited supply of oil-filled caps and wide selection of wires and damping materials. Nice terminal blocks, too.

[neildavis]

Fry's and Microcenter both carry a limited supply of electronics components. And there are still a number of small electronics stores scattered around the country but they can be hard to find. For example, in the Washington DC area we have Arcade Electronics, and another one in Chantilly that I can't remember the name of. But they aren't listed in a Google search of electronics stores in the DC area, so it's hard to find them if you don't already know about them. And there's still a number of surplus stores scattered around. I remember spending time at Al Lasher's in Berkeley in the early 70's, and I see that it is still there.

Sometimes TV repair shops will have parts like the one you needed, but they are becoming a lot more scarce, also.

[jhollander]

It's almost impossible to find audio electronic parts locally, best to stock you own, wind your own, or phone a friend.

[Psycoacoustics]

Fry's if you have one close.

Good luck, Mark