SpudFiles

Seeing as how my parents decided to see the Flower-Show this coming weekend I decided to spend my time in London (Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning) finding various items which I cannot find in my country, at least not for a fair price. I am looking for different shops that you can recommend and that carry one, or several of the following Items;

-Ball bearings(6-12mm as precise as possible)
- 3 way valves
-Air rams
-QEV
-Jig saws
-Angle grinders
-A HSS lathe tool set
-Metal melting crucibles(any durable material)

Thanks for your help, and Happy Spudding!

There aren't many good chain stores which stock specialist parts in Britain. Bigger stores tend to have very basic supplies. Sometimes there are specialist local shops which are good, but the majority of UK spudders buy online.
Why not buy online and order to your hotel. Tell the hotel in advance and they will hold it for you.
I recommend
BES ltd
Toolstation
Screwfix (tends to be more business focused)
Best Value QEVs

Mostly PVC supplies
TRS supplies
Henderson's Plastics

Airlines pneumatics is good but expensive, and don't even go near the UKSGC shop, which crashed and burnt a long time ago.

I'm English so....

Right you should be able to get ball bearings in fishing, army surplus or hunting shops.

Uhh, 3 way valves. No chance.

Air rams. Same.

QEV. hmmm probably not but you maybe could get one in a hydraulics/ pneumatics shop.

Jigsaw. yes. In places like B and Q (big orange buildings :p) or Wicks you could also get one in any hardware shop.

Angle grinders. Same as above

Lathe tool set. Uhh pretty much the same again.

Metal melting crucibles. It would be hard but you might find one.

Ragnorak might have some ideas as i think hes from London

BTW i hope to see you on TV

Also you'll be hard pushed to find any large plumbing/hardware stores in central London, I imagine you'll have to travel a bit to find a B&Q or Wickes.
Ragnorak is from Cambridge so he'll probably offer similar advice as that already given.

My advice would be to enjoy the city itself. The science museum is awesome and is free entry, as is the imperial war museum. Take the chance to get an excellent Chinese meal in chinatown, or assuming the weather stays as it is, take a ride on the London eye. The queue can be pretty big on a nice day so it might be worth getting a fast ticket.

qwerty wrote:Ragnarok might have some ideas as i think hes from London

Not exactly. About 25 miles out from (the centre of) London.
While it's not far, it's not a journey I often make, and my familiarity with the city is only passing.

Ragnarok is from Cambridge

Heck, it's even rarer that I'm in Cambridge - you may be thinking of Hotwired.

... as far as the Science Museum, I was there back in October for the first time in many years, and I wasn't hugely impressed. They've got some nice things on display, but just a complete dearth of information on them - there's not a lot to be learnt from it.

I recognise that I'm not exactly their target audience and that they have to appeal to the more plentiful and somewhat less intellectual masses (and indeed, children), but I would still like to see a Science Museum contain a bit more actual science.

~~~~~

Anyway, to actually talk about spudding parts... well, I can't offer too much advice, as I buy most of my stuff straight from teh interwebs.

You may find things, but they're unlikely to be in "mainstream" London - the basic power tools should be found at a B&Q, Wickes or Homebase, but most of the rest is a bit too specialist to find easily.

I find it a bit surprising that I can get any pneumatic part I can think of yet you say that you can't find them in the UK... lol London is a large city - I am sure there are at least a couple of them but you haven't found them yet

I'm sure there are some really good stores in london for all of this stuff but only a native of the city would know where they are, most people tend to buy their parts online.
there is RS, probably the largest suppliers of mechanical and electrical parts to industry in the UK, who have several trade counters in London (even one at Heathrow). They stock everything on your list apart from the crucibles (and they only do diaphragm style QEV's).

POLAND_SPUD wrote:lol London is a large city

Actually, you're about as far wrong as you can be - it's the second smallest city in the UK.
There's only about one square mile of London that actually holds city status, so the technical population of the City of London is only about eight thousand people.

yet you say that you can't find them in the UK

No, I said that a) I don't know where they are and b) that they're probably going to be reasonably out of the way.

Specialist stores can't really afford to occupy the best real estate - they have to be somewhat out of the way, and rely on people needing to come and find them.

Alright, It seems like RS is the way to go (though I am still extremely grateful for any input as far a crucibles go).

Do I understand correctly that I cannot just walk into RS(one of the trade counters that is) and buy stuff, but I need to order the things I need and then pick them up?

Thank you for all your help.

wow is it really that hard to get angle grinders and jig saws here in oz every corner and you see a bunnings

Do I understand correctly that I cannot just walk into RS(one of the trade counters that is) and buy stuff, but I need to order the things I need and then pick them up?

I think you can but they might not have everything in stock if you haven't pre-ordered it. I've never used the trade counters as there isn't one remotely near to where I live. The website states you have to be an RS account holder to use the service, I started an account online easily enough.
I would only bother with RS for the harder to get items, for power tools try toolstation as Biopyro suggested (they've lots of branches around the outskirts of london) if you want a decent name and if you just want cheap crap find a B and Q

Why not buy a non tapered metal pail, the stick a coffee can in the middle and stuff fire clay around it? Once you fire it up the can will be melted leaving you a perfect center for all of your metal casting. There is a how to somewhere on the internet I'll try and find it.

A DIY crucible works but since I am not working with scrap but with pure metals I would prefer to use a "proper" crucible. Otherwise I'd just weld together some iron...

Then perhaps you could make one out of cement? Unless you can find a legitimate metal casting store that sells crucibles, I don't think you will find anything that can stand up to the high temperatures associated with metal casting.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Graphite-Metal-Ca ... 439f182805

http://www.t4j.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=9