Overseas Suppliers

[outback]

Over the past few months several posts including one lengthy discussion towards the end of last year were about purchasing handtools etc. from overseas.
Lee Valley seemed to rate pretty high in everyones opinion.
I am sure there are heaps of others in North America and possibly elsewhere, so where can a mug trying to get a workshop established go to, and maybe give some long and serious deliberation about, and possibly re-evaluate his options, when looking to overseas supplier?

[Dean]

Depends what you are looking to buy?

[ozwinner]

Try, www.woodworker.com www.rockler.com
Very good service and speedy delivery, surface mail took three weeks from the US, from woodworker.
Cheers, Allan

[DanP]

Has anyone used woodpecker in the US.

They have the Incra Ultra Lite for USD$139. These days that translates to AUD$180(ish). They are currently $389 at Carbatec. Depending on postage it could be worth a look.

Incra Ultra Lite (http://www.woodpeck.com/ultlite.html)

Dan.

[Dean]

postage on that could be as much as $80-$100 AUD. But still a good deal. Witht he high aussie dollar, buying from OS is suddenly very attractive, even with their high shipping prices.
I guess the aussie companies are trying to sell off old stock before dropping prices.

[DanP]

Just did the sums. With postage of USD$150, the grand tally is only ten dollars less than Carbatec. :(

[outback]

In reply to Deans Question of what products, I guess I don't want to narrow down the field at all. For a starter outer like me the woodwork supply stores of the world are just big toy shops.

[Dean]

Well, I've only ordered from two US woodwork companies;

Lee Valley and Rockler.

Order from each twice so far and both packages arrived safely and in reasonable time (about 7-10 days).

[dereg]

I have ordered from a number of US suppliers including Woodpecker, Jointech and Benchdog. I only order items not available in Australia and have never has trouble with delivery.
I know it has been discussed on the Forum before but you should allow for being charged both import duty and gst on larger and more expensive items.
Dereg

[zymurgy]

Why is it that most of these US companies want to us DHL etc.

Why can't they use the US Postal service - who cares it it takes 3-4 weeks (well some might). Surely this would be cheaper.

Because if you do get lumbered with Duty/GST. The GST is the sum of [goods cost+duty+postage].

Gordon.

[Dean]

Trust me, you want to go with the DHL or other courier service.
You could likely expect your order to go missing 50% (or more) of the time with regular US mail services, plus regular surface mail is usually not traceable, so if it goes missing, its bye-bye hard-earned dollars. They wont send you a replacement. Most of these companies state that somewhere in the fine print about regular surface mail etc.

[John Saxton]

Service from Jesada is a worry if you think of going there!

Not great on contact!

Cheers:)

[John Saxton]

Some companies will offer a shipping means that offer up a tracking means which you can track by your online computer.

I have done this before and it was an excellent means of knowing where your goodies were,only wished that I had insisted on using it with recent dealings with the States.

Cheers:)

[NewLou]

I've ordered from the craftmanstudio a couple of times and have found them excellent.....................All orders arrived within 14 days an d there got some great stuff on their website.

Regards Lou

[MajorPanic]

I've had excellent service from The Japan Woodworker! http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon14.gif (http://www.japanwoodworker.com)
All the stuff I've ordered has been sent by air at what seems to be reasonable costings :D