No one stocks parts anymore

[Larry]

Grainger and a couple of other industrial suppliers in the area are pretty good about getting parts.  If it's not on the shelf they can get it overnight usually, and no extra freight charges.  I suppose there big enough they keep trucks on the road 24/7.

I just found out nobody local stocks the 2B X 90 drive belt for my TK  on Monday. :(  Bumper 2 Bumper, Motion Industries, NAPA, and Grainger said they could have one to me Tuesday morning.

[Bibbyman]

That's what we call, "break time".    ;)

[5quarter]

   By contrast, right in town we have a hardware store thats been in business, in the same building and owned by the same family since 1917. in the front of the store they have all the usual homeowner stuff. but in the back and upstairs and I think in the basement, it is a completely different story. the rest of the store is dedicated to nearl;y a century of machinery parts, tools and miscellany. There is always someone there to shop with you. and they all seem to know where everything is at! A while ago I needed about 6' of #60 roller chain and stopped in to see if they knew where I could buy it locally. The man took me down one of the long, narrow isles, asking me whether I needed single or double and do I need standard or hardened? after telling him, he swung up onto a rolling ladder, went about half way up and pulled a box off a shelf and voila! 10' of brand new oiled Morse chain...$34.00 plus tax. I am just continually amazed at what they have on hand. And even the ceiling fans are original, all being driven by a series of long belts (or cords) attached to a motor somewhere in the back. I have picked up quite a few odd ball things since that would have taken days or weeks to get otherwise.A shame there are not more places like this around. as Dang mentions, most have sold out and their inventories scrapped.

Chet

[D Hagens]

Chet it sure would be cool to see pics of this place

[stavebuyer]

We have a family owned hardware store in town that seems to not have lost any business to the Lowe's that moved in across the street. While maybe not quite the inventory Chet descriped; it's along the same lines. As the whole world moves to the "just in time" business model and touts the merits of no inventory..if you figure inflation I'd be willing to wager the local store that stocks inventory actually can benefit. Unlike clothing stores last years nails don't go out of style..and you tend to shop there first because they will have what you need on the shelf along with someone that is an expert to assist you.

[SwampDonkey]

:D :D And on the other side of this well stocked store is the one in the village nearby that has never had anything you where after in 60 years. Two different owners and a complete make over. Still NFG. Just me...........and a hundred others I guess. :D

[Kansas]

Grainger and a couple of other industrial suppliers in the area are pretty good about getting parts.  If it's not on the shelf they can get it overnight usually, and no extra freight charges.  I suppose there big enough they keep trucks on the road 24/7.

I just found out nobody local stocks the 2B X 90 drive belt for my TK  on Monday. :(  Bumper 2 Bumper, Motion Industries, NAPA, and Grainger said they could have one to me Tuesday morning.

Reminds me of the B57 belts on our old WM 40. They only carried one belt, so you couldn't change them out together. They could always have them there from the warehouse the next day. Finally convinced a NAPA store to stock two.

[Cedarman]

Last Friday, we had a $300.00 bearing go out on our granulator.  It was used when we bought it 10 years ago.  Friday afternoon about 3:30 we started pulling the machine apart.  It was too late to call the bearing store when we found the number. (It's always Friday afternoon).  Took a chance and called Sat morning.  They were open and they had the bearing.  40 mile drive.  Back up and running in a few hours Monday morning.

About a month ago the drive gear and shaft it rides on wore out on our planer.  Ordered new parts.  Had to come from Taiwan.  Supposed to take a week.  Took 3 weeks.  Luckily my youngest son can weld a fly's butt shut and he cobbled together the thing to make it work.  Had to make spokes for the gear etc.  It worked until we got the needed parts. Luckily.  It would have been a problem if the planer had been down for 3 weeks.

We are fortunate that when one work station goes down we have plenty of other stations that we can use to do other projects while we wait a day on parts.  The down side is that we have capital setting idle a good bit of the time.  But with interest rates so low, the cost of capital is not near as high as it was during the Carter years.

[Norm]

Just how much did this gear box weigh to warrant $180 next day air shipping costs? WM should have huge discounts and it sounds to me like they charged published price while they surely get a 50% discount on them.

[Kansas]

I would guess 20-30 lbs. Shipping was closer to 150. I forgot about the cost of a pulley that goes on it. I would guess Woodmizer made some good money off that part. I expect some upcharge. They have to pay all the support people. My only complaint about them is all the proprietary parts. That means so many times I have to next day air just because there is no way something locally is available. You can't stock every part on hand. You try and keep a decent inventory of what you know you will eventually use. But a slightly different frame on the E25 motor? And odd size belts  for the bandwheels that can't be gotten locally?

Somewhere out in my future another equipment disaster lurks. Its just waiting and plotting, biding its time. Guess thats why God made beer.

[Norm]

Sounds like they are charging published prices, for most companies that adds up to big bucks to the bottom line.

In the business we're in if we didn't discount our shipping to what we actually pay we'd quickly lose it. Same with stocking stuff, call comes in and asks if it's in stock and if the answer is no then they go elsewhere.

[sawguy21]

Pretty hard to stay in business if you are providing service at cost. The customer wants it bad enough he/she has to be willing to pay a bit of a premium to go above and beyond. WM likely charges a flat rate for that service, this is quite common.

[rph816]

"Guess thats why God made beer."  Is the dachshund your maintenence supervisor?  Maybe just a commiserator. 

Ryan

[sparks]

Kansas, is your LT70 a Diesel and does it have Accuset 2? If this is true after you put the gear box on go to diagnostic screen and see what your motor current is. It should be no higher that 85amps. If it is higher than that then you may have some bad lift assist gas cylinders which will put extra wear and tear on the gearbox.

[iffy]

I have a 4020 john deere LP with power shift. The transmission/hydraulic system takes two identical cartridge filters. Three parts stores in town, two of them have to get it from warehouse overnight. The other store stocks ONE filter because most 4020's are the standard transmission and they only use one filter. I have to remember to go to the store a couple days before I am going to change filters and order two so they can have them in time. Of course I haven't remembered it yet. :

[beenthere]

I'd be understanding that stocking filters for a 45 year old tractor might be questionable inventory. ;)

However, that model has been a classic and they still bring high prices.

[Norm]

Pretty hard to stay in business if you are providing service at cost. The customer wants it bad enough he/she has to be willing to pay a bit of a premium to go above and beyond. WM likely charges a flat rate for that service, this is quite common.

They are already making a profit on the part, what part of slapping a shipping label for overnight makes doubling the shipping ok.

[Old Iron nut]

   If you are taking out gear boxes, the dumb ass engineer that designed it has not allowed any safety margin to the system. In the old days it used to be a three to one margin. Nowadays, it's right to the limit! I have never had a gear box fail as long as it had oil in it or was abused. Seals are a different matter. The CR seals manufactured today are crap. However: if you can get one of the old heavy ones, they work fine. I find that I have to use National seals to get any quality and satisfaction.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of these companies that do not want things to last. I wonder if the shoe was on the other foot what their feelings would be! Cheers, Old Iron nut.

[slohand]

A few words to live by BEFORE you buy that shiny new machine with all the weird gadgets and parts. "Simplicity".  "Reliability" and "Off the Shelf ". 

And as for the LT 70... probably a good idea to have a spare around. The whole machine. A friend of mine bought one a couple of years ago and has been fixing and waiting for parts ever since.