Fastenal is a good source but they only keep weekday working hours -
Monday to Friday 8 to 5 or there abouts. My preference is Ottawa
Fasteners on the main drag through Bells Corners near Chevy West auto
dealer I think it's called as they are open on Saturdays. Lots of Metric
and Imperial size fasteners in a variety of grades and materials and
lots of name brand power tools.

Metal supermarkets is a good source for aluminum, steel, and whatever
you might need in that respect. There are other metal suppliers in
Ottawa but Metal Supermarkets is the only one open on Saturday morning.
You will pay fair market value but you will know what you are getting.
They do have a $3 fee per cut for cutting stock to size.

Princess Auto is another good place for bits and pieces - sometimes the
pickings are slim and other times you will bring home a bag full of
stuff. Lots of cheap import tools but also some good brand name as well.

Busy Bee tools http://www.busybeetools.com on Gladwin Cr. near the
Science and Tech museum is good for well, tools. Good selection from
inexpensive to quality brand name stuff. Not so much for fasteners or
mechanical bits.

Legere Industrial http://www.legereindustrial.com/ on Morrision drive is
where I go when I want to get better quality tooling than what Busy Bee
has. A bit pricier but then for some things I tend to be fussy
particularly when it comes to taps and dies and some cutters.

The local hobby shops are a good source for K&S brass, stainless steel
and aluminum tubing and sheets in small sizes. Also some Midwest brand
carbon fibre rods and tubes and aircraft grade plywood, a variety of
wheels and tires for RC cars and planes, electric motors, batteries and
chargers, RC radios, recievers, and servos, and all sorts of bits and
bobs of hardware like nuts, bolts, ball links etc etc. Dynamic Hobbies
on Concourse, and Discount hobbies in Oreleans, and Hobby House on
Montreal Road and The Hobby Center on Croydon just behind the Costco on
Merivale near Hunt Club. The first two mentioned cater to the RC market
and would be the better choice, the last two cater more to the plastic
kit modeler and model railroader and won't have the RC type items. Hobby
house does sell the Sherline brand of small lathes if you are so interested.

And last but not least is Lee Valley http://leevalley.com on Greenbank
just south of the Queensway. Mostly good quality tools but also has
things like magnets and a few other bits and bobs. Get one of their
catalogs and will find something you want or at least think you need.
They also have some off cuts of steel and brass from their manufacturing
facility and occasionally some other interesting bits and pieces on
clearance that never make it to their catalog.

cheers, Graham



Jon Hylands wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:44:00 -0500, Andrew Plumb <andrew@...>
> wrote:
>
>
>> A few of you mentioned some other stores besides Ottawa Fastener for
>> mechanical bits'n'pieces. What were the names?
>>
>
> I wasn't there, but I store I use locally here in SW Ontario is
> Fastenal - they have two locations in Ottawa, one east, one west. They
> stock (or can bring in) all kinds of stuff.
>
> http://www.fastenal.com/web/storeInfo.ex?branch=ONOT1&requestType=search
> http://www.fastenal.com/web/storeInfo.ex?branch=ONOTT&requestType=search
>
> Metal Supermarkets is where I buy almost all my base metal stock -
> they stock all kinds of it, and will cut to any size, with no minimum
> order. They have a store in Ottawa as well:
>
>
http://www.metalsupermarkets.com/MSC-storefinder.aspx?map=ONTARIO&Region=ON&City\
=Ottawa
>
> Later,
> Jon
>
>