Ollie Krause
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2020
- Messages
- 103
Hi Home Built Airplanes Enthusiasts,
I'm still very new to the Home Built Airplanes community but something that I've struggled with is finding suppliers all the proper hardware I need as well as the dimensions of it. I couldn't find a pre-existing thread that lists popular suppliers so I thought I'd create one in hopes that it can be useful for others as well. Please note that I've never used most of these suppliers and this is solely based on my research and experiences over the past couple months. Rather than creating a comprehensive list myself (I simply couldn't do this because of my lack of experience), I hope my limited list can start a thread which will become more useful over time as more experienced members fill their suppliers. If you've ever struggled like I have sourcing specific parts or drawings, please leave the link below even if it has no relevance to the part currently being discussed as I'm sure it will come in handy to some future user. Thanks!
Aircraft Spruce
A great supplier for avionics to aluminum sheet metal. Aircraft Spruce's inventory has a broad range but lacks specificity in certain categories. Unfortunately, Aircraft Spruce doesn't supply drawings for many of its parts and their customer support only sometimes provides more information than already listed.
Pros:
McMaster Carr
Though it doesn’t specialize in aircraft parts, McMaster has an extremely comprehensive and detailed inventory. It’s a great place to look for a super specific kind of bolt, nut, washer, or duct. It also offers extremely quick shipping within the United States. People love McMaster because they supply CAD files for a lot of their hardware.
Pros
California Power Systems
Looks a LOT like Aircraft Spruce and carries almost the exact same hardware parts. Unlike Aircraft Spruce, they have a decent selection of medium to large Rotax engines but lack any building materials.
Pros:
A smaller supplier which seems to specialize in medium to small size replacement parts. Doesn’t have a very extensive inventory but you might find an odd replacement part here. Honestly I can’t find any major benefits but I thought I’d throw it out there as an option
Pros:
Cons:
Wicks Aircraft
Pretty similar to Aircraft Spruce, Wicks Aircraft carries everything from female urinals to 4130 tubing. However, their inventory is a little limited in depth. I was able to find a couple parts here that Aircraft Spruce didn’t have so it’s definitely worth looking through if you’ve got something specific in mind. They also have great customer support but still lack drawings and dimensions beyond what is listed for many of their parts.
Pros:
Difficult Things to Find:
Even though many of the suppliers listed above have quite extensive inventories, there were still a couple parts that I was unable to locate that maybe y’all could help with.
Steel U Brackets or U Channel:
The closest I was able to get is McMaster’s selection of U channel but it’s only rated to 30,000PSI. I’m probably just looking in the wrong places but I’m very surprised U brackets and U channel (which can be converted into brackets) are so hard to find as they are called for in many ultralight designs. Are the plans missing something and people just bend these themselves? Especially for a plane such as the Affordaplane which uses stainless steel U brackets for its wing attachment, I would imagine this wouldn’t be strong enough and some sort of heat treatment would be required post forming to increase the metals strength for such a critical joint.
Streamlined Strut Dimensions:
After contacting many suppliers about this with no luck, I finally found some dimensions of Aircraft Spruce’s struts in the EMG-6 documentation.
I'm still very new to the Home Built Airplanes community but something that I've struggled with is finding suppliers all the proper hardware I need as well as the dimensions of it. I couldn't find a pre-existing thread that lists popular suppliers so I thought I'd create one in hopes that it can be useful for others as well. Please note that I've never used most of these suppliers and this is solely based on my research and experiences over the past couple months. Rather than creating a comprehensive list myself (I simply couldn't do this because of my lack of experience), I hope my limited list can start a thread which will become more useful over time as more experienced members fill their suppliers. If you've ever struggled like I have sourcing specific parts or drawings, please leave the link below even if it has no relevance to the part currently being discussed as I'm sure it will come in handy to some future user. Thanks!
Aircraft Spruce
A great supplier for avionics to aluminum sheet metal. Aircraft Spruce's inventory has a broad range but lacks specificity in certain categories. Unfortunately, Aircraft Spruce doesn't supply drawings for many of its parts and their customer support only sometimes provides more information than already listed.
Pros:
- Broad inventory
- Reasonable pricing
- Inventory is comprehensive in certain categories
- Inventory lacks specific items in certain categories
McMaster Carr
Though it doesn’t specialize in aircraft parts, McMaster has an extremely comprehensive and detailed inventory. It’s a great place to look for a super specific kind of bolt, nut, washer, or duct. It also offers extremely quick shipping within the United States. People love McMaster because they supply CAD files for a lot of their hardware.
Pros
- CAD files
- Fast shipping
- Comprehensive inventory
- Almost everything besides common bolt, nut, and washer sizes are extremely overpriced.
- Lacks some larger sizes of AN bolts and other hardware
California Power Systems
Looks a LOT like Aircraft Spruce and carries almost the exact same hardware parts. Unlike Aircraft Spruce, they have a decent selection of medium to large Rotax engines but lack any building materials.
Pros:
- Decent selection of bolts and other small hardware
- What it does have, Aircraft Spruce likely has as well. Doesn’t have much Aircraft Spruce doesn’t have.
A smaller supplier which seems to specialize in medium to small size replacement parts. Doesn’t have a very extensive inventory but you might find an odd replacement part here. Honestly I can’t find any major benefits but I thought I’d throw it out there as an option
Pros:
Cons:
- Limited inventory
- Website is poorly put together and lacks photos let alone drawings
- Most of what is sold can be found elsewhere for cheaper or purchased directly from the supplier
Wicks Aircraft
Pretty similar to Aircraft Spruce, Wicks Aircraft carries everything from female urinals to 4130 tubing. However, their inventory is a little limited in depth. I was able to find a couple parts here that Aircraft Spruce didn’t have so it’s definitely worth looking through if you’ve got something specific in mind. They also have great customer support but still lack drawings and dimensions beyond what is listed for many of their parts.
Pros:
- Varied inventory with some machinery
- Has a couple odd parts Aircraft Spruce doesn’t
- Not specific to ultralight airplanes
- Less comprehensive inventory than Aircraft Spruce
Difficult Things to Find:
Even though many of the suppliers listed above have quite extensive inventories, there were still a couple parts that I was unable to locate that maybe y’all could help with.
Steel U Brackets or U Channel:
The closest I was able to get is McMaster’s selection of U channel but it’s only rated to 30,000PSI. I’m probably just looking in the wrong places but I’m very surprised U brackets and U channel (which can be converted into brackets) are so hard to find as they are called for in many ultralight designs. Are the plans missing something and people just bend these themselves? Especially for a plane such as the Affordaplane which uses stainless steel U brackets for its wing attachment, I would imagine this wouldn’t be strong enough and some sort of heat treatment would be required post forming to increase the metals strength for such a critical joint.
Streamlined Strut Dimensions:
After contacting many suppliers about this with no luck, I finally found some dimensions of Aircraft Spruce’s struts in the EMG-6 documentation.
