Some places to check for cheaper mechanical items on your list:
www.surpluscenter.com – They have DC motors, bearings (flanged & pillow blocks), keyed shafting (axles), various other shafting that you may or may not be able to make use of if you can do some additional machining, wheels of all types, gearboxes, chain and sprockets, couplers, u-joints, pulleys, leadscrews, pneumatics, and other odd bits of possibly useful stuff.
www.northerntool.com – decent prices on
chain and
pillow block bearings.
www.skatebearings.com,
www.vxb.com, and Ebay – are good places for cheap import bearings like R series and 1614’s etc. VXB also sells on Ebay cheaper than their online store.
Of course,
www.mcmaster.com and
www.mscdirect.com will have just about anything you want but may not be the cheapest. If you find what you are looking for at MSC then check their sister company Enco (
www.use-enco.com) before you buy it at MSC. Enco has a lot (but not all) of the same stuff that MSC sells but cheaper (if they have it). Also don’t forget about Grainger (
www.grainger.com).
So, what 'cha mak'n?