The "good" ol' days of Small Parts

[Doug G]

So I was doing some summer cleaning and found one of these. Do you remember the days of small parts? Any one still use them? Are they still around?

[mman1506]

I believe small parts was bought by Amazon and became AmazonSupply which is now Amazon Business

[EricH]

Barely... I was more hanging around the team (as a mentor's kid) than heavily involved. But I do remember that they'd have a booth at most events--old equivalent of the Spare Parts booth. Think I've got a button or two somewhere.

I barely remember the machine they had at Nationals, though--moved balls all over the place, as I recall--anybody have any pictures.

[Foster]

Oh yes, Small Parts still exists as part of Amazon lots of goodies. Shop away!

Have to say though if it's a "fastener". then I use Fastenal for my stuff They are clearly "if we don't have it, you don't need it. Huge selection, they are everywhere, great prices.

[sanddrag]

I remember those days well. My first season in FRC was 2002, which I think was the last year of the restriction. I still have my 2002 printed Small Parts catalog.

[Doug G]

Yep that coin is from .... 2001, the 10th anniversary of FIRST. I remember back then that the only COTS parts (aside from fasteners and raw materials) on your robot had to be from Small Parts and they gave you a $200 voucher and you couldn't use more than $1200 of small parts materials on your bot.

Ohhh... those were the days!

[techhelpbb]

Pretty sure I still have a printed Small Parts catalog.
Yes...there once was a time when companies printed catalogs

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by techhelpbb

Pretty sure I still have a printed Small Parts catalog.
Yes...there once was a time when companies printed catalogs

Some suppliers still have print catalogs far superior to their web catalogs... Whenever I buy parts for my '29 Ford I have to look the part numbers up in the print catalog and enter them into the web form since the web catalog is so completely useless.

[techhelpbb]

Originally Posted by Ian Curtis

Some suppliers still have print catalogs far superior to their web catalogs... Whenever I buy parts for my '29 Ford I have to look the part numbers up in the print catalog and enter them into the web form since the web catalog is so completely useless.

With old items somethings you can find interesting things.

I have a small grey snow blower from my Grandfather.
It needed a few small parts.
My Grandmother had a dusty old Sears catalog in her effects that showed it.

I thought I was being funny when I went to Sears and asked for the parts under the warranty.
1 month later they sent me every single part for free under the Craftsman lifetime warranty (this thing is easily 50 years old).

I get the impression that scene from "Indiana Jones..." with the Arc of The Covenant was filmed in a Sears warehouse...

[Matt C]

I still have one of those coins.

They were used in THIS.

I seem to recall this being in the middle of the pits at the 2001 "FIRST National" in Epcot. That was my senior year of high school.

Every single bit of your robot had to be traceable to a catalog number. I remember scouring the thing looking for things with potential alternate uses.