I would like to thank Andy Baker and Mark Koors for all their work with AndyMark. IMHO They have the best support operation for FIRST teams I have ever used. They are dialed into what the teams need and are super easy to work with. Their kit-bot has changed what a rookie team can do out of the box. They are an amazing operation.
In this thread Skyway was mentioned. BAM (Before AndyMark) we used them as a supplier. Great wheels. A real blast from the past, I had forgotten about them.
This may be seem old school, but this may help some teams out. What other suppliers have you used or you do use and what do you get from them?
Well, McMaster of course, along with DigiKey and Jameco for electronics stuff.
But I just had to comment on AndyMark: I remember those dark times BAM, and today many FRC teams don’t appreciate what a great supplier they have in AndyMark. OK, they have products we need at prices that don’t shock, but their SERVICE is legendary. These guys will bend over backwards to fulfill your needs.
Come to think of it, ALL of our suppliers tend to be leaders in their service. The ones who aren’t don’t get our business unless we have no other choice.
Ahhh yes, their service IS legendary. They’ve shipped replacement parts to us before even receiving the problem part back from us!! I’ve always been able to speak with either Andy or Mark when we’ve had a serious problem–though I’m sure that’s becoming more and more improbable as their business grows at its current rate.
I’m not sure if Banebots.com was BAM or AAM, but they make good stuff. And RobotShop.ca and Princess Auto for wheels, bearings and sprockets (for Canadian Teams, at least). And then there were the drill motors and gearboxes… anyone using a DeWalt gearbox this year?
The great majority of what we order in a given year is from AndyMark and McMaster. Customer service for both is awesome and the stuff you order arrives promptly. They work really well with both our boosters and with our school treasurer. We order from IFI every year as well. Digikey most years. Of course we order from these folks (for pool noodles) every year too.
I also want to thank AndyMark for being there. The teams I work with now will never feel the Joy^H^H^Hpain of having only a smallparts catalog and a $425 budget for robot parts, plus a given supply of sheet material. You had to be able to prove that all your bits of plywood and sheet metal could be made from a single 4’ x 8’ sheet of each material on the list.
I guess everyone’s different, but we’ve never had a problem with BandBots in the past 6 years, infact we used P80’s in just about every drive system, but we have with quite a few problems AndyMark parts.
funny, I have only ever had AM issues once due to an AL spur gear in a TB nano being out of tolerance and jamming. luckily, it was for a practice bot and I had a steel spare from an 09 TB.
During Breakaway we went over bumps with cantilevered banebot p80s direct driving traction and omni wheels with no problems, granted we had a bearing supporting the shaft about 1 inch from the face of the gearbox and paid for them to grease them (they put in more that we ever would)
2 fantastic resources, however we do try and branch away from Mcmaster for certain items as you are paying a price premium.
We’ve used Grainger a number of times because theres a decent amount of Grainger warehouses in our area.
SDP-SI.com is a fantastic website for any gear/sprockets/pulleys that AM doesn’t carry. We use them for all of our timing belt/pulley applications, and often for buying 32DP gears (for FP motor gearboxes). It’s just an easy to use website thats great even for just spec-ing parts.