Sources

Resources re-sources [ree-sawrsez] –noun 1. a source of supply, support, or aid, esp. one that can be readily drawn upon when needed. 2. an indexed organized list of people and places that you can utilize for your project. Kinda like the list found below.

Electrical

Reference

• Circuit Schematic Symbols List Circuit Schematic Symbols: Lessons In Electric Circuits -- Volume V Chapter 9
• Electric Motor Animations very cool electric motor animations but be sure to check all the other stuff out too!
• Intro To PLC's Plain English PLC information.
• Ladder Diagram Basics Ladder Diagrams: Lessons In Electric Circuits -- Volume IV Chapter 6 Ladder diagram basics. Also check out chapters 4 and 5.
• PLC Tutor PLC Info
• Transformer basics Transformers: Lessons In Electric Circuits -- Volume II Chapter 9
• Electromechanical Reference Page A wide ranging site dealing with quite a few subjects.

Suppliers

• Electric Scooter Parts A one-stop source for homebrew electric vehicle drive systems. Be sure to check out the customer project pages to see what was built using their drive equipment. Location: boulder Creek, CA
• EESCO Formerly known as Englewood Electric Supply Company. General supplier of electrical parts and supplies. Location: See website for your nearest local retail store
• GEM Electric Supply General supplier of electrical parts and supplies. Location: See website for your nearest local retail store

Electronics

Reference

• Procuring Electronic Components A guide on another site to getting electronic parts cheaply.
• Circuit Shop Electronic Circuit CAD Circuit Shop allows you to design, simulate and learn about digital and analog electronic circuits. Circuit Shop is an easy to use graphical CAD tool to allow electronic circuits to be constructed and simulated.
• Digital Logic Simulator EasySim is an easy to use, yet sophisticated, software tool that integrates the process of designing and simulating the operation of digital electronic circuitry within the context of a Microsoft Windows environment.
• Octopart Electronic parts search engine
• Discover Circuits DiscoverCircuits.com has 28,000+ electronic circuits, cross-referenced into 500+ categories.
• Freebyte's Guide to Electronics Online Internet electronics pages catalog.
• Hobby Electronics Internet electronics pages catalog.
• LED Series/Parallel Array Wizard The LED series/parallel array wizard is a calculator that will help you design large arrays of LEDs.
• LM555 And LM556 Timer Circuits This page presents general information and some tips when using the LM555 timer.
• Resistor Color Code Converter A neat site that figures out the color codes of resistors.

Suppliers

General Electronics Suppliers

• Allied Electronics General electronics supplier. Location: Ft. Worth, TX
• DigiKey General electronics supplier. Location: Thief River Falls, MN
• Mouser General electronics supplier. Location: Mansfield, TX
• Newark General electronics supplier. Location: Palatine, IL
• Sparkfun Maker geared kits, parts and supplies. Location: Boulder, CO
• MPJA Surplus electronics and related tools. Location: Lake Park, FL
• Tri-State Electronics General electronics supplier. Location: Mt. Prospect, IL
• West Florida Components General electronics supplier. Location: Tarpon Springs, FL
• Jameco Electronics General electronics supplier. Location: Belmont, CA
• Brilldea: Electronics, software and tools targeted towards prototype development. Provides Discount - Contact direct and mention PS1 Location: Hong Kong, China

Specialty Electronics Suppliers

• Happ Game Controls Location: Elk Grove, IL
• Hebei LTD LEDs Location: Shanghai, China
• SchmartBoard Easy prototyping of PC Boards, accounts for ICs of various types.
• All Electronics Motors/batteries and misc equpment
• Monoprice Ridiculously cheap cables, mostly A/V, and a few other things.

Robotics

• Robot City Workshop Chicago’s robot store.
• Trossen Robotics Robotics kits, parts and supplies. Also check out their line of unique force and touch sensors. Location: Downers Grove, IL
• Images Scientific Instruments Robotics and electronics. Check out the various specialized sensors they sell. Very speedy shipping. Location: Staten Island NY

Free Stuff

• Chicago Freestore Periodic reoccurring free exchange store. Check website for current address and hours. Location: Chicago, IL
• Freecycle chicago’s free stuff website. Mailing list membership required. Local chapters across the country.
• Craigslist Has a “Free” section oddly located in the “For Sale” section.

Industrial Suppliers and Vendors

Broad Range

• Grainger Longstanding industrial supplier. Note: Sales restricted to commercial accounts only however “employee sales” can cheerfully be made through personal contacts whose companies have accounts. Locations: See website for your nearest local branch
• McMaster-Carr THE source for EVERYTHING industrial! Raw materials to finished items, copy paper to robot brains to left hand threaded screws, no minimums. And they’ll sell to anyone! One of the best sales websites on the internet that you can use for idea generation and physical specifications. Lots of cross ref charts. The coin cell battery reference is outstanding! Some listings have multiple format 2 and 3D drawings available.
• MSC Industrial Supply A wide range if industrial supplies with a focus towards the metalworking industry.
• Motion Industries Wide range of industrial supplies with a focus on power transmission equipment and parts. Locations: See website for your nearest local retail store
• Bearing Headquarters Suppliers of power transmission supplies, electric motors and shafting. Locations: See website for your nearest local retail store

Capitol Equipment

• Harbor Freight Cheap Chinese tools and machinery…cheap. Locations: See website for your nearest local retail store
• Grizzly Tools Chinese and Taiwanese sourced tools focusing on wood and metalworking equipment. Location: Muncy, PA
• Enco Long established importer of metalworking equipment, consumables and supplies. Location: Fernley, NV
• Little Machine Shop A source for tabletop mill and lathe parts and supplies. Location: Pasadena, CA

Mechanical

Reference

• COSI Simple Machine Tutorial Flash animations of simple machines.
• Edhead's Simple Machine Tutorial Learn about simple and compound machines while you explore the house and tool shed! Silly fun stuff!
• Levers: Simple Machines Flash animations of various classes of levers. Levers, fulcrums and loads described and illustrated.
• Linkage Animations Flash animations of complex linkages.
• Linkage Mechanisms Common linkage examples.
• Mechanisms and Movement Flash animations of simple machines, mechanisms and movements.
• The World Of Timing Belts A complete primer on all things timing belt and timing belt related.
• Mechanical Engineering Design Guide The Engineer's Handbook: Tables, charts and formulas.
• How To Make Springs A complete spring making tutorial.
• Make your own springs

Suppliers

• DPX Systems Turn your DeWalt drill into a power drive to power other stuff like scooters, wheel chairs, hoists, toolboxes, etc. Location: Las Vegas, NV
• Jordan Industrial Supply Heavy-duty hardware distributor. Location: Wheeling, IL
• Habasit Belting Sells through distributors such as Motion Industries. If you are making a large tracked robot and need tracks they are your supplier.
• VXB Bearings A source for inexpensive bearings used in homebrew machines and gizmos. Also hybrid ceramic bearings. Location: Anaheim CA

Miscellany

• Craigslist Chicago Stuff, jobs and hookers.
• Emergency Medical Products Because, sooner or later, you’ll mess up and start bleeding. Very fast shipping. Location: Waukesha, WI

Raw Materials

Chemicals

• United Nuclear Small amounts of chemicals and lab apparatus. They even sell uranium and elemental sodium. Location: Laingsburg, MI
• Fire Fox FX Pyro chemicals. Note the stringent registration policy. Location: Pocatello, ID

Fabrics

• Becon Fabrics And Notions An amazing assortment of drapery supplies, webbing, flagcloth and other outdoor fabrics. Great website for idea generation. Location: Lakeland, FL
• Joann Fabrics And Crafts Large source of fabrics, sewing supplies and craft materials. Locations: See website for your nearest local retail store.
• ParaGear Parachute fabrics and cords. Basically anything used on a parachute. Location: Skokie, IL

Junk & Salvage

• Coopers Junk Yard From a Yelp review: “Here we have a junk yard in the truest sense of the word.” Be ready to negotiate prices.

Masonry

• Crawford Materials Stone and brick building materials. Location: Chicago, IL

Metal

• Metal Supermarkets A source for metals, all kinds and shapes, no minimums. Locations: See website for your nearest local retail store.
• MetalsDepot A source for metals, all kinds and shapes, no minimums. Location: Winchester, KY

Paper

• Xpedx Retail Stores Retail small printer supply house. Papers, boxes, inks, plate making supplies. Locations: See website for your nearest local retail store.
• Graytex Papers Graytex Papers provides specialty papers and a greater choice of paper sizes. Location: Justin, TX

Wood

• Owl Hardwood Lumber Rare and exotic woods, specialty woodworking supplies and kits. Location: See website for your nearest local retail store.

Reference

Calculators And Conversions

• On Line Conversion Convert just about anything to anything else. Over 5,000 units, and 50,000 conversions.
• Free Fall Calculator When your parachute fails and you don’t have a calculator handy.
• Radiation Dose to Risk Converter When you really, Really, REALLY mess up.
• WebCalc.net Need a specific or unusual calculator? Will be changing to CalcEnstein.
• XE Currency Converter Currency exchange rates updated daily.

Chemical

• Cole-Parmer Chemical Compatibility Charts Which materals are compatable with what chemicals.

Creativity, Brainstorming, Learning And Teaching

• Creativity Tools A source for creativity tools and ideas.
• Five Why's A simple useful problem-solving tool.
• Instructional System Design How to design training programs.
• Problem Solving Techniques Problem solving tool and ideas.
• Training & Learning Site Creative training and instruction.
• Free MIT Web Classes MIT is putting their entire curriculum on line and for free!

Food

• Cooked Sugar Tests and Temperatures Sugar and what you can expect it to do at various temperatures.
• Food Timeline Just a damn cool site that has NOTHING to do with the rest of this stuff.

Engineering

• eFunda: The Ultimate Engineering Fundamentals Site eFunda stands for engineering Fundamentals. Its mission is to create an online destination for the engineering community, where working professionals can quickly find concise and reliable information to meet the majority of their daily reference needs.
• Small Drive Parts Reference From Stock Drive Products.
• Technologystudent.com The information sheets cover a wide range and include, the design process, gear systems, electronics, cams, printed circuit boards, PIC microcontrollers/computer control, key words/phrases, structures, vocational work, technology and cultures, basic CNC work. They are intended to provide a valuable resource for teachers and pupils AND they are free.

General

• DB Fletcher Capstan Ilona Expanding Table File under things that make you go "Huh! Neat!"
• Hackerspaces All about hackerspaces, where they are and ideas behind them.
• InnoCentive Here is where big business offers you big money to solve their big problems.
• Invention Quotes Because we all need motivation and inspiration from time to time.
• List Of All U.S. Govt Agencies Because sometimes you just have to work WITH them.
• MAKE Magazine The MAKE'ers magazine.
• U. S. Patent Office Quick Search Search the database for all things patent related.
• Unique Projects This guy made a toy Sherman tank his kid could ride in! How cool is that!
• United Inventor’s Association United Inventors Association is the national membership organization dedicated to inventor education and support.
• First Aid Class What to do and how to do it when you mess up.
• Refdesk.com A depository of reference sites whose information has been confirmed as valid.

Workshop

• Electro-Chemical Etching A treatise on cutting thin metal using acid to cut complex shapes.
• Little Machine Shop Reference Page Reference page for tooling, parts, and accessories for bench top machinists.
• Metalworking.com A resource for the "Rec.Crafts.Metalworking" community of hobbyists and small businesses.
• Nicholson File Information Nicholson file guide to files and filing.
• Nicholson File Terminology Nicholson File Terminology Guide
• Sherline's Metalworking Resources and Hotlinks List Reference material for miniature machining.
• Shop Floor Talk Forum A forum for all things metal and metal working.
• The Home Shop Machinist & Machinist's Workshop BBS A forum for all things metal and metal working.
• Lumber Weight Calculator A very diverse and detailed calculator designed to determine lumber weights.
• Nominal Lumber Dimensions Actual lumber dimensions chart.
• PVC Pipe Dimensions Actual PVC pipe dimensions chart.
• MIT’s Intro to Metal Shop Video Series An outstanding series for the beginning machinist.

Reading Materials

Books

• Lindsay Technical Publications. An amazing catalog of how to books from the turn of the century to modern technology.
• Knowledge Publications. A lot of energy related books.

Retail Suppliers

• American Science and Surplus All around awesome store, and we get a discount! Customer Number is 12025714
• Edmund Scientific Wide range of science related toy, games and kits. Location: Tonawanda, NY
• Brick Link Kind of like eBay or Amazon but for Lego bricks.

Surplus

• Government Liquidators Official federal government auctions site. Read the fine print before you leap.