New Jersey: Cook Tool & Machine

[Harrzack]

Located at 628 Sicklerville Road, Sicklerville NJ
Cook Tool and Machine has been in business for over 50 years and has a super selection of older mills, lathes tool, cutters and metal.
Cook also buys complete machine shops - hobby or pro. Their warehouse is a trove of "machine parts & tools" and always a great place to explore.

Find us on EBAY: https://www.ebay.com/str/cookmachinetools

and the web: http://www.cooktoolandmachine.com/

[Steggy]

Located at 628 Sicklerville Road, Sicklerville NJ
Cook Tool and Machine has been in business for over 50 years and has a super selection of older mills, lathes tool, cutters and metal.
Cook also buys complete machine shops - hobby or pro. Their warehouse is a trove of "machine parts & tools" and always a great place to explore.

Find us on EBAY: https://www.ebay.com/str/cookmachinetools

and the web: http://www.cooktoolandmachine.com/

There was an item I was going to purchase until I saw the shipping charges. Why does it cost 27 dollars to ship an item that weighs about 3 pounds?

[Harrzack]

You’ll have to battle UPS over the shipping charges. If there was a cheaper way that we could count on, we’d use it. It also depends on how far from NJ the package has to go.i got sticker-shock at $40 to send a DVD to the UK!

[SteveM]

Why not use flat-rate boxes, at least for stuff that will fit?

I was going to order a chunk of 4140ph from a vendor on ebay until I realized they were going to charge $20 for what would go in a small flat-rate box. They refused to use a flat-rate box. They said that USPS didn't meet their standards. From what people here have been saying about UPS, it sounds like their standards are pretty low.

Other than one act of outright theft (package was obviously manually opened, bag inside sliced open and contents removed) I've had pretty good luck with flat-rate boxes.

Steve

[John Hasler]

I've had excellent luck with USPS. They are almost always less expensive that UPS even when not using flat rate boxes and are always as fast or faster. The only better service I've found is Speed-Dee Delivery. They cover Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin and parts of Michigan, Missouri, and Nebraska.

[Steggy]

You’ll have to battle UPS over the shipping charges. If there was a cheaper way that we could count on, we’d use it. It also depends on how far from NJ the package has to go.i got sticker-shock at $40 to send a DVD to the UK!

My location is near Chicago and a quick check of UPS commercial rates from your location to mine came out to about 12 dollars for a three pound object with a value under 100 dollars. That assumes commercial-to-commercial shipping—if either address is residential, the rate will be about 20 percent higher.

I'm going to say this publicly, not to yank your chain, but to make it clear what my thoughts are. Package forwarding is one of the most competitive industries in the world, especially in North America, and forwarders are eager to get and keep customers. Given that, I am always suspicious of any on-line vendor who quotes high domestic shipping charges. All-too-often, it is found that a vendor whose shipping charges are higher than average is marking up what they are being charged by the forwarder. We (my company) periodically have product we've ordered shipped against our FedEx account so we can compare what we are charged against the shipping charges quoted by the vendor (if the vendor charges more we become their latest ex-customer). I'm not saying your company is marking up shipping charges, but I mention shipping cost markup because it often happens and may be squelching sales for any company engaged in it.

In my opinion, I think you need to have a frank conversation with your shipping company representative about being competitive. UPS is not the only company in the package-forwarding business and based on my (very long) experience as a businessman, not the best.

BTW, I routinely ship stuff via USPS Priority Mail and have never encountered a problem of any kind. Late delivery is very rare, as is theft of contents.

[Steggy]

I've had excellent luck with USPS. They are almost always less expensive that UPS even when not using flat rate boxes and are always as fast or faster. The only better service I've found is Speed-Dee Delivery. They cover Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin and parts of Michigan, Missouri, and Nebraska.

We used Speed-Dee a few years ago to ship a computer server (value about 6000 dollars) to a client in Milwaukee. The rate was reasonable and the package arrived on time, safe and sound. As I said above, UPS is not the only game in town.

[John Hasler]

I ordered a printer from quill.com over on the other side of Wisconsin yesterday. It arrived today, via an outfit called Capital Express. Shipping was free so I don't know what they charged, but they're worth keeping an eye on.

One of the excuses I've seen for not using USPS is "Their tracking isn't as good as that of UPS." I don't need to know where my package is to within the nearest inch thoughout it's trip. In fact, I don't need to know where it is at all, just when it will be here.

I think that one of the reasons vendors like UPS is that it will provide software that wil seamlessly integrate their systems with UPS's. Of course, it will also seamlessly lock them in...

[rrnut-2]

USPS has gotten a lot better a tracking in the past 5 years or so. Before that, the package would be on my doorstep and their tracking would still say it was in the midwest somewhere. Now, it seems to be spot on and detailed.

Jim B

[reggie_obe]

I was at Cooks very recently, my experience was a bit different.
Only the owner and daughter (part time) remain. Lots of old large machinery, generally not in demand by US industry anymore.
Website photos show a warehouse in the distant past.
Very dark and cramped, bring a good flashlight.
A whole herd of old large mills sitting in the semi-darkness rusting away,
Big stack of granite plates outside, many mishandled and good for rolling out pastry dough or garden pavers.
If he happens to have a piece of tooling you want, the prices aren't bad, but he does covet a bunch of stuff too.
Looked at a radial drill (he had many), 10k for a machine that wouldn't even bring 2k at auction.
If you are going to Fazzio's it might be worth a side trip.

[robbieknobbie]

Yeah, Cook's is dark, and uncomfortably cramped with older machinery, but for me that makes all the more fun to explore. If you are respectful to the owners, they will give you good prices, if you're a weenie, you get the weenie tax.

Its their party, they do what they want.

I haven't been there in maybe 5 years now, but I used to go once or twice a year for at least a decade before that. They have an incredible selection of metalworking stuff, and will go a long way to help you get what you're looking for.

Can't speak to shipping, always went in person.