Vancouver Hack Space

Collected here.

• FreeGeek Vancouver: 1820 Pandora street - Nonprofit that recycles old computers and electronics. Go volunteer sometime.
• Lee's Electronics: Fraser and King Edward - 4131 Fraser St
• RP Electronics: Close to Gilmore Ave and Lougheed Hwy - 4181 Dawson Street
• MRO Electronics: Boundary and 1st - 1745 Boundary Road
• Interior Electronics: Boundary and 1st - 1520 Boundary Road
• SMI Electronics: Near Willowbrook Mall - #109 20120 64 Ave, Langley
• Lin Haw: Marine Drive (wholesale commercial/IT supplies. Will only sell to businesses, so just say you're from VHS and they'll let you buy stuff.)
• The Hackery: Franklin and Victoria, used computers and parts

• Opus Art Supplies: Hornby & Hastings downtown or Granville Island
• Michaels: Broadway near Cambie. Has almost everything craft-related, but is expensive. Via their mobile app there's nearly always a 50%-off one item coupon.
• DeSerres: Grandview Highway and Renfrew, near RP Electronics
• Rath Art Supplies: Main near Kingsway
• Urban Source: Collects materials from local industries, diverting safe, useable off-cuts, discards, misprints and over-stock from the land fill. Main and 16th.

• Maiwa Dyes and Textiles: 1310 Odlum Drive for workshop, Granville Island for full store - Natural dyes, printing supplies, natural fibres
• Our Social Fabric: 270-1275 Venables Street - Non-profit that seeks to divert textiles and sewing supplies from landfills. Extremely cheap and huge selection, but only open a few times a month.
• Fabrictime Solutions: 1325 E. Pender st. (Please note this is a fabric wholesaler and there is a large minimum for cheap prices)
• Urban Source: Main Street between 15th and 16th Ave. All kinds of recycled craft materials - everything is cheap!
• Dressew: 337 W Hastings St, near Cambie - Sewing/fabric/knitting/etc. Huge selection, dirt cheap!
• Yoko YaYa: Tinseltown Mall, 1st floor. Japanese dollar store with all kinds of neat stuff.
• Daiso: Aberdeen Mall in Richmond. Same as Yoko Yaya, but about 5 times more stuff.
• Michaels: Alberni Street near Burrard Street and Broadway near Cambie. Has almost everything craft-related, but is expensive.
• DeSerres: Grandview Highway and Renfrew, near RP Electronics

• Greenline - 1521 Venables Street - plumbing, fitting and hose (note: tell them you're from VHS and you'll get a 30% discount!)
• Makerparts: OpenBuilds and v-slot distributor, located in Richmond with local pickup at a UPS Store
• Castertown - 1075 Clark Drive - wheels and hardware
• Sabre Industrial Supplies - locations in Surrey, Delta, and Abbotsford.
• Home Hardware - 1575 Commercial Drive
• Home Depot - Terminal Ave (about 1km east of Science World), or Cambie & 8th
• Canadian Tire - Cambie & 7th
• Army and Navy - Hastings Street downtown or 8th St in New Westminster.

• Pacific Fasteners: 3934 East 1st Ave. They stock a huge range of fasteners (nuts, bolts, screws, nails etc.) and are pretty close to MRO. Old Catalog
• Makerparts: OpenBuilds and v-slot distributor, located in Richmond with local pickup at a UPS Store
• HD Supply Brafasco: 443 Terminal Ave.
• BC Fasteners: Located in Kelowna.
• Fastenal: SE Marine Dr and Knight St, and many other locations.
• Canadian Stainless Fasteners: 75 Clipper St, Coquitlam.
• McMaster Carr: Massive catalog of engineering components. Not the cheapest, but the only source for many things.
• Misumi USA: Another massive catalog of engineering components.

• Ringball: Mainly bearings, some linear slides and some acme screws and such. Good prices, but $30 minumum order.
• Makerparts: OpenBuilds and v-slot distributor, located in Richmond with local pickup at a UPS Store
• DealExtreme: Free shipping, probably knockoff bearings.
• SDP/SI - Stock Drive Products: Small mechanical components.

• QTC Metric Gears: QTC Metric Gears offers the largest selection of metric gears in North America.
• SDP/SI - Stock Drive Products: Small mechanical components.
• McMaster Carr: Massive catalog of engineering components. Not the cheapest, but the only source for many things.
• Misumi USA: Another massive catalog of engineering components.

• McMaster Carr: Massive catalogue of engineering components. Not the cheapest, but the only source for many things. (Note: we have a paper copy of the 2019 catalogue floating around if you're looking for a good read.)
• Misumi USA: Another massive catalog of engineering components.

• Metal Supermarket: Two locations: close to Lake City Way skytrain station in Burnaby AND just East of the Knight St Bridge (close to the IKEA) in Richmond. Good source for metal rods, beams, angled, etc. in stainless steel, aluminum and more. Burnaby location supplies the Richmond location apparently. At the Burnaby location, talk to Trevor and mention that you're with VHS for a discount!
• Metal Mart: Supplier of metal stock similar to Metal Supermarket, and has both water-jet and plasma cutters. Langley.
• North Star Metal: Metal recycling (wander around; just stay clear of the forklifts). Powell & Clark in Vancouver.
• Capital Salvage: Metal recycling. Triumph & Victoria in Vancouver.
• P N J Metals Inc: No. 5 Rd and Bridgeport Rd in Richmond
• Complete Metal Markets: No. 5 Rd and Bridgeport Rd in Richmond
• MB Superior Metals: Metal recycling (good for wire; ask them to see it). Grant St and Clark Dr, just north of 1st Ave.
• Esthers Sheet Metal: 3890 East First Ave. Next to Pacific Fasteners. Is a trade supplier that mostly does made to measure flashings for construction. Will cut metal sheet to size and bend as per spec.
• ABC Metal Recycling: 192 St and 56 Ave in Surrey
• Purity Casting Alloys: Pewter alloy ingots for casting. 97 Ave and Golden Ears Way in Surrey
• Capilano Rock & Gem: Near Capilano Mall in North Van (copper, brass, sterling silver, gold, etc)

• Rocky Mountain Motion Control: 8020 distributor in BC, located in Aldergrove
• Makerparts: OpenBuilds and v-slot distributor, located in Richmond with local pickup at a UPS Store
• Solarbotics: OpenBeam distributor, located in AB

• KMS Tools: Next to the IKEA in Coquitlam. Mention you're with the VHS Group Rewards program at the checkout!
• Busy Bee Tools: Near Braid skytrain station in New Westminster.
• KBC Tools & Machinery: Annacis Island, just south of New Westminster.
• ACT Equipment: Near Lougheed Hwy & Willingdon Ave in Burnaby.
• Thomas Skinner: Just East of the Knight St Bridge (close to the IKEA) in Richmond.
• Akhurst Machinery: Annacis Island in Richmond.
• Princess Auto: Opposite side of the highway from IKEA in Coquitlam.
• DGI Supply: Near Tilbury Island in Delta.
• Capilano Rock & Gem: Near Capilano Mall in North Van (silversmithing & jewellery making supplies)

• Century Pacific Foundry: Steel/Irons
• Pacific Mako Foundry: Aluminum/Copper alloys
• Hastings Brass: Aluminum/Brass alloys
• Thompson Foundry: Steel/Iron
• Robar Industries: Steel/Iron and others
• Expert Casting: Lost wax, investment, and precious metal casting
• Sarber Jewellers: Full service jewelry and small sculpture casting and precious sheet metal sales

• Industrial Laser Cutting: Laser cutting of mild and stainless steel, aluminium, acrylic, and wood for low/medium production runs and prototyping, and also have a CNC press brake. No 2 Road in Richmond.
• Metal Mart: Supplier of metal stock similar to Metal Supermarket, and has both water-jet and plasma cutters. Langley.

• Home Depot - Terminal Ave (about 1km east of Science World)
• Windsor Plywood - Near Granville & Broadway
• Dick's Lumber - Burnaby

• Lee Valley: SE Marine Drive at Knight St Bridge.
• Summit Tools: 1st Ave at Boundary.
• KMS Tools: Next to the IKEA in Coquitlam.

• Fiber-tek: Boundary Rd at 1st Ave.
• Industrial Plastics & Paints: Bridgeport Rd and Sweden Way (near IKEA) in Richmond, and Broadway St and Kingsway Ave in Port Coquitlam.

• Fiber-tek: Boundary Rd at 1st Ave. Sell Worbla and casting supplies.
• HollyNorth Production Supply: 1st Ave at Boundary, kind of hard to find. Large range of makeup FX and production supplies.
• Studio F/X: Georgia St at Hornby St downtown. Enter via the side door, not via the Cathedral Place mall/lobby as it's locked outside regular business hours. Good selection of makeup FX products, but not as general a product range as HollyNorth.
• Thomas FX: North Vancouver, just over the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge. Large range of makeup FX and production supplies.

Tags: plastic, acrylic, plexiglas

• Industrial Plastics & Paints: Bridgeport Rd and Sweden Way (near IKEA) in Richmond, and Broadway St and Kingsway Ave in Port Coquitlam.
• Surrey Plastic Works: Plastic sheet/bars. Ask for offcuts.
• Associated Plastics Glen Dr just north of Hastings.
• Urban Source: Main Street between 15th and 16th Ave (cheap offcuts and cool craft materials).
• Sabic Polymershapes: Near United Blvd and Mary Hill Bypass in Coquitlam (wholesale quantities (i.e. 48“x96” sheets) and custom cutting)
• Robertson Plastics: Surrey

• Filaments.ca: Free shipping over $125. VHS Affiliation link.

• AllWorld Packaging: 1023 Clark Drive - Tape, cardboard, bubble wrap, etc
• Lee Valley: SE Marine Drive at Knight St Bridge.
• Princess Auto: Opposite side of the highway from IKEA in Coquitlam.
• KMS Tools: Next to the IKEA in Coquitlam.
• Busy Bee Tools: Near Braid skytrain station in New Westminster.
• Summit Tools: 1st Ave at Boundary.
• KBC Tools & Machinery: Annacis Island, just south of New Westminster.
• Acklands Grainger: Many locations, but limited hours. The location near VHS is closed in May 2016.
• Adler Auto: Surrey and further out locations.
• HollyNorth Production Supply: 1st Ave at Boundary, kind of hard to find. These guys sell to the film industry, but they do cash sales too.
• SR Fine Tools: Chinatown source of magnifiers, tweezers, etc.
• Wainbee: Hydraulics, pneumatics, toggle clamps, actuators, electromechanical (steppers, servos, etc). Surrey.

• Value Village East Van: 1820 E Hastings St - Large section of second-hand electronics
• Miscellany: 1029 Commercial Drive OR 2615 E Hastings St - Lots of cool retro items for costumes or props, some old electronics
• Little Miss Vintage: 931 Commercial Drive - Actual vintage items for decent price. Great for costumes
• VGH Thrift Store: 2535 E Hastings St
• St Vincent de Paul Thrift store: 1738 East Hastings Street @ Commercial Dr - clothing, furniture, electronics and misc
• Still Fabulous: 1124 Commercial Dr - Well-curated fashion store with very cheap prices, not vintage
• Union Gospel Mission Thrift: 671 E Hastings Street - clothing, furniture, household, etc

• Magic Box Hobbies: Arbutus and 37th
• Central Hobbies: Grandview and Renfrew.
• Seb's RC Shop: Lougheed Hwy and Shaughnessy.
• Lift RC: Located in PoCo, but online-only.
• Hobby King: Online. Low prices but slow shipping.

• New Type Computer: Yaletown
• Linhaw: Cables, racks, etc (Need an account ahead of time, sells to businesses only, or just say you're from VHS; we have a cash account with them)
• Mike's Computer Shop: Kingsway & Fraser. Good stock of regular computer parts.

• Digikey: They've got pretty much anything, and they ship overnight from Canada.
• Mouser: Similar to Digikey, but ship from the US (taking an extra day usually).
• Arrow: Similar to Digikey, but ship from the US (taking an extra few days usually).
• Newark element14: Similar to Digikey and Mouser, but slower and more expensive shipping.
• SparkFun: Awesome site with tutorials and lots of breakout boards and rad parts.
• Adafruit: Good starter kits, mostly revolve around Arduino.
• Seeed Studio: Similar to SparkFun, located in China. Offers services such as PCB manufacturing and laser cutting also.
• ITead Studio: Similar to Seeed Studio, and also located in China.
• Modtronics Australia: Very Niche store - great for hobbyist wireless modules.
• Buy a PI: Ontario based seller of Raspberry Pis and electronic modules.

Many semiconductor manufacturers run sample programs that let you get small quantities of chips for very cheap or free. Some programs require a registered business contact. See this wiki page for more information.

• Solarbotics: Robotics related parts (motors, electronics, gears, sensors, etc).
• RobotShop: Robots and related parts.

• Travers Tool Co: Very large selection of machining parts, tooling, and accessories.
• Little Machine Shop: Specializing in smaller hobby and bench-top machines, parts, tooling, and accessories.
• Atlas Machinery: Located in Toronto. Wide variety of tools, machinery, and accessories.
• 4GT: Located in Nanaimo. Sells ER20/ER32 collets and collet holders compatible with the Tormach Tooling System (not Tormach products however).

Importing aluminum extrusion can be difficult due to restrictions. See https://talk.vanhack.ca/t/group-order-of-v-slot-from-openbuilds/1000/2.

• makerparts.ca
• Rocky Mountain (Located in Aldergrove)

• Inventables: Acrylic sheets, woods and vaneers, moulding materials, etc.
• RepRaper: Cheap ABS and PLA filament, parts, and electronics for 3D printers.
• OpenBeam USA: An online retail store that sells mechanical bits and pieces for your projects.
• McMaster Carr: Massive catalog of engineering components. Not the cheapest, but the only source for many things.
• Misumi USA: Another massive catalog of engineering components.
• CableShop.ca: Ontario based seller of various cables.

• Automation Direct: Huge selection of parts for automation, controls, and building machines.
• McMaster Carr: Massive catalog of engineering components. Not the cheapest, but the only source for many things.
• Misumi USA: Another massive catalog of engineering components.

• Ali Express: Sort of Amazon meets eBay in China - and almost everything that is manufactured in or for China is available here (i.e. almost everything).
• Deal Extreme: Almost anything is available here from electronics dev boards to clothing. Chinese, very cheap price & quality, free slow shipping.
• Bang Good: Very similar to Deal Extreme in every way, but often cheaper.
• Alibaba: Manufacturer-direct sales for larger order volumes.
• Hobby King: Hobby parts, kits, and products for RC cars, multicopters, etc.

Google Translate does a decent job. Refine searches by extracting keywords from the best results and running them through Google Translate again.

• Taobao: Like Ali Express but in Chinese with a larger selection and lower prices. You may have to use shipping agents.
• T-Mall: Similar to Taobao but aimed at brands and larger/more reputable businesses. Far less selection or niche products.

• Lock Pick Canada: Lock picks, practice locks, related tools

• Apex Jr: Surplus gear at good prices, lots of audio amplifier bits including toroids. Will ship a 4 lb bag for US$13.
• Electronic Goldmine: Surplus electronics parts, lots of unique stuff.

In general Point Roberts is closer and easier on Transit/Bike. Blaine is further but offers the chance to pick up a parcel as part of another trip. Tax info at CBSA.

• The Letter Carrier: Point Roberts
• Kinek: Blaine & Point Roberts
• Hagens of Blaine: Blaine
• Security Mail Services: Blaine
• Point Roberts Shell: Point Roberts
• TSB Shipping Plus: Point Roberts

• Vancouver Tool Library: Commercial at E 18th
• A&B Tool Rentals: Venables at Clark
• Cat Rental Store: Main St at 1st Ave
• United Rentals: Near Hastings at Clark
• BC Rentals: Just north of Clark and 1st Ave

• Macrofab Supplier List (USA-centric, online)