What hardware store has everything/harder to find stuff?

[billyarboles]

I've got a relatively small DIY project and a part of what the final design will be depends on the specific parts I use which will affect other parts I can, or can't, use. When searching (using Spanish terms) Google either comes up with ARG stores that don't have what I'm specifically what I'm looking for or mostly Amazon/Alibaba with some hardware stores in other countries. Mercado Libre doesn't have exactly what I'm looking for either. Same with Famiq and a few others. Closest I ever come is one of those announcements where you have to wait weeks for them to import. I'm getting some other stuff from China, but I'm trying to source local when possible. Nothing strange or rare. Everything's small and inexpensive. Hardest to find are stainless steel cross cable clamps of a certain design and size.

Figured I'm not the first who's looking for an online and/or physical hardware store that ships to the interior and has good online catalog - though I can work around that last part. I'm looking for around 100 pieces so if I have to order from abroad I will, but I was hoping I could find locally, and a reference to a good hardware store is always a good thing to have in the proverbial Rolodex. Might as well ask for any references to China stores as well. Thanks.

 

[Ries]

There is no one place.
And there certainly are not good online catalogs.
I am a hardware fanatic, and I use at least five different ones.
For builders hardware, like hinges, door knobs or coathooks, there are3 good ones on Sarmiento between callao and 9 de julio. That stretch of sarmiento also has several of the best electrical suppliers, if you need oddball light switch covers, 1/8” pipe fittings for light fixtures, or 200 chices in light bulbs.
For nuts and bolts, I like Gata, on peron, y rivarola.
For tools, I often go to Cavagna, on libertador and basavilbaso.
Those are all microcentro.
There are a bunch of similar choices on juan b justo, more or less near corrientes.
For plumbing and gas parts, my favorite is ridigas, on humboldt near plaza Italia.
In that neighborhood, traverso, on guemes and julian alvarez, is a very good general hardware store, and tiny but packed Distor, on salguero just off santa fe is excellent for tools.
Iget aluminum extrusions way up belgrano, plastics near corrientes and uruguay, perforated metals near belgrano and diagonal sur.

This is a city of specialists, of very old family businesses, and of 30 year old new old stock in the basement.

What, exactly, are you looking for?

Paint, or flooring, leather working tools, industrial kitchen supplies, or rope all have magic sources, but almost never one stop shopping.
Casa mitre has basic rigging supplies https://www.casamitre.ar/listado/construccion/materiales-obra/cables-acero-accesorios/

Many times, you have to bug stores, and ask questions, harder to do if you are not ther in person.

 

[Ries]

Stainless crosby style wire rope clamps are gonna be tough. Argentines are reluctant to spend a lot, and will be mostly stocking galvanized. Yachts might use stainless, the boat builders are in tigre. You have to call and bug industrial suppliers.lots of times only one company will have something, but the competition will sometimes recommend someone if they don’t carry it.
Try these guys- prensa cables aceros. https://brimet.com.ar/producto/prensa-cable-de-acero-3-16/

CABLES DE ACERO RESIFLEX S.A. | ACCESORIOS

www.resiflex.com.ar

Accesorios archivos - Resorplast

resorplast.com.ar

 

[billyarboles]

Thanks for the response and recommendations. I guess there never really is that "one place" and I'm used to being in a larger cities where you go to a certain part of town and yo-yo up and down the block(s) till you either find what you're looking for or strike out and realize it just doesn't exist and has to be imported. Or go with Plan B and make some compromise. But I'm nowhere near B.A. so I can only poke around online or make make calls if I've got a good lead. I've had good luck with people happily pointing me in the right direction if they don't have what I'm looking for, but you pretty much have to show up in person and I've given up on expecting to call anyone and actually get an answer three countries ago.

My guess is that anything sold as a boat part is going to be pricy (but still cheaper than if it were for an airplane) so I'm starting to think my best bet is to source in China and add it to the other things I'm having sent. A quick Alibaba search has them at US$90 for a pack of 100, but it's not the price (as long as it's within reason) that has me preferring to buy local.

Preferred option:





Option B (with the person using photo gear (also expensive and hard to find) instead of a bolt:

 

[Ries]

I have never seen the top one, and I have seen a lot of hardware. I dont think you will find them in Argentina.
90 bucks for a hundred is very very cheap.
You could have a machine shop make them, but they would not be anywhere near that cheap.
The second cable clamp is definitely available, and you could just use threaded rod with a couple of nuts, one below and one above. and stack 4 of those at 90 degree intervals. Depening on how the fit, maybe 2 and 2.
In the US, I have a machine shop, and make my own stuff like that, but not in Argentina...
There are machine shops, but a dollar apiece is chinese wages and cnc lathes and mills, making thousands a day.

 

[billyarboles]

I didn't know the second option was definitely available. I've seen it, but only as one of those things where you have to wait for the seller to import them. Do you have any other suggestions on where I might find them in Argentina? I kind of prefer the top option, figuring I could cover up the bolt with a hollow stainless steel tube to make it look nicer, but I was also thinking your threaded rod idea could work as well, esp. if that rod was only threaded at the ends - the bottom to attach to the base.

I can buy something already made @ $19 a unit wholesale before shipping and the rest, but aesthetically it's meh, and this is one of those things I can hopefully have made here to keep my costs down (which gets passed along to the consumer). If it were just for me I wouldn't bother, but this represents about 20% of the total parts cost and I kinda dig the occasional challenge like this to come up with my own solution.

Thanks again for your input.

 

[mageesa]

I've had success going into little hardware stores with old dudes at the counter and showing them a picture. If they don't have it, they usually know who might.

 

[brandon]

They actually have a good online catalogue

TENSORES | Herrajes Diagonal

www.herrajesdiagonal.com.ar

 

[nikad]

I am no expert and am not 100% what you are looking for, but check this out:

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