When people recommend a place to buy things in an international forum they have no idea what your local hardware store carries or if you even have a local hardware store. They are not slighting the local merchant when they tell others about a large chain that they know does carry it. If your local merchant also carries it, by all means buy it there.
I have both Home Depot and Lowe’s within 1/4 mile of my house. The closest locally owned hardware store is a 20 minute drive from here
My local hardware store is a Home Depot. Hechingers put many of the independent hardware stores in my area out of business years ago.
I still try to get hardware from independent stores when time permits. We’re spending stimulus money at work which leaves HD and Lowes out for most items. Stimulus money can only be spent on American made products and they don’t have too many on the shelf.
Martin Myers
It may not be much of a consideration to some readers, but driving costs…plenty. It also has a deleterious effect on the environment whether we appreciate it or not…the effect is still there. So, if a local drive can be undertaken, assuming it is necessary at all, then go to the place where you can accomplish your aims while imposing the least on the environment. If that is a Mom & Pop, great. If it happens that Home Depot is closest…
-Crandell
a valid point. But then one may also want to consider the environmental impact of a large big box versus a small independent. Also if a person chooses to go farther he/she may then wait, make a list and go once a week where a closer store encourages people to “just run over and pick up the thing-gummy I need right now.”. Also alternate forms of transportation can be used: hybrid or electric cars, public transportation, bicycles or enven walking (of course that depends on what you’re buying). There is certainly no easy answer to this question one way or another.
Have we forgotten that this thread is about drilling holes for wires?
[tup]
They do make plastic drill stops that stops the chuck from hitting your work.
I bought extra-long drill bits for servo control wires here:
http://www.sloanswoodshop.com/drill_bits.htm
They are perfect length for drilling through 2" of foam and a hollow core door.