Quote: I doubt the problem is Jamie can't get 1 bearings. Jamie more then likely is waiting for a 100 bearings to ship. Bearing supplier doesn't stock the bearings as they are made to order.
I had a set of 32 I tried to order for a project in 2004. They were not a very unusual size, about 4" diameter. Anyway, ended up 120 days back ordered and I could not get the supplier to even guarantee I would ever get them. Apparently the same bearing is used in a military application and the DOD was "pulling rank" and had first priority on all production. I ended up redesigning the assembly to use a slightly different bearing...
Last week I was looking to order 200 replacement sensors. Supplier informed me the entire US stock was 201. I ordered 98 for now, I'll order more later. It is not uncommon, especially these days to run into these issues. No one wants to carry inventory, everyone wants to run lean and no one wants to get stuck with product sitting on shelves. I continually run into situations where my vendors can not supply me in a timely manner. It hurts our business.
