Resources

Louisville Area Resources

Manufacturing and Supply

Rapid Prototyping

• LVL1 Louisville's premier hackerspace

• University of Louisville Rapid Prototyping Center Advanced manufacturing and consulting services

• FirstBuild Micro-factory and collaboration space partnering GE Appliances with Local Motors

• 3Space Advanced 3D printing and 3D modeling

Wood Suppliers

• DSI (Distributor Service International Wholesale hardwood plywood, laminates, melamine, wood veneers, etc.

• JSO Wood Products Local wood veneers

• Bonesteel Portable Sawmill and Molding Hardwood and Softwood dimensional lumber. Maker friendly.

Metal Suppliers

• Metal Supermarket

• American Metal Supply Company

Plastics Suppliers

• Anchor Plastics - Acrylic sheets

• Alro Plastics - "Alro Plastics stocks the largest local selection of engineering plastics, including sheets, rods, tubing, film and even some structural shapes."

• Laird Plastics Acrylic sheets

Electronics and Electronics Manufacturing Services

• Peerless Electronics Distributor of electronic components including connectors, relays, wire and cable, switches and test instruments.

• Win2uit Electronics manufacturing and rapid prototyping services

Water jet services

• ZFX Waterjet "Welded assemblies. Cutting services (abrasive waterjet, glass, stainless steel, rubber and rubber gasket, tile, aluminum, precision metal parts, titanium). Fabrication and welding services (aluminum, metal)

• Schuler Manufacturing "Aluminum, Carbon & Stainless Steel Alloys, Composites, Stone & Tile"

• Advanced Machine Systems "AMS offers its clients Water Jet cutting, Wire EDM and EDM drilling as well as CNC Milling services. " 5 axis water jet.

• Badd LLC "BADD, LLC., incorporates the latest in waterjet technology to cut the materials in a cost-effective and expedient manner."

• Prescotech "Water Jet Cutting services and more"

• Stanton Tile Tile waterjet services

• Flow Waterjet Machines Waterjet products with location in Jeffersonville, IN

• Streamline Water Jet Cutting

Machine Shops

• Jones Machine and Tool High spec machining, grinding, EDM and Lathe work. Good for quick turn, as well.

• Novel Precision Machining CNC Machining, grinding, lathe, and EDM. Quick turn, prototype, or production.

• Craig Machinery & Design Since 1977, Craig Machinery & Design Inc. has designed and built automation machinery for the plastics industry. Specialties include plastic welding, leak testing, general assembly, fluid fill and clam shell machinery.

Welding Shops

• Louisville Exchanger & Vessel High spec ASME tank welding. Selective of customers outside target market.

Painting/Powder Coating

• Made-Rite Manufacturing High-quality powder coating services in Salem, IN.

• H&H Coatings H&H Coatings specializes in the sandblasting and powder coating in Louisville, KY.

• EPIC Coatings and Blast Electrostatic Powder Coating. Capabilities include the application of high performance coatings, such as PPG Envirocron® powders. Louisville, KY

Business Development

Metro Resources

• Greater Louisville Inc, the Metro Chamber of Commerce "Our purpose is to transform the community in pursuit of our dream for the region to become an idea capital where imaginations and individuals thrive. We do so by increasing human capital, driving job creation and entrepreneurship, maximizing global opportunities and inspiring business leadership engagement on issues that impact the competitiveness of our region."

• EnterpriseCorp "With help from our community partners, we keep Louisville at the top of the nation’s list of 'entrepreneurial hot spots' by serving the companies that create the vast majority of new wealth, new revenue and new jobs. Our clients range from technology start-ups to established, fast growth companies to mature businesses in traditional industries. ENTERPRISECORP provides voice, outreach, assistance and education for all that is entrepreneurial in Greater Louisville."

Accelerators

• Vogt Awards Business accelerator / endowment prize for hardware and manufacturing start-ups

• Velocity Business accelerator / co-working space in Southern Indiana

• XLerateHealth XLerateHealth is a health startup accelerator program.

• Village Capital Venturewell:Louisville Louisville accelerator for agriculture and cleantech companies

Co-working / Networking

• iHub Co-working space for entrepreneurs and innovators

• ForgeHQ Forge is a community for innovators in Louisville

• Velocity Business accelerator / co-working space in Southern Indiana

Other lists

• Greg Landon's Louisville Start-Up Resources

Where to find parts, components and supplies for projects

Hardware

Local Suppliers

Small Nearby Hardware Stores

Keith's Ace Hardware 1.3 miles on Bardstown Rd

Oak St Hardware 2 miles on Oak St

Speier Ace Hardware 1 mile on Barret Ave

Oscar's Hardware 1.5 miles on Shelby

Westenhofer Hardware 2.7 mi on S Preston St Right behind the Eastern Parkway Radio Shack!

Large Hardware Stores

Bargain Supply 1 mile on E Jefferson St. Huge place like Harbor Freight, tons of cheap tools and stuff.

Electronics

Barter

The LVL1 community is a great resource for finding components in a pinch. Members often have libraries of components they frequently use. Post what you're looking for on our Google Group. A LVL1 member may have what you're looking for and you can work out a deal. Bartering is encouraged.

Laser Materials

Anchor Plastics - Will sell small acrylic scrap (perfect for laser cutter) for cheap. Lots of colors available with display samples in the front office.

Alro Plastics - "Alro Plastics stocks the largest local selection of engineering plastics, including sheets, rods, tubing, film and even some structural shapes."

Laird Plastics (only sell 4'x8' sheets minimum)

Woodcraft - Birch Plywood

Hobby Lobby - some acrylic sheets and birch plywood

Local Suppliers

Radioshack - 796 Eastern Parkway

• Eh, Radioshack is not what it used to be of course. There's a small cabinet near the back of the store with a limited stock of passive components, switches, etc. Expect to pay 1500% markup on these though. This store actually still stocks Ferric Chloride for making your own PCBs. There are various prototyping supplies and cleaners. Expect to hear at least 5 cell phone sales pitches while you're in there. -Christopher

Peerless Electronics - 1815 South 7th Street

• This place is more of a business part supplier than a retail outlet. However, they do have a small retail storefront with high-quality Hakko and Weller tools and supplies (soldering irons, tips, etc). There's also an NTE wire kiosk. It's a good place to visit if you want a high-quality soldering iron immediately. -Christopher

Master Distributors - 842 South 7th Street

• Again this is more of a supplier for businesses. They do not have a print or online catalog because their inventory fluctuates quite a bit. But if you're looking for something, just call them up! They have a limited retail section up front. Lots of connectors, switches, tools that have obviously been there for a long time. They have a good colorful selection of NTE wire. -Christopher

Aggregators

Find Chips - http://www.findchips.com/

• A search engine which crawls, among others, Digikey, Jameco, Mouser, Newark AvNet Express and Arrow. Good place to compare prices and availability for common parts. -Brad

Octopart - http://octopart.com/

• The Google of parts searching. They tend to be more up-to-date, and easier to browse than Find Chips, but they crawl fewer sites. Also, since they're more high-profile, a few like Digikey block their catalog spiders. -Brad

Online Suppliers

Electronic Goldmine - http://www.goldmine-elec.com/

• The best online source for things you never knew you needed! This is a US surplus electronics online store with a fluid inventory. 'New' surplus inventory and special bargains change monthly. It's not always helpful if you are looking for a very specific component. But cool items like pager motors, super bright LEDs, missile gyros, etc can often be found at bargain prices. -Christopher

All Electronics - http://www.allelectronics.com/

• Another great surplus electronics online store. The inventory is very complete so you can probably find anything you need. -Christopher

Mouser - http://www.mouser.com

• Huge and overwhelming selection of modern components and tools. Their searchable online catalog is great, although there is somewhat of a learning curve to whittle down the selection. You'll definitely need to know exactly what you are looking for. You can save full project BOM to easily order the exact number of parts for a big run of devices. Lots of features. -Christopher

Jameco - http://www.jameco.com

• Another good selection of modern components and tools. The selection isn't as huge as other online sources, which actually helps if you're easily overwhelmed by options. Jameco is the best place to purchase power supplies. -Christopher

Digi-key - http://www.digikey.com/

• Huge selection of high-quality modern components. Best place to find very specific high-quality components that aren't carried anywhere else. -Christopher

American Science & Surplus - http://www.sciplus.com/

• General oddities. These guys have lots of electrical/electronic parts and devices, optics, Pyrex/glassware, as well as take-outs and assemblies from all sorts of devices, many of which are great for brainstorming projects around or salvaging parts for other projects with. Much of it is quite reasonably priced, while some other stuff has a bit of Harbor Freight cheapiness to it. -Philip