Material Vendors
Below you will find a list of Material Vendors with a short description of each one.
If you have questions about whether your material is appropriate for fabrication processes in either labs, please reach out to Alex, Christian, or Jacob.
Table of Contents
Architectural Materials + Sheet Materials
Wrisco - good for purchasing aluminum sheets. Several options for architectural panels.
Composites / Mold making
Eager Polymers - is your one-stop source for all mold-making and casting projects. You will find that our Web Site is the most comprehensive in the industry, filled with hundreds of pages of How-To information, technical data sheets, and helpful hints. Double check with a projectlab/fablab specialist before getting anything from here. Make sure that it is ok to use materials in the labs.
Smooth-On - variety of casting material, great introduction videos and tutorials
Reynolds Advance Materials - the Project Lab's preferred vendor. Start kits and supplies.
Freeman Supply - mold making supplies and composite materials. Great for CNC stock material.
Electronics/ Tech
Adafruit.com - all things nerdy and tech related. LED's, stepper motors, Arduino's, rasberry pi's, instructional kits, robots, 3D printers, CNC, etc...
SparkFun Electronics - Similar to Adafruit.com, not as user-friendly but normally cheaper, not as reliable of parts as adafruit.
Seeedstudio.com - Similar to the previous two, except more variety in buttons, and basic components.
American Science and Surplus - American Science & Surplus offers science kits, educational toys, school supplies, arts and crafts items, hobby tools, scales, lab glass, housewares, electronics.
Micro Center - Local, great for electronic parts and lights
Foam
Home Depot - Pink Styrene foam, great for CNC and prototyping.
Hot Wire Foam Company - Wide variety of quality high density foams
Lance Construction - Blue Styrene foam, for use in Project Lab only.
Industrial supply
McMaster-Carr - Everything from hardware to cleaning supplies
Grainger - Industrial supplies, hand tools, everything
Inventables - Hardware store for designers,
Laser Cut Materials
Woodpecker - Laser cut materials, bulk dowels
Maker Stock - Laser cut materials
Metal
Alro Steel Outlet - access to go and pick up off cuts for cheap
Gordon Bros. - shop is only really set up for mild steel. No galvanized steel can be welded, check with Natalie before purchasing.
Wexler Steel - same as information above.
Sculpt Nouveau - Patinas and Metal Finishes - they also sell paints to make materials look like metal.
Metal Supermarket - great for large orders
ROCO Steel & Tube - brass, bronze and copper options. Bars and rounds.
Worth Steel - steel wire only
Wicks - Chrome Moly Tubing, custom lengths
For metal ordering advice or faculty ordering requests, email Alex at ajones28@uic.edu
Plastics
Petersen Brothers Plastics Inc - Chicago's oldest plastics distributor, we recommend you buy all of your acrylic (cast only) from here.
E & T Plastics - great for vacuum forming. They cut material to size to save on shipping
For vacuum forming, PETG or Styrene only
Order material to be cut to 18.5 in x 18.5 in for Vacuum Former
Paint + Supplies
Momentum art tech - best place to buy spray paint in the city of Chicago. It is off of the oak park blue line, be sure to check their hours online before going.
Midwest Airbrush - Airbrush supplies as well as model paint.
Aselart - small art store in Dallas, Texas that specializes in high end canvas and model paint.
JC Licht - great for painting supplies, paint, and glue. Blocks from UIC campus.
Schauer Hardware - Forrest Park hardware store with spray paint
Paper/ Sticker paper
Sticker Companies
stickerobot.com - High-quality Vinyl stickers, they produce supreme and obey's stickers.
Stickerapp.com - Similar to Stickerobot.com, high-quality vinyl stickers. Plus side about them is you can print min 25 stickers and they deliver within a week.
eggshell - Extremely hard to remove outdoor stickers. - Custom screen printed from vector art.
Machineartshop.com - High-quality vinyl stickers with artwork screen printed by hand. High print volume for a cheap price. You can print 500 2" x 2" stickers for $35 dollars ($45 with shipping included).
Salvaged
Rebuilding Exchange , Do not use anything from here in the shop or fablab without first checking with Alex, Christian or Jacob. Everything here is salvaged meaning that there will most likely still be nails, screws, stain, etc.. still in material.
Wood
Owl lumber - best for all of your lumber needs for the Project Lab or Fablab. If you are buying plywood from here to laser cut, make sure that it is 1/8" birch plywood.
Wood World - best for furniture grade lumber.
Home Depot - Last resort, Do not buy anything from here for laser cutting!
Horigan Urban Forest Products - Great for large furniture projects
R&RS - selection of domestic lumber and SKYBLEND particle board
Harry's Lumber - selection of construction lumber, select pine boards, and cedar
Lee Lumber - plywood and lumber options. Specialize in building materials
Heidler Hardwoods - relatively close, specializes in hardwood
Chicago Dowel Company - Local vendor, wide variety