Who Remembers Enco?

[dr_clyde]

Other than having a house brand of machines and tools, what did Enco do that was different from any other industrial supply house?

I bet there's a dozen supply houses within the tri-state area that fulfill any tooling or industrial supply needs I may have.

I shopped at Enco a bit when they were still around, but they had the same basic price structure and stock as any other industrial supply I've dealt with.

 

[ER70S-2]

This thread made me go back into my old emails to check out the last few things I ordered from ENCO. I highly recommend that you do NOT do this. The prices are crazy.

 

[Nutria]

I was thinking the thread was referring to the gas station. Of course, all the regional varieties merged into one of the first "committee generated" brand names, Exxon...

Nice. Where was that photo taken? And yes, hated losing Enco. Happy to have some of their stuff.

 

[Smilodon]

Nice. Where was that photo taken? And yes, hated losing Enco. Happy to have some of their stuff.

Just something I swiped off of the internet. Most of the ones I remember in Florida were of the plastic variety...

 

[INSP380]

Enco Master cat 2002…

Steve

 

[Bill Bowman]

I got lucky and scored this Enco band saw which has a blade welder on the side. Good friend of mine upgraded about 25 years ago, and I managed to buy a few pieces of his cast off stuff. I don't really use it a lot anymore, but it's very handy to have.

 

[DaveAndStuff]

I got lucky and scored this Enco band saw which has a blade welder on the side. Good friend of mine upgraded about 25 years ago, and I managed to buy a few pieces of his cast off stuff. I don't really use it a lot anymore, but it's very handy to have.

I remember the blade welder being sold as an option.

I guess the wire-cutters are doing a lot of that work that required a blade welder now.

 

[dr_clyde]

I remember the blade welder being sold as an option.

I guess the wire-cutters are doing a lot of that work that required a blade welder now.

Probably more lasers and waterjets than wire EDM. Especially now that we have 5 axis cutting so we can cut tapers and on 3D features.

Wire EDM is so expensive and slow compared to a laser or waterjet it really only gets used when tolerances and thicknesses exceed what we can do with conventional cutting.

Bandsaws never approached the accuracy levels of wire EDM.

I know some toolmakers used to use a band saw for band filing, which may have been used in places where wire is used now, but even that has been out of practice for close to 40 years. Wire EDM became mainstream in the mid-80s.

 

[tool_scrounge]

Other than having a house brand of machines and tools, what did Enco do that was different from any other industrial supply house?

I bet there's a dozen supply houses within the tri-state area that fulfill any tooling or industrial supply needs I may have.

I shopped at Enco a bit when they were still around, but they had the same basic price structure and stock as any other industrial supply I've dealt with.

When they had sales with free shipping, it was pretty hard to beat.

 

[Farmall450]

I feel like SHARS is moving into this space. Yes, I too miss ENCO.

I ordered all my stuff from Shars when I got the Smithy and it seems decent.

 

[AEAdam]

I ordered all my stuff from Shars when I got the Smithy and it seems decent.

I feel like SHARS used to be bottom Chinese quality. It ain’t that any more. They have a wider selection and I feel as tho the lowest quality Chinese goods have gotten better. So current SHARS feels a bit more like ENCO.

For anyone who feels as tho the “cobalt“ drill bits you bought from SHARS 10 yrs ago missed heat treat, look again at this company’s offerings. Today’s SHARS is different than it was.

 

[PopcornSutton]

I don't know why, but I have recently been getting MSC sales catalogs in the mail. Haven't ordered from them in years.
By the way, for those who use a quick change tool post, CDCO Machinery sells tool holders cheap! The screws ****, but replacement screws are easy to find. I see all the time where people have a dozen or more tool holders (never counted mine but I have quite a few) but if someone bought all those from Alouris they had a small fortune ******* in them.

 

[DaveAndStuff]

I don't know why, but I have recently been getting MSC sales catalogs in the mail. Haven't ordered from them in years.
By the way, for those who use a quick change tool post, CDCO Machinery sells tool holders cheap! The screws ****, but replacement screws are easy to find. I see all the time where people have a dozen or more tool holders (never counted mine but I have quite a few) but if someone bought all those from Alouris they had a small fortune ******* in them.

I got Aloris tool posts for the two lathes we had at the plant from Enco. It took a while to get the guys to use them, but once they figured it out they loved them.

 

[Sumboodie]

Yeah, going from Enco to Grainger was a bit of sticker shock...

I think the main places that use Grainger have carte blanche "easy to order" vs buying from "outside" places.

I've been told "just order from Grainger", but I'll price around and a $100 item is like $250 on our Grainger account.

I don't understand our buying plans... got pretty much yelled at for going through 2 toner cartridges since late 2024 (like $200) but then was told to get 5ea 5yr old batteries replaced at over $200 each because "they're getting old."

Suggested I just get them tested and was told 5 years is pushing it on batteries.

They removed 4 positions out of maybe 30 total in the last year due to "restructuring".

 

[DaveAndStuff]

I think the main places that use Grainger have carte blanche "easy to order" vs buying from "outside" places.

I've been told "just order from Grainger", but I'll price around and a $100 item is like $250 on our Grainger account.

I don't understand our buying plans... got pretty much yelled at for going through 2 toner cartridges since late 2024 (like $200) but then was told to get 5ea 5yr old batteries replaced at over $200 each because "they're getting old."

Suggested I just get them tested and was told 5 years is pushing it on batteries.

They removed 4 positions out of maybe 30 total in the last year due to "restructuring".

The contract pricing we had with Grainger was great for the everyday stuff, but we seemed to get raped on the now and then stuff.

 

[gearhead1]

Enco was my go to! Loved them. Was very disappointed when MSC absorbed them.

Now I use Shars, Travers, and Penn Tool. If I was buying machines, I’d look at Precision Matthews, Grizzly, or Jet.

 

[Fedwrench]

I remember those small yellow tape measures they handed out at SEMA shows.

 

[DaveAndStuff]

 

[milkovich]

It's funny to think how spoiled we were buying the "cheap junk" like phase II and Taiwan machines from Enco, that's all high end stuff from Jet / Grizzly now.

KBC still does Enco style flyers. There are decent deals in there or at least there were pre-tariffs.
Shars has rough import stuff and slightly better import stuff (I buy a lot of their endmills and collets).
Haas is jumping into it with decently priced import stuff and it's a good deal on sale, plus it's cool to have a Haas logo on your micrometer, but it's not Mitutoyo or old Starrett. Hopefully it's not like Zoro where they get a bunch of market share and a big mailing list then the deals disappear.

 

[DaveAndStuff]

It's funny to think how spoiled we were buying the "cheap junk" like phase II and Taiwan machines from Enco, that's all high end stuff from Jet / Grizzly now.

KBC still does Enco style flyers. There are decent deals in there or at least there were pre-tariffs.
Shars has rough import stuff and slightly better import stuff (I buy a lot of their endmills and collets).
Haas is jumping into it with decently priced import stuff and it's a good deal on sale, plus it's cool to have a Haas logo on your micrometer, but it's not Mitutoyo or old Starrett. Hopefully it's not like Zoro where they get a bunch of market share and a big mailing list then the deals disappear.

We had several of the Phase II 5C collet holders, a vertical rotary table and a compound-slide table, it was pretty good stuff for the dough.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Looking at the Internet catalog are nice but sometimes as simple color paper catalog can't be beat.

 

[LXCam]

We had several of the Phase II 5C collet holders, a vertical rotary table and a compound-slide table, it was pretty good stuff for the dough.

Wow, talk about memory pop. I have the large tilt table, the indexer and 10" rotary table from them. The rotary table gives me occasional grief with the locking tabs but I'm not complaining.

 

[RTM]

Looking at the Internet catalog are nice but sometimes as simple color paper catalog can't be beat.

I buy more stuff that I just "didn't know existed" or "didn't know I needed" that I never see online, cuz the website's rabbit holes are too confined, when I browse paper.

Acme tools in the bag for quiet time this week.

 

[LopezBart]

Wow, talk about memory pop. I have the large tilt table, the indexer and 10" rotary table from them. The rotary table gives me occasional grief with the locking tabs but I'm not complaining.

I have many tools from Enco, including the 10" Phase II rotary table. Planning ahead, I'll have a hydraulic lift table to move these from a shelf to the mill. Back in CA, I welded up some heavy duty steel shelves behind the mill so I could move the table all the way back and slide those heavy items on and off w/o lifting them, but it makes cleaning up around the mill difficult. W/ more space in the new shop, I'll have room to be able to sweep or vacuum up the chips more easily. A 3" carbide face mill will make a mess pretty quickly.

 

[DaveAndStuff]

I have many tools from Enco, including the 10" Phase II rotary table. Planning ahead, I'll have a hydraulic lift table to move these from a shelf to the mill. Back in CA, I welded up some heavy duty steel shelves behind the mill so I could move the table all the way back and slide those heavy items on and off w/o lifting them, but it makes cleaning up around the mill difficult. W/ more space in the new shop, I'll have room to be able to sweep or vacuum up the chips more easily. A 3" carbide face mill will make a mess pretty quickly.

We had the heavy stuff on purpose-built stands you could move with pallet-jacks.

 

[DaveAndStuff]

I bought a bunch of these 8" Armstrong clamps for big order one year...

 

[m.d.hunter63@hotmail.]

Got my first Kurt vise from Enco, $600 vise, on sale for $399 + a 20 percent off code and free shipping on orders over$200.
A 6 inch Kurt vise for $300 delivered,

Their USA end mills were always on sale,

 

[DaveAndStuff]

Got my first Kurt vise from Enco, $600 vise, on sale for $399 + a 20 percent off code and free shipping on orders over$200.
A 6 inch Kurt vise for $300 delivered,

Their USA end mills were always on sale,

Their USA endmills and whatnot were always pretty good, to.

I bought two Kurt angelock vices, one swivel-base and one non.

 

[DaveAndStuff]

 

[chumly2071]

I used them a bit trying to tool up a Bridgeport for the plant proto/maintenance "shop" at one of my former lives. Have a 48" Enco 16 gauge box and pan brake at home.

 

[DaveAndStuff]

I used them a bit trying to tool up a Bridgeport for the plant proto/maintenance "shop" at one of my former lives. Have a 48" Enco 16 gauge box and pan brake at home.

This one?

 

[engineer2]

I used to buy for them because they were local. There was no E-commerce back then.
Dial indicator and stand.
X-Y vise for my drill press.
Mechanical calipers (digital wasn't invented yet.)
Letter and number stamp sets.

 

[chumly2071]

This one?

Looks like it.

 

[neophyte]

I used to buy for them because they were local. There was no E-commerce back then.
Dial indicator and stand.
X-Y vise for my drill press.
Mechanical calipers (digital wasn't invented yet.)
Letter and number stamp sets.

Digital calipers go back to the 1970s at least.
By the 1990s, there were pages of digital calipers in Industrial supply catalogs.

 

[rjn2649]

Yeah, I used to be able to go there, bought a lot of stuff. Wish I took better care of things when I was younger...OH WELL.

If I remember, Enco was right off Cicero Ave. I want to say just south of the Brach candy company. At that time real industrial area.

 

[Brandon_oma#692]

Went to a sale with my Dad as a kid. Allegedly it was "10 cents on the dollar". Only 1 trip thru if i remember right. Got in line and made it to the counter. Mass confusion as they weren't sure if we could buy the wheely office chair and I said it was just a shopping cart. Suddenly all was good and a number was plucked out of the air of no relation to any standard price that was way less then Dad was expecting and wished he could go back for more. Not sure why only 1 trip? Mid 90's? I was probably around 8 or 10 at the time so this may all be ********.....