Hi Crazy Engineers,

As a mechanical engineer and a teaching assistant in a big technical university and a founder of a small engineering company, I often need off the shelf parts. For example an efficient DC motor or a high quality bearing, accurate linear rail or a cheap but good quality encoder for small applications. My own knowledge of different companies and products is not enough and I think most of us need a database like that.

I am just recommending to build a catalogue in this forum and ask the moderators to pin it to the top. Maybe the other forums also start something like this.

Please don't take this as an "advertisement catalogue" but just some recommendations from CEs to other CEs.

I will start something like this:

** DC MOTORS:
- Maxon Motors offer very reliable, high quality and efficient DC motors but the prices are high. The size of the motors are very small considering the power of them.
- Pololu Motors offer hobbyist class motors. They are good for applications like small robots and stuff. They offer a wide variety of size and power.

**BEARINGS:
- SKF offers high quality and wide variety of bearings. Small, large, different mountings or even polymer bearings.