sourcing resistors? where to get a lot of mixed 1/2 watt carbon comps?

[cooldude666]

Anyone know where I can order just a big assortment of resistors, rather than ordering quantities of many values separately from mouser.

[Jazz P Bass]

Google

[loudthud]

Radio Shack, Velleman and Mouser come to mind.

[überfuzz]

M@il some vendor that seems nice. You'd be surprised what they'll do for money.

[rjb]

Google

Hey, that's cheating!

Jameco is one vendor selling resistor assortments.

You can make up your own assortment at Tayda- they make it a lot easier to order quantities of separate values than at Mouser.

[Enzo]

Mouser is not so bad. If you try to hunt up each value, yes, you wind up playing with the search thing all day. But the key is to find the resistors you want. KOA 1/2 watt for example. The part numbers will all be the same except for value. Value is generally a number at the end. Make a list of what you want, then just enter the numbers - don;t search for them.

And they, like most supplies, have a phone. Tell the sales rep you want so and so 1/2 watt resistors, quantity 10 per value of the following values... Or if it is a code, like 103 for 10k, make a list of codes and say you want 10 each of the following codes for some resistor type you specify.

[rjb]

Mouser is not so bad....find the resistors you want. KOA 1/2 watt for example. The part numbers will all be the same except for value... Make a list of what you want....

I've tried that. Trouble is, they're always out of some common values you want. So then you have to search for those values from other manufacturers. Maybe my timing is exceptionally bad, but I've tried to order something like a 1/2W 10Kohm resistor and found none in stock- sold out from every manufacturer they carry.

[Enzo]

I have never encountered that. I also admit I never order carbon comp resistors.

Here is a trick. Assuming film resistors are OK, in this day and age, precision resistors are almost as cheap as 5% ones. Out of 10k? Order some 1% value just a hair over that, like 10.2k. Or even 5% 11k.


I know it isn't your point today, but just looking for 10k 1/2w, they have 9000 in stock carbon comp. And thousands and thousands of film ones.

[leydenjar]

I've tried that. Trouble is, they're always out of some common values you want. So then you have to search for those values from other manufacturers. Maybe my timing is exceptionally bad, but I've tried to order something like a 1/2W 10Kohm resistor and found none in stock- sold out from every manufacturer they carry.

I know It's not easy when you want carbon comps. They aren't cheap and yes, you do have to scroll/hunt through what Mouser has (which varies).

If you just have to have carbon comp you just have to deal with it.

[rjb]

Here is a trick. Assuming film resistors are OK, in this day and age, precision resistors are almost as cheap as 5% ones. Out of 10k? Order some 1% value just a hair over that, like 10.2k.

I've done that too. Often, the 1% resistors are cheaper than the 5% resistors.
I don't understand it, but it's true.

[Enzo]

Probably because electronics companies today use the precision parts, so millions more are sold.

[bob p]

When it come to buying 1/2 watt resistors, I prefer to buy 1% MF resistors in the "oddball" precision sizes like Enzo mentioned. As he said, they can be ridiculously cheap. And when they go on-sale the prices are incredible. I've seen Vishay brand 1% metal film resistors sell for a fraction of a penny per unit. That's so cheap that you can get a snippet of 100 off of an ammo reel for less than a buck.

I recently needed to stock up, so I spent some time on the Newark site looking for the precision metal films that were on-sale, and I got about 10,000 units in various values for about $100.

Buying them cheap this way you may not always find the exact values you want, but you end up having enough resistors of different values on-hand that it's very easy to team them up to create any intermediate values that may be missing from the collection.

If you pay attention to buying the right series of resistors, you can find high-end, premium-quality, low-noise resistors from the name-brand manufacturers at really good prices. I prefer to avoid the generic Chinese metal films (multicomp) in high values though. IME they tend to be noisy.

The only downside that I've experienced in using this approach is that the precision/oddball resistor sizes use more color bands for identification than I'm used to, so it takes a little more time for me to read them.

As far as the CC mojo thing is concerned, it's not necessary to use CC resistors everywhere to get their mojo. If I'm going to use them, I'll use them for plate load positions in preamp tubes that get run really hard (and nowhere else) because the noise that eventually comes out of CC resitors always bothers me. I'm actually leaning toward the dark side right now -- I find myself pulling CC resistors out of amps and replacing them with metal films -- especially in the screen grids of output sections -- because the thermal noise that comes with old/hot CC resistors really bothers me. I've found that the amps are much quieter, and much easier to live with over the long haul, with MF resistors. YMMV.

[EL34]

You can add a boat load of carbon comp resistors to your shopping cart with one click on my resistors page
Well you have to click off the values you want, but then it's one click

But they are all in a column and very easy to add a bunch at one time

here's the link to my resistors page

Resitors page

[west]

Anyone know where I can order just a big assortment of resistors, rather than ordering quantities of many values separately from mouser.

There are lot of resistor suppliers available in the market. You can find resistor supplier from Resistor Suppliers » Resistor Guide.