Oliver H Van Horn Co LLC

Feb 7th, 2016

Long story short, I broke a spiral screw extractor off into the screw I was trying to remove from the rotor on my car.  Screw extractors are made from a very hard tempered steel so they are very hard to drill out and special bits are needed.I called Grainger (which is a great company too) but they didn't have my parts in stock and would either need a few days shipping time or massive FedEx charges.I knew Van Horn is a local company (I believe they are owned by a German conglomerate now) that sells industrial supplies so I gave them a call.  I spoke at first with Ron and he told me the parts he had in stock and gave me some advice and tips and charged me with my CC over the phone so I could just pick them up.When I got there, I ended up luckily meeting Marty Thomas when I got to the warehouse.  He asked about my problem and figured out that the parts I had purchased were the wrong size.  The correct drill bit was in their Houma warehouse and he was going to have one of his employees drive it back to Kenner that night and he was going to pick it up from him and bring it to their New Orleans warehouse for me.In the meantime he told me about some other options I could try.  A product called Loctite makes a spray which freezes the metal to -45° so that the screw shrinks and breaks the seal with the thread.  He also recommended a few $2 left hand turn drill bits to get the screw out once the Loctite got it loose.Van Horn is an industrial supply company and usually deals with wholesale orders to large companies ordering in bulk.  For him to take the time to help me with a project for a retail customer that only added up to a few dollars showed why Van Horn has been in business since 1903.If you are ever searching for better than your Home Depot adhesives, coated abrasives, cutting tools, grinding wheels, machine tools, maintenance tools, measuring tools, power tools or tape, give them a call.
Jan 14th, 2014

Feb 4th, 2012