US Customs

[MrCrowley]

Well i'm going to California for a 2week holiday in September/October and i'm planning on brining back shitloads of spudgun related material as its so much cheaper over there but was wondering about three things...

1. If I brought back 4 sprinkler valves would US customs think im illegally importing them to NZ and selling them off? I know if you import too much of the same item, customs get suspicious and think your importing and then selling them off and they take and destroy them.

2. Would a bunch of galvanized pipe and/or fittings look to suspicious in my suitcase? I could see how they would think it looks like a bomb.
Are there any rules/laws against it?
3. Do McMaster have a physical store like on the street like any other normal store? Because I wont have time to order online there but if I came accross a McMaster store I could drop in.

[Acdcmonkey1991]

Your best bet is to buy the stuff here, (In the good ol' USA of course) and then ship it back to your address. But that might cost alot, but it's just a suggestion... 8)

[mopherman]

you could have one of our california members order your stuff and pick it up at his house. as far as i know, mcmaster doesnt have a store. We have fine hardware stores over here though. I think that if you let the customs people check out your pipe, then you can get it through. ( you'l have to find diferent transportation the the explosives though )
edit: just tell the guys that the valves are for your garden.

[Thrilla]

Put them in your luggage along with like a garden layout plan. If they want you to declare value for customs, just say it's for your own home projects, not for selling, and say it's difficult to buy the right ones in NZ.

I put some 20 water pumps and loads of copper piping in my luggage once, into Canada, it was my first time filling out those forms, by mistake I declared the value of my entire luggage as import lololol. I thouht import simply was bringing goods in. Later they wanted to charge me tax, so I showed them my water cooling project half odne photos and plan, they were like okay and explained to me those are personal items, not import goods.

[noname]

What's the general area you're visiting? If it's suspicious, they'll check it out. When they check it out and find nothing wrong/dangerous, they'll be fine with it.

[MrCrowley]

Yeah shipping is out of the question, too expensive. Reason I wnated to go to McMaster is to get a QEV which are bloody expensive here.

I had my luggage bag locks cut open at Madrid airport in Spain because I had a bag of washing powder(on a school trip so wash your own clothes type thing) and the powder looked liked drugs...Funny thing was the opened the wrong compartment of my suitcase.

Im going to be staying in LA for several days, LV for a night and then up to SF for a week I think. Still undecided but thats the general idea.

I understand you can't buy QEV's from physical stores only online so I'll see what I can do, and I doubt my parents would want me meeting up with some guys I met over a spudgun forum. No offence of course.

So I guess i'll just put all the fittings/pipe in my suitcase easily accessable to Custom Officials so they can check it out. I just hope I don't cause any inconvience for my family which im known to do.

[A-98]

nice to see your coming to this neck of the woods! ide invite you to drop by, but A: it could be potentially awkward. and B: ill be getting ready to travel europe for a while, and ill be in packing mode.

have fun over here tho

P.S. if you feel like being nice, bring a gigantic bottle of bundaberg for me

[turbohacker]

Just make sure that you put together all of the fittings and tape some wires everywhere with an old alarm clock

We have some great hardware stores, try ACE hardware, OSH (my personal favorite) or specelty stores for farm irrigation. Home depot and lowes dont have the greatest selection of pvc parts.


Now you have to understand that we are going to be expecting something completly crazy from you now

[MrCrowley]

Yeah I plan on making three or four guns with the supplies I pick up from Cali. Possibly a hybird..just maybe, if my parents let me, Im sick of making huge uncomfortable guns that need air compressors and where things can go wrong, i'll make a few simple pneumatics and at least one all metal shotgun.

I would if I could A-98, but im afraid I would just drink it myself... Too tempting.

[mike1010]

i live like an hour or less from sf and if you want i could order the stuff online and we could meet in sf. ill have to check with the parents but i go to sf all the time so feel free to pm me if interested.

[MrCrowley]

Thanks for the offer but like I said:

I doubt my parents would want me meeting up with some guys I met over a spudgun forum. No offence of course

[potatoflinger]

You might want to be careful with the galvanized pipe because even if you get it through customs (which you can probably do) the airports might have a weight limit on stuff you bring with you, so buying a lot of metal could make you go over the weight limit.

[dongfang]

Hi,

Just out of curiosity: Do US customs care what people are exporting stuff for? Most governments try to encourage exports, not tax it, and only restrict export of cultural relics etc.?

Isn't it the NZ customs you should prepare for?

Well on the other hand things are not what they seem. In the EU Schengen union, that with the common immigration and customs control, systematic border checks between member countries is prohibited. So what they do now, at least between Denmark and Germany, is to "coincidentally" make normal road checks .. the German police do the old job of the Danish, and the Danes help the Germans somewhere else ... ha ha, what a joke.

PS: Galvanized steel pipe? Really want to lug around with that? How about just the fittings, and an NPT thread cutter maybe?

Regards
Soren

[noname]

PLumbing/Hardware Stores in the area:

Home Depot: Really low prices, but it's full of the Mexicans who have no idea where anything is (not trying to be rascist, it's true).

Ace Hardware: Kinda pricey, but you can find what you want.

OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware): Ususally pretty cheap, and easy to find stuff.
__________________________________________

Ashby Plumbing: Extremely cheap, great service, has Sch 80 pipe and fittings up to 3."

There's a couple of other plumbing stores, just Ashby Plumbing is the best. I doubt you'll find it, but there's plenty more around the Berkeley/Oakland area. Don't get mugged.

There's also a couple of junkyard type places that aren't really junkyards. They have racks of random pipe, pipe fittings, they have a bunch of doors, bathtubs, toilets, BBQs, sprinkler valves, a really nice/HUGE lathe for $1000, and some other stuff. These are the places where you'l get the best prices. I got 10 feet of 2" Sch 40 PVC, 5 feet of 4" ABS, 5 feet od 1 1/2" Sch 80, a sprinkler valve, a bag of fittings, and some other junk for $6.

[frankrede]

If you have a chance try to see if you can find a ewings irrigation supply store if you are looking for any type of pvc(pipe is sold in 20ft lengths but they have every fitting imaginable.

I don't believe that they have a law against simple hardware on airplanes, as long as the gun isn't assembled, I don't see why there should a problem