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Thread: Purchasing finish in California?

  1. #1

    Purchasing finish in California?

    Anyone have any advice for obtaining solvent based finishes in California? Seems the state has determined it's best for me not to use any high VOC material, regardless of what I might think.
    Can't order nor purchase retail Laquer, Polyurethane, Zinsser pre mixed shellac, Waterlox etc.

    anyone have a work around?
    Black market underground for the good stuff?

    thx

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Sacramento, CA
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    What city do you live in? I can get most of those things, I live in Sacramento. If you live down in SoCal with all the other millions and millions of people you might be out of luck.

    Dan
    Last edited by Daniel Kratville; 01-14-2014 at 1:38 AM.

  3. #3
    Sounds like you need a straw purchaser, and you'll have to pay an extra round of shipping.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2013
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    Johannesburg, South Africa
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    Quote Originally Posted by David Weaver View Post
    Sounds like you need a straw purchaser, and you'll have to pay an extra round of shipping.
    Or potentially use UPS where you can change the address for an extra 5$. I haven't tried this though, just seeing the loophole.
    "If you have all your fingers, you can convert to Metric"

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
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    SoCal
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Rother View Post
    Anyone have any advice for obtaining solvent based finishes in California? Seems the state has determined it's best for me not to use any high VOC material, regardless of what I might think.
    Can't order nor purchase retail Laquer, Polyurethane, Zinsser pre mixed shellac, Waterlox etc.

    anyone have a work around?
    Black market underground for the good stuff?

    thx
    Quote Originally Posted by Daniel Kratville View Post
    What city do you live in? I can get most of those things, I live in Sacramento. If you live down in SoCal with all the other millions and millions of people you might be out of luck.

    Dan
    I'm in SoCal and can purchase these things. As usual, California is at war with itself on the rules. For example, I can buy Waterlox and have it shipped to my dad's county but, not to mine. Where is it that you cannot walk into a Lowe's or a pro shop and buy these items?
    "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".


    – Samuel Butler

  6. #6
    I'm in the heart of LA. Near the Silverlake area. Checked the HD, Lowes and Rockler to no avail…
    Tried to order from Rockler and Woodcraft, but as soon as I enter my zipcode I get a message saying delivery not possible in my area.

    I agree that CA is at war with itself on the rules. I used to be able to get all the solvent finishes I want from either ordering or from some stores outside LA county, but it seems like thats not possible now.
    Next plan is to ship it to my family on the east coast, and have them box it back up and send it out to me.

    sheesh.

  7. #7
    I hope this kind of overreaction disease (WB finishes only) doesn't make it to the rest of the country any time soon. My favorite finish for stuff I "don't love that much", like shelving that needs to have lacquer, etc, is zinnser sealcoat under WB lacquer. The sealcoat is what makes the WB lacquer tolerable. I haven't yet found a decent looking WB shellac.

    If they try to take away our alcohol based shellac or make it ungodly expensive, I may go all japanese and just forget finishing things. Or put george's favorite on furniture - beeswax and oil mix. Or as george calls it "sticky beeswax".

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    A suburb of Los Angeles California
    Posts
    644
    Give the Woodcraft in Ventura a call. I believe they're your closest source that's publicly known.
    AKA - "The human termite"

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Williamsburg,Va.
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    12,402
    California. Sitting on top of one of the worst fault lines in the country(or is it the WORST?) And being so overly careful that nothing of a remotely harmful nature is used. We want everyone to live till the BIG ONE!!!!

  10. #10
    So what is the future? How much will what is happening in CA continue to influence what I can buy here in Milwaukee.

    I may be nuts, but it seems like the rapid march toward WB-only finishes is beginning to wane. And I say that even knowing that P&L recently discontinued their #38 varnish.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    866
    The SCAQMD has banned solvent based finishes. Other counties still permit them. HD, Lowes, et. al. no longer carry anything but WB. Your best bet is to find someone who lives where the stuff is still sold and arrange a smuggling setup.

  12. #12
    Phil you are probably closer than you'd like. Three states commonly lead the way on almost all environmental regulations and you happen to be located in one of them. California is usually first, New Jersey is commonly hot on its heels, and Wisconsin is almost always way ahead of any other states in the middle of the country (and in some cases, ahead of the folks on the coasts). "Way ahead" being subjective... a good thing if you happen to drink groundwater and likely a bad thing if you are not fond of WB finishes.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Upland, CA
    Posts
    1,344
    There wouldn't be anything wrong with California if all the wackos that came here from somewhere else would just GO HOME and screw up your state instead of mine.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Barney Markunas View Post
    "Way ahead" being subjective... a good thing if you happen to drink groundwater and likely a bad thing if you are not fond of WB finishes.
    Really? Wisconsin?

    I wonder what the chances are that we will some day discover the chemicals in WB finishes cause some unforseen environmental problem. I do think people are much more likely to dump water-based product down a drain, something they'd rarely do with solvent-based finishes. So it is possible that much more of the WB products will make it into lakes, rivers, and the ground, than any SB finish would have.

    Or am I nuts? Is it perfectly safe to drink the stuff?

  15. #15
    Join Date
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    I love how Highland Woodworking handles Proposition 65- they put a statement that everything they sell is potentially hazardous.

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