This winter I'm trying to get prepared for the warmer months to get back into Restoring, Its been so long with moves and getting money together for moves and setting up the house .. This summer I want to get back into my Restoring. All my Nitro has arrived and I bough 4 lt of 2k as well . !!
So these 2 products cost me about $450. But I need some tints and you can't get anything here,in oz . It is so backward compared to overseas, The products I need a just not available and if speak to anyone in OZ about tints and Nitro a blank look falls on their face.
There are no real Tint systems in Australia, You are limited to what's at bunnings and it's not compatible, Not mention, Its a not a system of toning its a few standard stains of only a very few basic colours that are available on oz.
A toning dye system or Pigment system is a Range on tones in Bottles that you mix to make your own colour or to match an existing colour. Generally, you only need 6 colours to mix and match to make or tone or any colour .. It's very costly and NO one wants to ship it or sell it to you when the word oz in mentioned.  Overseas finishing has a following of Traditional finishing , Which we simply don't have in Oz.  This is one Reason The Americans are able to produce craftsmen ship on timber Wood finishes far Superior  than anybody in oz ,   Because they can get the materials and were stuck with bunnings.
Importing it is very difficult and every now and again some dealer manages to get a few limited colours in the county and then the price goes up to about $80 for 50mls !!!.
I've had this problem all my life, I've had to import, car stuff, motorbike stuff, tools, you name it ive had to struggle to find a way to get it in the county ... But Chemicals is a whole different ball game !!  I don't know why! I don't know who to blame and I don't know if shooing a greenie will improve my mood! or even if the Green is to blame .

Pete

The ACCC created the hardware shop problem we have at the moment by allowing Bunnings to take over BBC Hardware, which created the first big-box hardware store chain in Australia. The added problem was that before Wesfarmers owned Bunnings, it was owned by Coles-Myer and it was and still is in their DNA not to specialise. They will only sell what everyone wants and suppliers who are lucky enough to get any shelf space at all due to their product having a niche market will have to pay the retailer to sell it, which means the supplier makes no money from the transaction. Coles and Woolworths have been abusing their market power this way for years, by pulling products off the shelves so they can consolidate sales to their house brand plus the top two-selling non-house brands for each product line. Hundreds of products that people have been buying for two or three generations have just vanished because Coles and Woolworths refused to stock them without the payment penalty for shelf facing.

Then there is the lowest price guarantee, though this doesn't apply in many cases because Bunnings has the purchasing power to order stock that may technically be the same as that in another shop but it'll either have a different model number, different packaging or different quantities of the product - so the 10% discount won't apply if it is 1c or more over the competitor's price.

The only people that would be interested in nitro would be some painters, french polishers, radio restorers and the like. It's not a big market so Bunnings won't give a hoot about us. The only way to get stuff like that here in future will be to direct import it and just pray the packaging is good enough so the product doesn't burst and leak all over everything on the way over here.

I have a one litre bottle of white shellac - rare compared to golden or orange shellac and I was told some years ago they'd stopped making that too. So I guard that bottle with my life, assuming that I received the correct information.

Won't do you any good Brad , Shellac has a Shelf life of 3 months, After that, it stops getting Hard and becomes softer, But shellac is not an issue I can make that up in any colour you need,if you you ever need it .
All my Shellacs come from India , But mainly it's white I use Pete

Yep, bought some non waxy white shellac from Pete's recommend supplier last year. Came as a fine powder. Mixed up 700mL that I needed for the job. Very happy with it. Dissolved faster and easier than the traditional flakes.

Once the 'category killers' like Bunnings took over the market, the stuff that you could usually find in mum and dad hardware shops disappeared from the shelves because the big operations delete anything that doesn't meet their budgeted turnover figures, whereas mum and dad probably forgot it was even on the shelf, or kept it in stock for some regular customers.

I have a saying that goes "in America you can get anything you are looking for" and in terms of vintage electronics that sometimes involves surplus dealers who have huge old warehouses on cheap land piled up with distressed stock and/or closing down stock bought over the decades for a penny in the dollar, sitting around for the one guy who may be interested in it.

Around mid to earlier (photos 2012) I got a guy that does restorations, in Wangaratta to do a HMV 880 cabinet, for a guy that wanted the cabinet done as well as the electrics, & I knew better than DIY the cabinet; So I just did the minor repairs & jot him to do the finish. He was at the time using Nitrocellulose based finish: Magnificent & the customer was wrapped (& that's the bit that matters).

Nitro finish does not like Metho and if it catches alight nothing will stop it. It winning way is that it melts into the previous coat & as a result you can get a magnificent lustre.

N.B. DIY is often Destroy it Yourself.

At the point I was working in a Dye Lab; (80's) India had started manufacturing a lot of Dyes & Pigments.

The dyes are multi-purpose and we use them for many things ,Not just Nitro . I'm joking when I blame Greenies, Its because the Dyes are dangerous goods to ship. That's why It's near impossible to get them here.To be honest, I would much rather do all my finishes in 2 Pak , But I can't because to do that as the old finish must be completely removed and not all pieces are so bad that you want to fully strip it

.Well, I use to able to buy all kinds of dyes here in Oz years ago, but each year it got less and less and harder to get.well, Im sure I will find a way around it at some point.


GTC , Yes G that Shellac is the best you will get here, The Reason I use the white is so there is no colour change to a finish unless I add it !!
In flake form or powder in will keep for years,It only starts to deteriorate once you mix it and then it has a shelf life of about 3 months.


pete

Pete, the shellac is still okay for some odd reason. I used some a few months ago and it's ten years old.

I have a saying that goes "in America you can get anything you are looking for" and in terms of vintage electronics that sometimes involves surplus dealers who have huge old warehouses on cheap land piled up with distressed stock and/or closing down stock bought over the decades for a penny in the dollar, sitting around for the one guy who may be interested in it.

I don't understand the Americans - I was looking at the US forums last night and there's a thread with people moaning because they have to pay $20 for something that they once got for $15. I can't honestly remember what the product was but it was a hand tool of some sort, pliers I think, and I felt like chiming in with, "come to Australia and check out what we pay for the same thing". A decent set of pliers here is at least double that before accounting for the rate of exchange.

Brad,
No won't be . Let me explain. Shellac dries to a very hard finish and can last a lifetime,, But if it has been mixed it begins to not be as hard once it dries after being in a bottle mixed that is 3 months old,So it may appear to your eye to be dry and hard But it won't be. To finish a shellac finish to a high gloss we sand it with turpentine and wet and dry paper to get that beautiful finish. we pour Turps on the paper to sand with, If the shellac is not fresh the sanding process with the Turps ""picks up" the soft shellac that should be too hard to pick up !!!
But as I said there is no reason to use old shellac , because I can get the best Shellac any day you want it ,, in ,Clear , white, Blonde , Amber, Orange. In Dewax! Perfect high-quality shellac.
My supplier is also a Finisher the same as me and it comes from India where the best shellac comes from .

My tinting dilemma is when Tinting , Varnish, Nitro, etc etc , Because those Tints are hard to get in OZ , EG if look at any old furniture or Radio you notice that the colours used back then are different than what you can buy ,,So they need to be made and we use Tints to do that and we make a Glaze.

Yes as noted Americans whing about the cost over there !! They have no idea ! ... getting a good set of Tints in OZ may cost a week's wage !!!!! It's the same with tools and many things ... Mind you I could not live in America, it's full of Americans !!!

Well, we do have Jaycar and Altronics whereas after the Americans lost Radio Shack they don't seem to have anything like it anymore.

I have to say we are probably lucky to still have both those retailers. Woolworths made a pig's ear of Tandy (once related to Radio Shack) and Dick Smith Electronics. Companies like Rod Irving Electronics, Sheridan Electronics and David Reid Electronics also seem to have disappeared from the radar screens over the years.

Tandy at Hornsby!
When I first started work and vulnerable to apprentice jokes the boss sent me into Tandy to get a bottle of Gas for the compressor!!
Oh to be 15 and green!

Did he ever explain left-handed screwdrivers or trick you into ringing the fish markets at Glebe and asking for John Dory?

On the serious side of things, both Tandy and David Reid were still selling valves in the late 1980s and they even had valve testers for checking suspect ones. The young staff at Jaycar and Altronics would probably ask what a valve is, though I don't blame them too much - it's like anything, if knowledge isn't spread then it doesn't stay known.

Haha,no but I knew they were pulling my leg but I still had to go because the boss gave the order to go..good mob!
They all got a good laugh. They didn't laugh the day I smashed a customers up spinning the wheels coming off the Pit and ran straight into the bosses Mini, Shit he yelled and through is glasses on the ground.
Good bloke and we are still friends today.

Pete

The young staff at Jaycar and Altronics would probably ask what a valve is

Jaycar still sells a few and Altronics stocks about 10 types:

https://www.altronics.com.au/electronic-components/themonic-valves/

Expensive, aren't they? $44.50 for a 12AU7 ?? And $749 for a 10W currawong amp?

I thought Jaycar stopped selling valves about 5 years ago.