No more Zinsser Sealcoat at the Borg?

[Rob Young]

I've found the non-rattle cans of Zinser at WalMart of all places. All around my area, the spray cans range between $8 and $9.

Menards caries SealCoat as well as the amber and clear.

HD doesn't carry SealCoat but does have amber and clear and sometimes the spray cans.

No Lowes in town.

Ace Hardware affiliate caries amber, clear and the spray cans.

TruValue affiliate cares SealCoat, amber, clear but not spray cans (but might just have been out, shelves weren't clearly marked in my opinion).

In general, its a bit of a crapshoot around here to get "fresh" dates on the cans.

[packerguy®]

If you get a 2nd gun and dedicate it to shellac, you really don't have to do much cleaning.  I'll use mine several times, just spraying a  little DNA through it before putting it away.  Sometimes months go by before I use it again and I just shoot a little more DNA through it and I'm good to go.  Seal Coat goes for about $40/gal at HD here and the spray cans run around $7.  I use the spray cans occasionally, but I get better results spraying from the gun.  The spray cans don't seem to atomize the shellac quite enough and can be more prone to orange peel, or at least in my experience.

Thats good to know. Ill have to think about it. 

Just picked up 8 cans this morning at Menards at $5.99 a can. 

I use it as the "base" coat to seal the wood so I dont raise the grain when the water based is sprayed. So for that purpose the cans are fine. But if you build it up, you do get orange peel no matter what you do by the 3rd coat. 

I tried thinning it out by 50% (I think it was close to a 1lb cut) and wiping the base coat. Cheaper (by a lot)....but much more time involved. Spraying is the fastest way.

[Jonathan J]

All of my local paint and hardware stores carry sealcoat but I live in a city.

[Rob Young]

Side note, for those that are interested in maintaining a source of something similar to SealCoat, here's the best prices I find on dewaxed shellac flakes:

http://wellermart.com/t/shellac

I keep some of the blonde and platina around (ok, and garnet and orange too...) because I like to mix up small quantities so I know its fresh. But I also use the non-rattle cans for convenience when things are small or the weather is bad.

I generally mix using the DNA gallons from SunnySide or CleanStrip (blue and red can, the cheapest one on the shelf). As near as I can tell from MSDS these are both around 50% methanol (years ago, around 5-10%) now so be careful. So far, I've not had issues with dissolving (coffee grinder) or drying or bonding. But methanol isn't good for you so gloves, OV-filter respirator, etc. The liquor taxes are high enough in Kansas that Everclear isn't cheap.

John (jteneyck ) and I have had discussions about the cost effectiveness of this method vs buying SealCoat and using something like TransTint to make "orange". The raw $$$ was in favor of SealCoat but only when buying gallons. I like shellac and think I use plenty but I probably don't use enough to get through a full gallon of SealCoat before it goes off or at least risk it. Flakes store nearly indefinitely but the alcohol pricing is volatile (ha!).

Anyway, another idea and perhaps a way to hedge bets.

[Scoony]

Our Ace store carries it, but I can go into other local hardware/lumber stores that are much closer and order it and have it in a few days. I get other finishes not normally available locally simply by asking them to them to order it for me. Easy Peasy.

[Papabear]

HD, Lowe's nor Ace carry it in my town.  I have to order it online from Woodcraft.

[EricU]

Not sure my HD/Lowes would stop carrying it....might not sell a lot, tree hugger pressure? Did it get banned in CA? 

most of us can buy stuff that is VOC even though you can't buy locally in CA.  I wonder if it's not because they got sick of the stuff eating through cans and emptying the contents onto the floor.  But the great unwashed are not aware of the value of sealcoat, so low sales is a likely issue.