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Bah, humbug.

I was pretty annoyed when I discovered Stewmac won't ship CA glues by air any more; they're more affordable than what I can get here, and I know they do the job. I was left cold by the news they won't air-ship celluloid binding, since, well, I don't use any.

Now I'm even more annoyed, because their entire line of finishing products (except buffing; that's all their waterbased/Target Coating line, from filler to USL spray laquer, ALL of their ColorTone pigments) is now on their 'we won't ship it overseas' list. Didn't use to be, since I've got an example of each of those products sitting right here on my shelf. Now I've still got a little under a gallon of USL left, which I suppose I really should transfer to smaller, airtight contairs to make sure it stays 'good', but this is really, really, really annoying.

All I can say is that I hope LMII doesn't change their policies any time soon (yes, Finish is hazardous I suppose, but it ain't flammable. Less flammable than the packaging they're sending it all in) and that the switch to KTM-9 seems more likely each day, unless I can find a good source for quality Nitro (not the furniture grade c**p hat we get around here). Maybe I should learn to french polish or something..

*sigh*

Not fun, this.

Mattia,

I am suffering right along with you...

I have to wonder? Is it legal for one of use to purchase it and send it to you fellas?

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You could probably purchase it and send it if you could find an overseas courier that would take flammable stuff.. It's not like Stew Mac is just trying to keep you europeans out of the biz The stuff is flammable/explosive so they probably have time finding shipping companies that want it in their planes..

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Last time I checked, the Waterbased stuff wasn't flammable or explosive in any way whatsoever. I've looked at the warning lables on both my ColorTone grain filler and finish, and both 'merely' list the toxic ingredients common to every man-made, acrylic finish, but it's not gonna blow up unless I strap a stick of dynamite to it and light that.

I called them to ask about the deal with the superglue (hadn't noticed the finishes were on the no-no list), and the guy on the phone informed me that the big bosses had gone over the MSDS sheets for all the products in the catalog, and reclassified accordingly. For the CA glues, it's not a big surprise, since they're actually labled as combustible liquids. More of a company policy thing than a legality issue, it seems. Might also be a shipping thing, as I know some couriers (the Brit royal mail, f'r example) won't take accept more than a limited amount of waterbased finishes through the post.

Let's just say I'm gonna be checking out the airline regs when I go USA-tripping, and taking along some finish if they don't bust me for it. It's water-soluble and dissolved, fer crying out loud!

Hi Mattia,
If you need it just ask one of us to send it to you via Fedex...Problem solved OK?
How many Gallons would you like?
Say, what are you doing living in the Netherlands anyway??
Are you a Native of the Netherlands?
Regards, WalterK

Thanks for the offer!

I'm OK for now, but it's that time in the future when I'll need to get s'more finish that's got me worried.

And I'm a half-native here. The other half's Italian, if you're wondering.

Guys, if this situation has been brought on because the shippers decided to re-classify some products, it would be illegal for any of you to also ship it. When you send something outside the US, you have to declare the contents(on a little customs sticker for USPS, or whole sheet documents for UPS and other couriers).

I'm wondering if StewMac are taking extra precuations, or just following new regulations. We're in a changing world, where some people wish to use the mail and such to send very bad stuff(terrorism...).

But, geeze Mattia, there is life after StewMac. Super glue is available at any hardware store. Heck, even grocery stores have little tubes in the checkout lanes... Waterbornes are used by many industries; you may want to contact the manufacturers, and explain the on coming situation, and they'll be able to to tell you if they have a distributor on your continent, or even a large user who would sell you some. Same for bindings; do some leg work, and you should be able to find someone selling them. Heck, most of them come out of Italy anyhow...! IF all else fails, get every builder you know together, and make a group purchase once a year for all your supplies; this way, you'll split the freight costs(anything can be shipped by container ship).

You sound like you build a lot of instruments; you'll simply need to buy in larger quantities when you do buy. Make your year's inventory list, then work the details out.

No need to panic.....

has to do with shipping and homeland security. They are also somewhat confused and most shippers and places are just trying to get ahead of the game and know what the rules are and are not going to be. I have a good friend from the old days who is in intellence of hsa. Their is not a formal law or reg yet, but may be and so companies just may be aware of changes so start it now. he really didn't know why super glue and some things are on any list if they are. everyone is just trying to keep a step ahead and may be like he said a little knee jerk in what policy is or isn't. he isn't aware of any formal policys yet on most of this stuff we are talking about, but like he said things change all the time and he has hard time just keeping up with potential bad guys, much less this stuff. trying to talk me into application for hsa, but i am to old, fat and broken up to think about it. well/... I do miss the work and folks i worked with though. I worked organized crime task force with him and several others who went to hsa when to old to mess with the undercover and chasing crooks down alleys and such. That said, it isn't like "cops" on tv or 24 either

You can always ship the stuff to someone on the East coast of the U.S. and have them ship it to you. Perhaps if you were buying dsomething from that person, like wood or something, they would include it in the package...

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[QUOTE=Mario]But, geeze Mattia, there is life after StewMac. Super glue is available at any hardware store. Heck, even grocery stores have little tubes in the checkout lanes... Waterbornes are used by many industries; you may want to contact the manufacturers, and explain the on coming situation, and they'll be able to to tell you if they have a distributor on your continent, or even a large user who would sell you some. Same for bindings; do some leg work, and you should be able to find someone selling them. Heck, most of them come out of Italy anyhow...! IF all else fails, get every builder you know together, and make a group purchase once a year for all your supplies; this way, you'll split the freight costs(anything can be shipped by container ship).

You sound like you build a lot of instruments; you'll simply need to buy in larger quantities when you do buy. Make your year's inventory list, then work the details out.

No need to panic.....[/QUOTE]

Oh, I'm well aware of it. Hence the 'gotta vent' in the subject line and all..merely annoyed, not paniced :-) StewMac's still going to get my custom for other stuff, after all. They've just been such a joy to deal with, in terms of product and service, that I'm not relishing finding alternate sources.

I haven't built a lot of instruments yet, and I'm certainly no 'pro', but I do have the not insiginficant number of 5 (3 acoustics, 2 electrics) I plan to start AND finish this year, plus another two that are about to go into finishing. I'm set up for this year's 'batch', but not much beyond that.

It's mostly the finishes that I find a tad difficult; local builders here tend to use Clou Nitro, some use marine varnish, neither of which appeal much (I tried and didn't much like the first, neither the fumes or the finish, and it's expensive). I'm looking into a 2-part finish one 'pro' refinishing outfit uses, but they pretty much exclusively 'do' electric instruments, so I don't know about the applicability to acoustics yet. It's easier/safer to go with something that's got a larger user base of vocal and prolificly publishing users, if you catch my meaning..I'll have to 'annoy' Sikkens and a few other local mnfc. and see what they've got. I'm not entirely sure on what properties I want to be asking their tech department for (my guess is that they'll respond better to numbers; frankly my experience with trying to get information out of companies over here has been..painful. Customer service just doesn't have the same weight it does in the US of A), but I'll start a new discussion when I get that far, probably.

Superglue is overpriced here. Per unit volume, dump store/supermarket brand stuff here is about twice as expensive as StewMac's offering, and the hobby stores I've tried for it..not great. I'm not worried about binding, since I almost exclusively use wood anyway.

Frankly, a lot of the whole 'homeland security' issue seems to me to largely be overblown paranoia with a healthy dose of scare-mongering thrown in for good measure (no disrespect to those involved, since there's also a lot of it that ain't). But lets won't get into politics, because that way lies badness. Stick to instrument construction, I say!Mattia Valente38392.6644212963