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Acetone
- Thread starter MrWhoopee
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2014
- Messages
- 847
Was it only $1? That is a good deal. Acetone sells for $10 / quart in the hardware store.
I use isopropyl alcohol for most cleaning - solder flux, electrical parts, adhesive residue, etc. It doesn't work as well as acetone but it is not so annoyingly volatile and smelly.
I use isopropyl alcohol for most cleaning - solder flux, electrical parts, adhesive residue, etc. It doesn't work as well as acetone but it is not so annoyingly volatile and smelly.
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2018
- Messages
- 6,532
Acetone has a high vapor pressure, so it can leak out of loose openings, and enough surface tension to wick through capillaries. But it doesn't pass through the polymer bottle. They sell acetone in quart and gallon jugs made of PP plastic all over the world, including my local Lowe's. I guess you could say that light solvents are like sea lions. They like a tight seal.
It’s really hard to beat mineral spirits for removing label adhesive residue. There’s not much that it will attack unlike acetone and other very volatile solvents, it’s not real expensive and it’s versatile. I also use it as a degreaser.
As mentioned, WD-40 is another good adhesive remover. That’s a much better use for it than putting it on fishing reels and guns.
As mentioned, WD-40 is another good adhesive remover. That’s a much better use for it than putting it on fishing reels and guns.
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2022
- Messages
- 72
Interesting info on Acetone, thank you.
Curiously, I've been keeping mine in these cheap plastic lab squeeze bottles, and haven't noticed a significant amount of loss by evaporation. I use the same bottles for IPA, cutting fluid, WD-40 and way oil as well, and they are constructed of PP.
Curiously, I've been keeping mine in these cheap plastic lab squeeze bottles, and haven't noticed a significant amount of loss by evaporation. I use the same bottles for IPA, cutting fluid, WD-40 and way oil as well, and they are constructed of PP.
Xylene. I have tried them all. Of course it depends upon what glue/adhesive was used to hold the label on the jar or can , but my experience is that Xylene is far superior for removing the glue/adhesive than Acetone, IPA, WD-40 (unknown what combination of solvents they put in it), Naphtha, water.... Naphtha is good at removing the waxes and greases ...including that heavy anti-rust oil they put on the machines to ship across the ocean. I have even used Xylene to remove the label glue/adhesive that is on plastic jars and it did not react with the plastic to screw up the surface.
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2016
- Messages
- 3,857
Nail remover acetone comes in 2 'flavours' - one is buffered with lower vapour pressure solvents (and makes it a lot cheaper) which smells a lot better - a telltale sign - and 100% acetone, which smells and acts as you expect. Both are available in the same looking bottle. I find the pump bottles of xylene an acetone to bake off in about 9 months, so I only fill them about 1/3 full.
When I use the squeeze siphon bottles as per @Red96 , the contents last a lot longer, but they still bake off. So those are only filled 1/3 at a time also. I haven't tried 99% IPA, but because it is agressively hydrophillic (it takes moisture out of the air aggressively) I would only use a squirt siphon bottle. If I don't I might as well buy 70%, which is what it will normalize to.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2018
- Messages
- 5,629
When I worked at the lab we used those bottles (colored red) for acetone, alcohol etc. Had to drill a tiny vent hole in the cap of the acetone bottle to keep them from dripping.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2018
- Messages
- 5,629
No, Dollar General is not a dollar store, put the emphasis on General. They're like a mini Walmart and they build them in little, under-served communities. When they came to our little town (pop. 2000) they drove the price of milk down $1/gal.