Denatured Alcohol Shortage?

Chips O'Toole

Chips O'Toole

H-M Supporter - Gold Member
H-M Supporter Gold Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2017
Messages
585
Has anyone else here noticed a denatured alcohol shortage? Lowe's, Walmart, and Home Depot near me don't have it, but somehow, Ace does. People are selling it online for a fortune.

I was thinking of mixing it with lanolin to use as a spray rust inhibitor. I've been using mineral spirits and lanolin, but the mineral spirits takes a long time to evaporate off the things I spray, and for some reason, it evaporates quickly from inside spray bottles.

Not sure lanolin will dissolve in it. It dissolves in ethanol Heet very well, but Heet is very pure.
 
Shortage? You're lucky, at least you can still buy it. It was banned for sale here years ago, mineral spirits too. Luckily I was able to find ways to get it without having to drive out of state. I stocked up right before the pandemic hit. Perfect timing too cause I got it for pretty cheap & prices sky rocketed (where you could buy it) cause people were trying to make their own hand sanitizer with it.
 

Attachments

  • 20191119_170718.jpg
    20191119_170718.jpg
    294 KB · Views: 7
I wondered how anyone could be stupid enough to ban alcohol, and then I looked at your location.

Can you buy rubbing alcohol out there? Maybe I don't want to know.

California puts cancer warnings on coffee now. Popular Science says warnings are also on potatoes, hotels, and pumpkin pie filling. It must be the safest place on Earth.

How can walking into a hotel give you cancer? I mean, sure, if it's a hotel full of pumpkin puree. That's obvious. We all know chain pie-eaters who got tumors.

Things are getting crazy, even where I live. Home Depot here quit selling TSP, but they substituted a deceptive and useless product in a similar box. I bought it by mistake and took the almost the whole box to the dump (no trash collection here). It must be safe to take it to the dump, because it's a fake product that doesn't work. Then I went to Lowe's, and they had all the real TSP I needed. It restores dishwashing powder to its old strength.

Gallons of turpentine don't seem to exist now. That's bad. Turpentine is a wonder product that does things other solvent's won't do. The price of quarts is obscene. Went up when oil went up, but turpentine isn't made from oil.

MEK is gone. I should sell my can and buy an island.

Wonder what they'll take from us next.
 
I am Googling, and I think MEK is gone because idiots used it to make meth. Not sure.
 
@Chips O'Toole MEK is pretty bad stuff. the substitutes actually clean a lot better. Trichlorofluroethelyine is also done. But it made the best tapping fluid I ever tried (except for the cancer thing).
 
The Internet says MEK is very safe. Do you have information I don't know about? The EPA published a report which makes it pretty clear they think it's safe.

Not known to be carcinogenic. No birth defects seen in humans. Can cause nervous system problems with REPEATED HIGH exposure, which means it's like just about every other solvent. Dermatitis if you wash with it. Well, try brake cleaner some day.

The EPA makes it sound like a dream solvent in terms of safety. Ethyl acetate, the new substitute, damages the liver and kidneys.

Klean-Strip, the company Lowe's and Home Depot used, has stopped making MEK. West Marine still sells it. Ace Hardware will sell it if you want a 5-gallon pail.
 
I have a couple of gallons so I did not realize that it is in short supply and the price has skyrocketed. $38.00 for a gallon...Ridiculous but I'm not surprised as we are dealing with a baby formula shortage for the grandchildren.
 
Your next project may be a,
Round column copper still with built in proofing parrot.......
Martin
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top