There have been discussions here on the dangers of thinners used with various paints. I know that a lot of folks like to use acrylics because isopropyl alcohol is supposed to be much safer than turpentine or lacquer thinners. I decided to look up just how dangerous the later two substances are.
Turpentine has been used for centuries. In the middle ages it was used as a medicine, both internal and external. Internal is NOT a good idea, we know now- it can cause kidney damage. Don’t drink it! As far as the vapors, Vicks vapo-rub still uses it as the active ingredient. In high concentrations it is not good for lungs and air passages, but those are really high concentrations. It is not believed to be a carcinogen, unlike many other organic solvents.
Acetone (active ingredient in many lacquer thinners) seems to be more dangerous. It is flammable at much lower concentrations, and is more dangerous to inhale.
So I guess I will continue to use turpentine frequently, and continue to occasionally use some lacquer thinner, but only rarely.
good to know, Don…thanks for passing that on to us. When I was younger and dummer I couldn’t be bothered worrying about such things. The older I get, the more I do!
I think dope (the aircraft finish, not the stuff you take to get high) smells even better than lacquer. I was a hanger brat- my dad’s idea of quality time with me was to take me to the airport while he hanger-flew with his buddies. So the earliest smells I can remember are aircraft dope and hydraulic fluid. Then, for many years I built only flying models, with doped tissue. So I still love the smell of aircraft dope. But then I discovered I could build shelf scale models and never need to worry about whether I’d get good enough weather to fly them
Do they still make airplane dope? Haven’t used it since I was a kid, but yes, it smelled good! I built a lot of balsa / tissue models then, but never had the guts to try to fly one! Too much work went into them to watch them get wiped out on the first landing.
There are two kinds of dope for model airplanes, Nitrate and Butyrate. The Butyrate kit was developed for flying models with engines when they went from ignition to glow plug. Glow fuel eats into nitrate dope. The butyrate does smell different. But, they still make both kinds of dope. There are still quite a few stick and tissue kits being made, and folks who build them.
Some folks who intend to fly them build them without landing gear, as that is the stuff that frequently gets wiped out in a landing, unless the LG are wire and well integrated into the structure.
You use Turpentine to thin paints? Lacquers only or enamels too? I didn’t know you could do that…I keep turpentine in the the workshop but only use it for cleaning…
