Hello all,
I’ve recently gotten back into model building from when I was a kid 20 years ago… I’m amazed how much has changed!!
I’ve got the “laquer thinner / mineral spirits” thing down, but I also hear alot about denatured alcohol. What is that for? (RE: model paints). Acrylics? Enamels? Thinning, cleaning regular and/or air brushes? Removing dry or partially dry paint from a model to expose “metal” underneath (like AlClad II or Bare Metal Foil)?
Any answers would be appreciated!!!
I would avoid any contact with denatured alcohol-it’s worse than acetone. I will use acetone to deep clean a nasty airbrush but never denatured alcohol.
Hmm, I bought the denatured alcohol at a hardware store b/c it was cheap AND I thought it was the same as rubbing alcohol… I just Googled the two and they are obviously not the same. Does anyone use either type for anything related to modeling?
Denatured alcohol works great for thinning Squadron putty.
it is great for thinnig acrylic paints, especially tamiya acrylics (no diff from origo thinner), you can clean everything from acrylic (sometimes also other) and its cheap.
and acetone is more agressive than alcohol (any form)
Really? I always though it was worse than acetone-which is nasty stuff too. Well, I learned something-now I can go back to bed.
Denaturated alcohol is for removing grease and oils from machinery. It works the same for removing grease and oils from plastic, resin, and photo etch parts.
Acetone is way worse that any type of alcohol. Alcohol is non caustic unlike acetone. Alcohol is also more dangerous even though the alcohol label says more than the acetone label. Since acetone is a paint thinner, the companies want you to assume it’s very dangerous. Denaturated alcohol has tons of warnings on it, but because its not really associated with paint.
Denatured alcohol is ethanol (active incredient in booze) with a bit of other chemicals such as acetone or methanol thrown in… not enough to harm the plastic, but enough to harm you if you decide to use it to get drunk (so don’t drink it).
The others have done a pretty good job of explaining its modeling uses.
Thats why it is called Denatured, it gives you a bad tempered hangover[:D]
Well, I find it hard to swallow-even with a mixer.
Cut it with a good quality aftershave, it’s much easier on the pallette
Hey! I’m a Aqua Velva man! Boy, I can spoil any thread.
We all have our own skills… [:p]
Christ, thats rich from you[;)][:p](take a joke Bgrigg) lol
it is possible to drink denatured alcohol! but beware!!! there are two types of it. in one is benzen (bensen in english? - it smells like gas (fuel)) and another one has methanol in it, so it is positivelly harmfull to you. you are gonna blind after drinking (even though it smell more “alcoholic” then the other “gas-fuelic” one")
drink small amount of sirup before drinking it - it will help to protect pharynx.
it is also possible to drink even 96% alcohol and “other stuff”. very popular in our country 15 year ago by homeless was “okena” (windows cleaner with alcohol) and “alpa” alcoholic massage emulsion.
i know theese thing from people studying on medicine colleges, mechanics (also army, because denatured alcohol was used heavilly in jet fighters service and maintenance).
probably the best was mig-25 foxbat (not used in our country, but in duty in far east, parts of russia near japan, which has clean alcohol (not denaturized) as cooling fluid in large amounts. big tanks were everywhere and it was drinking by everyone. (armies in socialistic countries was completely drunk :>)
Matador-it is benzine in English and we used it in the graphic arts field to remove excess wax-which was used as an adhesive. Most alcoholic beverages have ethanol and methanol in them. Ethanol gets you high and methanol gets you sick. That’s why more booze eases a hangover because ethanol will block the body’s ability to absorb methanol. Funny-alcohol cools jets but fuels arguements. 
Here’s a little info on denatured alcohol, for anyone interested. This is from an earlier posting of mine:
In order to reduce the need for strict control and heavy taxation on industrially produced ethanol, the alcohol is denatured. Denaturing is a process of adding other compounds to the ethanol to render it unfit for consumption. Denaturants are selected to give the ethanol a disagreeable taste or odor and in some cases a distinctive color. In some cases the substances added are toxic and produce gastric disturbances upon ingestion and/or other unpleasant symptoms. A large number of different “denaturants” are utilized dependent upon the use for which the ethanol is intended. These denaturants include methyl isobutyl ketone, pyronate, kerosene, acetone, turpentine, amyl alcohol, methyl alcohol, and various butyl alcohols. In some cases more than one denaturant is utilized.
Trowlfazz,
I’ve honestly never heard of methanol being a constituent in alcoholic beverages, and the cause of alcohol sickness. I always believed that increased concentrations of ethanol overrode the liver’s ability to detoxify the substance via the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, and the resulting effect was alcohol intoxication or poisoning. I also don’t understand why ethanol would prevent the absorption of methanol. Methanol is a much smaller molecule than ethanol, and would cross the blood-brain barrier much more efficiently. Maybe that’s why it only takes about 15ml or so of methanol to cause blindness…
Gip Winecoff
Couple of chemical clarifications:
Benzine is a mixture of alkanes (linear molecules). Do not confuse this with benzene, a cyclic molecule which can cause cancer.
Most alcoholic beverages do not have methanol in them. Methanol is transformed in the body into formic acid, which is transformed into formaldehyde, which is also not good for you. In cases of methanol poisoning, ethanol is given as a treatment, but it does not strictly block the adsorption of methanol. What really happens is that ethanol and methanol are undergoing the same basic chemical reaction (change of alchol to aldehyde)… in adding ethanol, you’re basically setting up a competing reaction and hoping that more of the ethanol is metabolized than methanol.
The contents of denatured alchohol vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. In making my earlier post to this topic, I checked the materials safety data sheet (MSDS) from 2 manufacturers… although acetone and methanol were mentioned in the earlier post, other chemicals that I was less familiar with were also listed, and I chose not to mention them. If you really want to know what’s in your chemicals, you need to look at the MSDS from your manufacturer.
Gip-I believe the methanol has always been a very small component of booze-however you really seem to know your alcohol and I may be quoting out-dated information. One thing I do know is that cooking wine-sold in grocery stores, has been made undrinkable because a large amount of salt was added to it-making it useless for cooking as well (just an old cook’s tip).
Edit-Ditto to Mr. CKF as well-some sharp chemists on board here.
Edit: Methanol is a natural fermentation product and its concentration may be up to 300 mg/L in wine, and even higher in other spirits. Aha! Hair of the dog theory may be true! Boy I’ve gone way off-topic.
I think trowlfazz is right about methanol being a very small component… many methanol poisoning cases are the result of people making their own rotgut moonshine, and then not distilling it properly and either consuming it themselves or giving it to their buddies.
But to put it all in perspective,
if you assume density of methanol ~0.8, that leaves you with ~0.375 mL of methanol per liter of wine (1 mL = 1 cubic centimeter). To reach Gip’s ballpark value of 15 mL of methanol to go blind, it’ll take you 40 L of wine (sounds like a morbid Total commercial).