mm wrote:
On Sun, 18 Jun 2006 22:53:20 GMT, (Doug Miller)
wrote:
In article , "miamicuse" wrote:
It dries quick and I was not able to clean things off fast enough before it.
I have been working at it for the last four hours and it's not getting
anywhere. I tried water, alcohol, mineral spirits and other solvents.
Alcohol -- but not rubbing alcohol from the drugstore (too much water in
that). You want denatured alcohol (probably a gallon can) from Home Depot,
Lowe's, or some place like that -- it's pure alcohol.
Not
sure if any of it combined with Shellac will be poisonous,
Nope. Shellac is non-toxic. It's the classic kid-safe finish for baby toys,
cribs, etc.
The *alcohol* is another story, though. The alcohol used to dissolve shellac
is the same alcohol that's in adult beverages, and you *can* become
NO IT'S NOT THE SAME, and the ALCOHOL THAT YOU BUY IN GALLONS WILL
KILL YOU, or BLIND YOU FIRST.
AT LEAST ACCORDING TO MY PH.D. IN BIOLOGY ROOMMATE.
HE TOLD ME THAT THE ONLY THING SAFE WAS CHEMICAL GRADE ALCOHOL, WHICH
IS 100% PURE AND VERY EXPENSIVE, AND SOLD MOSTLY TO LABORATORIES, FROM
LABORATORY SUPPLY COMPANIES.
THAT DIDN'T STOP HIM FROM ONCE OR TWICE SWIPING A QUART BOTTLE FROM
THE CHEM LAB to make punch for our parties, but other than smoking pot
a bit that's the only illegal thing I think he ever did, and he
wouldn't have stolen this stuff if he could have bought it at a
reasonable price.
Rubbing alcohol is something like 70% water, and there is another
comon version that has less waterthat that, but the safe stuff has no
water or next to no water.
intoxicated from breathing the fumes. Use plenty of ventilation, and a
chemical filter respirator if you have one -- and don't drive.
Either your Ph.D. friend doesn't know what he is
talking about, or you didn't understand what he
said. Ethyl alcohol is the kind you drink.
Scientific laboratories supply ethyl alcohol in 95
percent and 100 percent. Ethyl alcohol distills
to 95 percent and that provides CP (Chemically
Pure) alcohol. 100 percent is usually produced by
distilling against benzene but there will be
traces of benzene which you would not want. It is
possible to produce 100 percent by other means,
but it is more expensive and not needed for most
uses.
Schools get the stuff under their license and
don't have to pay the alcohol tax so the cost
difference between pure ethyl alcohol and
denatured alcohol is not much. For non drinking
purpose ethyl alcohol is denatured by any of many
different formulas and the purpose is to make in
useless for drinking and thereby avoid the alcohol
tax. Most of those formulas would make you sick,
especially make you barf, but most would not kill
you unless you drank a lot of the stuff. If you
steal laboratory alcohol for drinking you better
steal the 95 percent non-denatured stuff.
As for shellac, most home market stuff is
dissolved in ethyl alcohol (denatured), but those
who mix their own flakes may use ethyl alcohol,
methyl alcohol (wood alcohol and the stuff that
makes you go blind), or even propyl alcohol
(normal rubbing alcohol which is poisonous).
BTW, beer, wine, or most hard liquor booze are not
pure alcohol and are not made from chemical grade
(whatever that means) alcohol.
One last thought, becoming intoxicated on alcohol
fumes from cleaning with the stuff is probably a
myth. Certainly doesn't happen in bars and their
are plenty of open container and stuff spilled.
It never happened to anyone I knew who worked in a
lab with 95 or 100 percent alcohol. Anyone,
cleaning with 100 percent ethyl alcohol in a small
space with no ventilation would have trouble
breathing and would have to leave or open windows
before they every became intoxicated.