On Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:04:42 -0400, Ed Huntress wrote:

wrote in message ...

I use a fair bit of acetone. I have always accepted that it leaves a bit
of an oily residue. Recently I have been finding a *lot* of oily
residue. Is it just a rogue bottle or has anyone else noticed this? If
so is the likely cause cutting costs during production?

Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

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I haven't noticed any change lately, but commercial grades of acetone
contain a lot of reprocessed material from large commercial recovery
operations. It's notoriously oily and is avoided by boat manufacturers,
for example, who use acetone to clean the wax off of surfacing-grade
polyester resin before applying furniture laminations and so on. I don't
know what they call the virgin grade but that's what you need, if the
oil causes a problem for you.

This has been true for decades. I learned it when I worked in a molding
plant for Ranger Yachts, back in 1973.

You probably want to ask your supplier, and perhaps your supplier's
competitors if your supplier does not bring you joy. My ever-dimmer
memory has the phrases "technician (or technical) grade" and "reagent
grade".

Basically, if you just need it for cleaning tools then a bit of gunk in
there isn't a terrible thing. If you need it to be _really clean_ then
you want reagent grade -- and you need to expect to pay for it.

--
www.wescottdesign.com