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 answered a longstanding question I have.

I mix denatured alcohol/acetone 4:1 to make
a soldering flux solvent. Works great. But
over the last 2 years, the mixture has turned
milky and sticky as soon as I make it.

I'll try it with virgin acetone and see if
it works better.