On Mon, 9 Sep 2013 10:14:18 -0700, "anorton"
wrote:


"Scromlette" wrote in message
.au...
It's got some minor metal work involved, but unfortunately no guns or
politics.....

I use quite a bit of methylated spirits to clean electronic PCBs as part
of a cottage business I run. The solvent becomes laden with dissolved
rosin flux & has to be discarded so I've been thinking about distilling it
for reuse. It's costing me 3 or 4 dollars per litre.


I was toying with the idea of electrically heating an old pressure cooker
vented through either a copper coil or an old refrigerator heat exchanger.
I'm not sure if draping wet cloth on the heat exchanger would be
sufficient cooling.

I think the BP of the methylated spirits is ~ 82 Celsius (180F).
Has anyone any experience doing this sort of thing (moonshine perhaps?)

Will it be worth the effort?

You might see if filtering it through activated charcol works well enough. I
have not tried it or heard of it being done (except as "charcoal mellowing"
of whiskey), but it might be less trouble, expense and risk than setting up
a still. Activated charcoal in bulk is much less expensive than when you buy
it in the form of a water filter.

You also might want to ask other forums about what other low-volume PCB
makers are doing.
I think that's an excellent idea. I wish I had thought of it. And
activated carbon (charcoal) is available in bulk for pretty cheap at
aquarium stores. And while it lets ethanol right through it does
capture a remarkable number of other substances that dissolve into
alcohol.
Eric