On 19/11/2016 11:05, Robert Bannon wrote:
Any suggestions of common household chemicals that can dilute gasoline?

I use gasoline as a home goo-gone substitute for removing labels.
Most often I do it outside, because of the stink, but I want to keep it
inside in tiny amounts, diluted as much as possible.

I've already tried all the common home chemicals from alcohol to acetone to
lemon juice to engine degreaser to dish detergent to brake cleaner to windex
to automatic-transmission fluid and MAF cleaner, all of which work sometimes
but all of which fail often (either because they melt the container or they
don't dissolve the goo).

I've even tried common flavorings such as orange blossom extract, rose
water, pure lemon extract, coconut oil and walnut oil, which, surprisingly,
are totally useless (but they do smell the best!).

I've found, through decades of experience, that gasoline, which also fails
sometimes, works more often than any other household common chemical.

But gasoline has all the problems that most of you will love to "teach" me,
but that's not the question (so please don't try to teach me why gasoline
vapors are flammable and why I should goo-be-gone outdoors because I know
that).

Also please don't try to teach me that there are commercial lemon-oil
solutions.

I just want to dilute the gasoline and I already know that even the diluted
gasoline vapors will be flammable. We take risks sometimes when working
around the house and not being a pussy about it all the time.

So I plan to keep a small jar of gasoline properly labeled under the kitchen
sink (let's not go into the dangers of doing that, because properly diluting
it won't solve that danger for the most part).

Without being a pussy about the question, do you have any suggestion that
you think might work best to dilute the gasoline 10:1 (or even 100:1) so
that I'm using the minimum effective amount of gasoline indoors?

What can I 'cut' the gasoline with that will mix with the gas and dilute it
(maybe 10:1 or even maybe 100:1)?

Any suggestions of common household chemicals that can dilute gasoline?



Don't use gasoline. It still contains enough benzene to mess you up in
the long term.

Use biodiesel. It works, and is non-toxic, and cheap. I am talking about
trans-esterified cooking oil. There are a lot of websites about how to
make it, from KOH, methanol and filthy frier oil, but you can also buy
it, usually about the same price as regular diesel. If made (and washed)
properly, there is no methanol left in it at the end of the process.

If you doubt its abilities to clean off gunk, here is one example: After
a few months it stripped the paint off the inside of my jerry can (and I
then had to filter all of the lumps and flakes out so I could use the
fuel). It also took the greasy layer off my bathtub better than any
household cleaner that I tried. I used it to remove many labels. You can
then wash it off easily with ordinary detergent and hot water. It won't
melt plastics in the short term (though it might soften epoxy and will
swell rubber if you leave it on for weeks). It also smells nice (if you
like fried food).