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Thread: Denatured Alcohol Suppliers and Substitutes

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Kansas City
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    2,652
    Hmmm. Reading the citation that Tom provided

    "(1) Standards for denatured ethanol. Starting December 31, 2003, no person shall sell, offer for sale, supply or offer for supply denatured ethanol intended for blending with CARBOB or California gasoline that fails to comply with any of the following standards: . . . "

    That says 2003, and it applies to DNA for use in blended gasoline. The next paragraph refers to the standards which are all about the composition of the denaturing agents, not the ethanol itself. That would imply that other denaturing agents are available. So I'm still confused about what changed here recently.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Mar 2019
    Location
    Los Angeles, California
    Posts
    961
    Jim, you are right on. Manufacturers have and will adapt to water as a carrier for stains. I can re-use rags (machine wash with bleach), no smell, and disposing of cleaning water is user and environmental friendly. What surprises me is that many hardware stores still carry oil based stains, but without any way to clean brushes.
    Regards,

    Tom

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
    Posts
    1,561
    Blog Entries
    1
    At least you can still buy small plastic bottles of various proof. I like using it as it dries so quickly and no odor left behind. Even wet sand with it.

  4. #19
    I did a cursory search re CA and methanol and found little. It is on the CA Prop 65 list, which only requires a warning that the product contains... blah, blah. They did ban methanol as a component of windshield washer fluid years ago ( "....Before it was regulated in 1993, automotive windshield washer fluid (AWWF) was a very large source of pollution in California's cities") a large source, are you kidding? How much washer fluid did they use ?

    Having dealt with the CA environmental people, I can say that little they do makes sense. In one situation they wanted to regulate a chemical that is not toxic in any manner. It is an eye irritant in dust form, but consumers cannot be exposed to the dust, as it is not in that form even during manufacturing. They ignored human exposure studies based on the gas phase and relied on a very old study based on the dust. They wanted to regulate to a level that was so low that instruments at the time could not even measure it. The level was 1/10 as much as formaldehyde, a carcinogen - and its not even irritating - go figure. Don't know the outcome, I retired, no more dealing with such insanity!

  5. #20
    I think you should be able to easily find 99% anhydrous isopropyl alcohol which would only be 1% water, if that. I used to buy it locally at printing supply places (they use IPA for cleaning print rollers). But you can also get it on Amazon for decent prices. Probably not a lot more than DNA.

    I like using it better than DNA anyway, simply because it doesn't smell as bad, and it retards the shellac drying time a little bit, which helps flow out and working time.

    By the way you can use a mix of regular old grocery store bought ammonia and water for cleaning up shellac or other alcohol based finishes like BIN primer. I haven't heard that ammonia is going away, but one never knows.

  6. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    Fortunately, there are alternatives to mineral spirits like naphtha but many solvents are quickly becoming restricted.

    I'm not sure I fully understand the issue with alcohol, but it is what it is. I do use some shellac which includes the need for alcohol or similar for reducing and cleanup. Otherwise, I've pretty much standardized on water borne and water soluble products for finishing with an occasional use of an oil-based wipe on product like Watco if a client requires it, such as to match existing. Water borne and water soluble finishing products have come a LONG way over the years fortunately.
    The issue is actually simple: It's 100% VOC.

    It was historically exempt.
    It is no longer exempt.

    Onwards in the march for california to replace all chemicals with ones that are better for the environment and worse for people.
    Almost all being replaced are not HAPS.
    Last edited by Daniel Berlin; 10-24-2019 at 6:12 PM.

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