Turpentine: Artist's Store or Hardware Store?

I buy turpentine off the shelf at Wally World.  I'm not concerned with what the actual quality might be.

EasyMike

I buy turpentine off the shelf at Wally World.  I'm not concerned with what the actual quality might be.

Artist's turpentine comes in two broad types. One, actual turpentine, is distilled from pine resin and the other "turpentine substitute" or "mineral turpentine" is a petroleum distillate. 

My understanding is that mineral turpentine and mineral spirits are essentially the same thing and may be used interchangably.

I actually use Lacquer Thinner to clean my brushes. I notice that LT will remove more junk from a paint brush and air brush than regular thinner or turp.

plasticjunkie

I actually use Lacquer Thinner to clean my brushes. I notice that LT will remove more junk from a paint brush and air brush than regular thinner or turp.

 

Phil_H

Artist's turpentine comes in two broad types. One, actual turpentine, is distilled from pine resin and the other "turpentine substitute" or "mineral turpentine" is a petroleum distillate. 

 

 

~ Cobra Chris

Shepard Paine, one of the most respected military miniature sculptors and painters ever, says, in his book on the subject, that there's no practical difference between turpentine in a 1 oz. bottle bought at an art supply store, and turpentine bought by the gallon at a hardware store. He also says hardware store "paint thinner" does the same things. I'm perfectly content to believe him.

Art supply stores do sell other thinners for oil paints, differentiated mainly by how much they smell. I have a bottle of Winsor and Newton "Oderless." I don't have a good sense of smell, but to me it smells distinctly of turpentine - but nowhere near as strongly as the traditional stuff.

jtilley

Shepard Paine, one of the most respected military miniature sculptors and painters ever, says, in his book on the subject, that there's no practical difference between turpentine in a 1 oz. bottle bought at an art supply store, and turpentine bought by the gallon at a hardware store. He also says hardware store "paint thinner" does the same things. I'm perfectly content to believe him.

Art supply stores do sell other thinners for oil paints, differentiated mainly by how much they smell. I have a bottle of Winsor and Newton "Oderless." I don't have a good sense of smell, but to me it smells distinctly of turpentine - but nowhere near as strongly as the traditional stuff.

 

Ditto. As a matter of fact, I use LT, regular thinner and Turp from Home Depot or Lowes. I picked up a small red can of the Testor's thinner at Hobby Lobby to compare and can't tell the difference in performance between the Testors and HD thinner.

Thanks for the replies.  Is it still considered safe to run lacquer thinner through an airbrush?  I do have a spray booth and good repspirator.

Dave

djrost_2000

Thanks for the replies.  Is it still considered safe to run lacquer thinner through an airbrush?  I do have a spray booth and good repspirator.

Dave 

LT is my standard cleaning solvent to remove any type of paint from my air brushes. The only issue that can come up is if you soak the ab body in LT, then the rear seals can be damaged. If I soak the body in LT, then I only submerge the tip/ front part only, not the entire body.

Thanks plastic, I've read about how LT can eat the seals, so basically I'd just run LT through the airbrush between colors, and only soak parts that have no seals, and brush and q-tip the rest.

Thx, Dave

You can replace seals. However, if you don't have you shouldn't.  I soak my AIRBRUSH in mineral spirits, but I use lacquer thinner only with cotton swabs to clean with. I don't use lacquer thinner with paint brushes. As I said before it eats the paint of the brush handle, and the glue that holds the ferrules. You should only use lacquer thinner with paint equipment that doesn't have rubber, or silicone seals. Or only use on the parts that don't have any soft seals of any kind in them.

~ Cobra Chris

Cobra 427

I don't use lacquer thinner with paint brushes. As I said before it eats the paint of the brush handle, and the glue that holds the ferrules.

 

 

I only clean and not soak the wristles of my brushes in LT, then use a paper towel to lightly dry them. Most are over 10 to 25 years old and are in near brand new condition. 

Thank you Cobra, I got rid of my paint brush cleaning jars full of LT and will be using mineral spirits instead but may use LT for tough jobs. 

Dave