Enter keywords or a search phrase below:
I have had great results thinning Tamiya paints with 70% Ethyl Alcohol and haven't experimented enough with other thinners. What made me curious though is that I was just reading the label for the Ethyl Alcohol and it said it contains Acetone. No wonder it breaks the paint pigments down so much for thinning.
I would think that this thinner is approaching lacquer thinner in terms of toxicity isn't it?
Mike
Seems to be at least as dangerous as Jack Daniels or is this a different type of alcohol?
http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/ET/ethyl_alcohol.html
Hi Mike,
In terms of toxicity, I think it would depend on the proportion of acetone in the mix.
Here in Aus, I use Methylated spirits, which is approximately 95% Ethyl Alcohol, 5% water and trace amounts of other chemicals to render it unpalatable/undrinkable. It's also pretty cheap at about $4.00 per litre (compared to IPA @ $10.00/250ml).
In terms of performace as a thinner, I find that I can take it much, much further (80%+ thinner) than I can standard Tamiya X-20A. This is (apparently) without the acetone which is present in the blend you're using. I think Ethyl alcohol is simply more aggressive as a solvent than IPA.
As I've mentioned previously, the one downside I have found using Ethyl Alcohol is that when using gloss Tamiya acrylics, it tends to make the finish flatter than you would get if using X-20A or Tamiya's lacquer thinner. If I want really high gloss out of Tamiya acrylics, I will opt for one of those.
Phil_H Hi Mike, In terms of toxicity, I think it would depend on the proportion of acetone in the mix.
That is true Phil. Here in the U.S. they have to label items in order of what the product contains the most of so the first ingredient is what it contains the most of. Acetone is listed under the "Inert ingredients" first even before distilled water so I am not sure how much is in it. It may be a very small amount though because one of the main reasons for it is to discourage people from drinking it since it is basically 100% grain alcohol.
I just started working for Micro Trains Line in the paint department. Most of what we use is laquer. But, in the printing area, I noticed we're using "stove alcohol". This is denatured ethyl alcohol with methanol as the denaturing agent. It's basically the fuel used for chaffing dishes and stoves on boats.
Haven't tried it yet, but going to soon.
Reid
Grumman Iron Works Fan.
"Don't sweat the small stuff. And.... it's ALL small stuff, until you hear INCOMING!!!!!!"
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.