Subject: Re: MEK

From: Charles <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun May 18 09:20:38 2003

On Sun, 18 May 2003 02:22:02 -0500, you wrote:

>MEK has all but been banned in the US and is just about impossible for an
>individual to obtain. Besides it EATS plastic!
>
>   Joe

I bought a gallon can of it at Home Depot last fall. They also
sell acetone, muriatic acid, and plenty of other "nasty"
chemicals.
-Charles

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From: James Rice <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun May 18 10:20:37 2003

I buy acetone in gallon cans at Lowes to clean inkjet heads.  I've also 
been able to buy 99.5% pure isopropyl alcohol in liter bottles at 
Fry's.  Some ink residues dissolve better in alcohol.  What I miss is 
1,1,1 trichloroethane.   I worked  in food processing plants, 
specifically margarine and vegetable oil  production in the 70's through 
1998.  We used 1,1,1 tec to clean machinery from 1972 to 1979.  Best 
degreaser ever, but it was nasty stuff.  It dissolved almost everything 
except glass and the special polymer liners on the drums.  If you dipped 
your hand in it, all of the skin oil would be removed and your skin 
would dry and crack almost immediately.  All of this was pre-MSDS of 
course.  The company used to let us take buckets of it home to degrease 
car parts.

James

-- 

http://webpages.charter.net/jrice54/classiccomp2.html

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon May 19 10:04:25 2003

Isn't MEK a carcinogen?  (Unlike HCl or Acetone...)

Peace...  Sridhar

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From: Peter Turnbull <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon May 19 15:39:00 2003

> Isn't MEK a carcinogen?  (Unlike HCl or Acetone...)

Not that I know of.  See, for example,
http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/BU/2-butanone.html

Lots of other common (or once-common) solvents are, though.  Compare
111-TCE, toluene, carbon tetrachloride, ...

http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/TR/1,1,1-trichloroethane.html
http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/TO/toluene.html
http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/CA/carbon_tetrachloride.html

On May 18, 15:51, Jon Titus wrote:
> To remove the residue from non-water-soluble adhesives left behind by
> masking tape, labels, duct tape, electrical tape, etc., I've used
xylene or
> xylol with good results.

Not a good choice.  It used to be a constituent of thinners for
cellulose paints, but now it's not allowed to be sold in normal
hardware stores over here, for a variety of reasons (and most cellulose
paints have been replaced by safer alternatives).

http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/XY/o-xylene.html

Anyway, it's more drastic than you need.  Turpentine substitute is
slower, but works on much the same things, and won't harm plastics.

-- 
Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Network Manager
						University of York