Metho Needed...............hic'

[ubeaut]

DON'T, I repeat DON'T use methanol for polishing!!! It is highly toxic.

Jo sepi - this is from my previous post: It is called 100% but it isn't pure alcohol as it is illegal to sell it that way, it has to include a denaturant (stops ya from Hic... drinkin it). - Sorry should have said without having a special liscence you cannot purchase the pure stuff.

Outback - Haymes is definitely the way to go. Just ask them for Industrial Methylated Spirits, leave off the 100%

[Duncanmck]

The three Haymes distributors in Sudney area that I phoned only stock 96% and not the 100%. Bunnings stocks the metho in 96%. (96% works OK if stuck but may make the shellac a little cloudy in appearance but this will settle when dried or spirited off)


Any paint shop that sells Haynes Paint should be able to get 100% metho from Haynes.

[Duncanmck]

I am having huge troubles tracking down a supply of 100% metho.
I've used all the names, 100%, industrial etc. but no one seems to know or care. I've been to hardware shops, specialist paint shops, even asked a furniture restorer, he just uses off the shelf stuff.
Any help as to suppliers, brand names etc. will be gratefully received.

CSR Ethanl division sells 100% Industrial Metho directly. Delivery is inclusive in the price. 20 Ltr is $5.28/ltr +GST. 40Ltr is $4.14/ltr + GST. Delivery is to Metro areas only any country shipments must be arranged by purchaser (dangerous goods).
I'm in Sydney if you want to get a small quantity from me at cost.

[ED T]

Your "Metho" is actually Ethanol, or Ethyl Alcohol.

It was once "Methylated" with methanol to make it undrinkable. (Hence "Metho"). But that failed, as methanol tastes like ethanol, except that it kills you. So now they make it unpalatable with Pyridine.

It is quite difficult to remove that pyridine, so that beats the amateur vodka makers who simply try to distil the ethanol out.

Distillation won't give you 100% ethanol, as ethanol/water distils as an "azeotrope" which is 95/5 ethanol/water. So called "100% industrial metho" is 95% Ethanol, 5% water and a smidgeon of pyridine.

100% ethanol is sold as "Anhydrous Ethanol". It is expensive, and highly controlled for excise tax and health reasons.

If you really want to dry out ordinary Metho you could try a load of silica gel dessicant in the liquid (I'm guessing 5 to 10% of the weight of metho) and leave it fow a few days.

Ed T

[PAH1]

Methanol and ethanol have almost identical properties as a solvent. Keep it well stoppered as it will absorb huge amounts of moisture from the air.

Disclaimer: You use it at your own risk!

Funny I actually think of them as very different, Tetracycline does not dissolve well in ethanol, but is readily soluble in methanol, there are a number of similar examples. Methanol is also great for removeing air bubble in high pressure tubing whereas ethanol does not do the same thing.

A way of removing water from liquids without distilling (and air distilling only gets you to 70-80% pure) is to dehydrate. Get a pack of epsom salts, spread it out on a baking tray and put it in a 180deg oven for 2hrs. Let is cool in the oven and then put in a bottle and pour the methylated spirits over the top. By heating the epsom salts you remove water from the crystals and they get that water back from the mtho that you add. Very efficient with one caveat, Neil says that metals degrade shellac, the amount of magnesium in the resulting metho would be vanishingly small, but may have an effect. There are other types of drier, silica gel and molecular sieves, but these are not readily available to the average person.

I use this trick to keep long term solutions of water sensitive chemicals.

[Thickasaplank]

Hate to say it guys, but I am sitting not fifty meters from a tank of 100% pure ethyl alcohol about twenty thousand litres of the stuff!! Mind you I do work for Pfizer, and taking it off site will get me fired..We use it for making sterile alcohol for hospitals(we cut it with ultra pure water till it is 70%. Sorry I can't help.. but I just thought I would share that with you..


Bradders

[outback]

Thanks for the input. The silica crystals sound interesting, certainly worth more investigating.
Yesterday I went to the almost local Haymes stockist, I got the usual vague looks, checked the shelf, Are you sure this won't do? In the end he rang the HAymes chemist division, all they told him was their metho was 60 - 95 %. Lotsa help.

Off I goes to Mitre 10, usual stuff, he rang his supplier,then the Earth shook, the blokes face glazed over, he thanked whoever on the other end of the phone hung up, and told me No probs, will be here at the end of the week.

I am now one happy french polish potential.

[Sturdee]

I am now one happy french polish potential.

Perseverance pays of. Good luck with French polishing.

BTW getting the good stuff saves about 35 % in polishing time.


Peter.

[ubeaut]

We go through a thousand or so litres of the stuff a month, maybe we should start botteling and selling it. Might save a few headaches and free up the finishing forum.

Cheers - Neil

PS Bet if we did we wouldn't sell any. It's a bit like that.

[outback]

We go through a thousand or so litres of the stuff a month, maybe we should start botteling and selling it. Might save a few headaches and free up the finishing forum.

Cheers - Neil

Yes you should, Yes you should, Yes you should. It'd make my life a lot easier anyway.

[VEEBULL]

Thank Dog , for the Forum !! Was having the same problem , trying to find IMS , was just about to fire off a question when I found this thread .AND if another 17 yo , jumped up never come down , pimply faced , mobile phone toting , text messaging , hat on backwards wearing , skate board riding , hardware shop assistant person , offers me the benefit of their knowledge and experience , evil things will be visited upon them !!

BTW , in the abscence of IMS ' MENNEN AFTERSHAVE ' strained through stale bread will do the job !!

VEEBULL
PS , tip , don't go asking at the local pharmacy for IMS , sure to set the alarms bells ringing !! Took me 15 minutes to convince them I was not setting up a drug lab !!

[rsser]

PS , tip , don't go asking at the local pharmacy for IMS , sure to set the alarms bells ringing !! Took me 15 minutes to convince them I was not setting up a drug lab !!

You must've had your baseball cap on backwards VEEBULL ;-}

[VEEBULL]

Dude ( that's how a conversation starts these days )NOBODY COULD MISTAKE ME FOR 17, I got one of them 'TOP BRAZILLIANS ' or as me cobber says a ' long forehead '


VEEBULL

[rsser]

Hey Dude, all the more frightening ... a drug baron whose survived as long as you must be one mean mother.

[Iain]

In Vic you can buy a still legally, our local home brew place sells them but with a rider 'for extracting the natural oils from flowers for exotic oils, must not be used for the distillation of spirits without a licence from customs etc etc'.
And of course all his customers make home made beer and perfume