Denatured alcohol is available at Home Depot in the States and most hardware stores.
Also, what you say about the 50/50 mix of isopro and water is exactly why I tend to reach for the 70% stuff first. It dissolves the bulk of the gunk including the stuff not soluble in alcohol but that is soluble in water. I then sometimes follow up with a 90% or higher rinse (or switch to acetone for a final drying). -Bob On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 11:07 AM, David Martindale <[email protected] > wrote: > Active Electronics is another source of 99.9% pure isopropanol, and > they have walk-in stores in a bunch of major US and Canadian cities. > I use it for most electronics cleaning, but it also cleans optics > without leaving a residue (unless there's a lot of junk on the surface > to dissolve and redistribute). Pharmacies also sell 99% isopropanol, > but it's more expensive than buying a litre from Active. For cleaning > optics, I often prefer a 50/50 mix of isopropanol and distilled water, > since it evaporates more slowly and sometimes there is glop that > dissolves more easily in water than isopropanol. > > Where I live (British Columbia, Canada), "everclear" (high-proof > drinkable ethanol) does not seem to be available at all. As far as I > can tell it's legal, but the government-run liquor stores don't carry > it. To get it, I'd have to go to neighbour province Alberta, or > neighbour state Washington. Makes no sense to me. > > Worse, even *denatured* ethanol is hard to find. It's legal, but > almost unavailable. In the USA, "alcohol stove fuel" or "marine stove > fuel" is often ethanol denatured with methanol, but in Canada it > always seems to be pure methanol - perhaps because methanol is cheaper > here. (Not necessarily a good deal though, since methanol gives only > ~60% of the heat of combustion compared to the same volume of > ethanol). Lee Valley sells ethanol denatured with isobutyl alcohol > for use as shellac solvent, but it's relatively expensive. All other > shellac solvent I've found in hardware stores is methanol. > > (I haven't tested them, but I wouldn't really expect stuff sold as > "stove fuel" or "shellac solvent" to be clean enough for optics). > > Dave > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
