DNA question

[Brie -Anne Bryan]

Hi all!

I have a rather large colorfill on acrylic job coming up and thought I'd try the flood/scrape and clean method. Usually I laser through the paper mask that comes on the acrylic, but these particular acrylic plaques don't come with anything on them My problem is that I don't know where to get Denatured Alcohol. Does anyone know where to get it in Canada? Is it even called that here....?....I'm not sure. Is there anything else that will work on acrylic?
Also, what do you think would be the best paint to use? I need a shade pretty close to process blue.

Thanks in advance!!

[Dee Gallo]

Brie-Anne,

I would put some vinyl signmaker's transfer tape on it before burning. It's lightweight and comes off easily. Whenever I clean thin acrylic, I use rubbing alcohol which is a watered down version of DNA, easy to find and less aggressive to the plastic. It takes the smoke off quite well without crazing.

I use Testor's oil based model painting enamel (Flo-Quil) on plastic all the time and clean it off with De-Solve-it which is a waterless orange based cleaner. But, I know other people have used acrylic paints with success too (water based). Testors also make an acrylic version for model painting. I find enamel dries to a much harder finish than artist's acrylics.

cheers, dee

[Mike Null]

A paint store which sells shellac will also sell dna.

[Chuck Stone]

you can probably find 'methyl hydrate' in the Canadian stores. Not quite the same as the denatured
alcohol we get here, but similar enough. Our denatured alcohol used to be mainly ethanol (distilled
from grains .. ie moonshine) with enough wood alcohol (methanol) added to make it poisonous. This
is because the grain alcohol was less expensive to produce than methanol. But there are many blends
on the market. Some are about 50/50 and some are 90%+ ethanol with added benzene and toluene.
Methyl hydrate is nasty stuff, though. It gets into your system through the skin and lungs. So wear
good gloves and ventilate!

[John Noell]

The terms "denatured alcohol" and "rubbing alcohol" are non-standard and vary in the alcohols and concentrations found therein. It's a bit frustrating, especially when the retail vendors often do not know what is in it themselves. We buy "methylated spirits" here but trying to find out exactly what is in it, and at what concentrations, is very difficult.

[Chuck Stone]

John .. that's true. But you do have the MSDS to refer to. They usually refer to each ingredient
as a percentage, so it isn't impossible to find out.

FWIW .. the MSDS's I've found show that most 'methylated spirits' are what we are looking
for (but don't necessarily get!) when we buy 'denatured alcohol'. Basically, ethanol with
about 1% denaturing additives. Often what we get has a lot of water in it.

[Tony Lenkic]

Brie-Anne,

Where are you located? You may find this product in local marine.
It is 90/10% mix of ethanol and additive that makes it "denatured"

http://captphab.com/HomePage.html

[Michael Hunter]

The official UK formula for methylated spirits ("fully denatured") is as follows :

90% ethanol
9.5% methanol ("wood alcohol" or "wood naphtha")
0.5% pyridine (this is what is supposed to make it taste bitter and so undrinkable)
to this must be added -
trace of mineral naphtha (from petroleum) : 3.75 litres per 1000 litres of above mixture
trace of synthetic dye (methyl violet) : 1.5g per 1000 litres of above mixture

Is there an equivalent American standard or recipe for DNA?

[John Noell]

John .. that's true. But you do have the MSDS to refer to.

Here in Fiji, the vendors have no idea what a MSDS is! One of the joys of life on a small tropical island. Even stuff like pesticides lacks MSDSs here. A friend with a pest control business has regularly asked me to get MSDSs for him because the Fiji vendor does not have them. (We also see a LOT of Chinese stuff that would never make it into the USA. No MSDS at all.)

[Chuck Stone]

OUCH! that would be a bit scary...

[Jean Paull]

My experience has been that denatured alcohol is not available in Canada. Rubbing alcohol is a similar mix of alcohol and water but also has some oils and other ingredients added to make it gentler for skin. The additives can leave residues which can be a problem, depending on your usage.

[Bill Jermyn]

I use isopropyl alcohol available from any pharmacy, Walmart, etc. Not sure if it's the same stuff, though.

[Richard Rumancik]

Brie-Anne, if you absolutely need DNA you can probably get it in Canada from Anachemia. I bought it 10 years ago and I believe you can still buy it from them. Here is the MSDS.

http://www.anachemia.com/msds/english/4099.pdf

It is 85% ethanol and 14.3% methanol. But - it will be expensive, and there will be a minimum purchase order value.

They will take lots of info as they want to ensure it is being used for a legitimate purpose. Sometimes they may have "expired" reagent-grade stock that you can get at reduced price. You certainly don't need reagent grade for what you are doing but since they are a laboratory chemical supplier they don't sell much chemical with low grades of purity.

But I would still tend to exhaust all the cheaper alternatives before going this route.

[Greg Bednar]

Available at all state liquor stores in the lower 48. Although in Ohio - I had to complete extra paperwork. Start with you local liquor stores in Canada. Further information it and it's availability in Canada is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everclear_(alcohol) Mine cost about $15.00 USD. I only use it for lens cleaning, so it may be cost prohibitive for your use. But if you really need it....................

[Brie -Anne Bryan]

Hi everyone....Thanks for all your input and suggestions
Dee...I tried to find Testor's here in Canada...(I'm in Winnipeg, MB) and I can't find it. Do you know of any other brand that would work? I will try my local artists supply store to see if they have any sort of model enamel paint. Also, I thought it wasn't good to use oil based paints on acrlyic?
I had some oil based spray that I tried out on a scrap piece and sure enough it looked all cracked and the acrlyic started to craze around the edges
Do people really have a good result with just artists craft paint?

Thanks!