Naptha won't help the flammabilty/explosive danger. Butane is even worse. Methanol is corrosive, VERY flammable and poisonous (absorbs through the skin too)
Dichloromethane may be an alternative but it has serious health risks as well
My favorite 'nanny' warning from childhood was on a package of sodium hypochlorite pool conditioner: 'Do not mix with brake fluid'.
Who would ever get the idea to make such a mixture otherwise?
PS: Make sure you are outside if you want to try this. It would also be a good idea to put on safety goggles as well. And be patient. When the smoke starts, don't attempt to speed things up by adding more of anything.
Use detergent after.
If you live near the border, go to Tijuana, go to a liquor store and buy agua diente, It is pure (180 proof) ethanol. Fifty years ago it was $0.50 per liter, going to be more now.
I will reiterate my recommendation, use WD-40 for label removal. If the odor is too offensive for your manly sensibilities, buy the product in liquid form. If you do not atomize it with a spray, the odor is far less pervasive.
With WD-40, apply a light layer to the label and just let it sit for a little while. Come back in 10 - 15 minutes and the adhesive will have dissolved and the label will slide off with virtually no work.
If you need a powerful solvent that will dissolve almost anything else, buy a can of lacquer thinner (yes, it is available in California) LT is unbelievable in it's utility.
Use of and storage of gasoline and other highly carcinogenic chemicals mixtures inside the living area of a residence is as inadvisable as smoking or leaving a loaded, unlocked firearm where might be accessible by a 5 year old child.
Dedicated label remover is better than WD-40 and the orange smell is quite nice.
No, he doesn't compare petrol to the others :-P
Naptha, AKA lighter fluid (Ronson brand) or paint thinner). Or "white gas" AKA camping gas (coleman gas, or the stuff they sell at REI by the quart).
Jon
p.s. Don't do it, it's dangerous, you'll blow up the neighborhood, blah blah blah.
It will also REALLY piss off your insurance company - even if stored in a sealed "listed" container.
Here, in California, we are so inundated with such silly nanny warnings that we become inured to them.
It's a big business just selling the signs, for heaven's sake!
As Jeff said, we can't get Xylene in California.
Fran, the retired chemist, will have to let us know *how* that d-limonene works for removing the goop.
Remember, removing most labels is so easy to do with just plain old soaking in water, that the problem isn't removing the label.
The problem is removing the underlying goop.
That's interesting that you're a retired chemist. My chemistry training stopped after Organic Chemistry (Morrison and Boyd) in college.
Water is polar. But are you sure gasoline is polar?
There must be a good reason gasoline is the best solvent for removing label goop, so, if you're saying the reason is its polarity, all we need to do is find a solvent with similar polarity.
But I've never found a solvent better than gasoline for removing the underlying goop (although no one solvent works at all times).
I'll google to see if gasoline is polar, but it may get complex because there is no one "chemical" called "gasoline". It's a mix of alkanes, alkenes, alkynes and aromatics (but I'll doublecheck since that's off the cuff).
Agreed. We wear goggles (sometimes) when cutting wood.
But, do you read the warning on California hammers? They suggest you wear goggles every time you hammer a nail.
Nothing wrong with goggles. I have a half dozen myself. But every time you hammer a nail?
I wear a helmet, boots, and gloves when I ride a motorcycle. You don't need to tell me that riding a motorcycle is dangerous.
Tell me something I don't know. Otherwise you're wasting everyone's time.
That was my only point in preventing people telling me that the otherwise excellent solvent has deleterious properties (that everyone already knows).
Grandkids. All Roman Catholic. You're doomed. :)
But the goal is to dilute the gasoline 10:1 so that it can be stored and used inside. The scientific trick is to find a good diluent that negates the deleterious properties of the gasoline.
If that's too difficult a scientific problem for you, I understand. Engineering a solution isn't always as simple as buying something off the shelf.
California is a big state (which is why they get away with being whacko) where I'm nowhere near the border. Too bad. That's a great price for 90% alcohol and 10% water.
I am hoping that the solvent that we scientifically come up with is not only readily available, but that it *lowers* the negative qualities of gasoline.
Thanks for looking at the problem from a scientific standpoint.
The main issue is that gasoline is a *fantastic* readily available and cheap (relatively) solvent for eliminating the goop under the labels (after the label is removed by soaking in water); but gasoline (a) stinks, and (b) is flammable.
So all we're trying to do is reduce those two deleterious qualities: a. Lower the stink (or mask it with a better stink perhaps) b. Lower the flammability issue (probably by lowering the quantity)
Looking at naphtha as the diluent and gasoline as the solvent, and assuming something around a 1:10 ratio of diluent to solvent, the first thing I find is that naphtha is, like gasoline, not a single chemical in and of itself.
Looking up whether naphtha is a good diluent for gasoline, people do it:
But the results were too complex for me to glean the gist of the results in a single skim, so I'll move on to the next suggestion for the moment.
I don't see butane readily available either. It might be (e.g., lighter refills), but it seems too flammable for me to consider as the diluent.
The problem, I think, with *any* alcohol, is that they're gonna dilute it with water, and water isn't what we want to mix with the gasoline, so, unless we can find reagent grade alcohols, I think alcohol that we do find will have water in it.
Is that a common household chemical?
This is interesting, even though carbon tetrachloride is probably difficult to get and hence isn't a standard household chemical.
You have a good point in that the goal of dilution is to reduce the deleterious qualities of the gasoline, which, let's face it, works just fine as a label goop remover.
The problem with the gasoline is obvious though, so that's what I'm trying to reduce by diluting with some other common household chemical.
I was hoping that the dilution would reduce the negative complications of gasoline.
From the scientific standpoint (which is really what I'm after), are you saying that a 50:50 mixture of methanol and gasoline would be *more* flammable than a 100% mixture of either one?
Thanks for that video.
The video underscores the fact that no one solvent works in all cases, so all we really are looking for is a solvent that works most of the time.
The video also underscores the *confusion* that surrounds removing labels.
They tested against paper labels the following removers:
The confusion is that the video highlights that there are two *separate* problems, one of which I've solved long ago, but both of which they are attacking.
I only am attacking the underlying goop, since soaking removes paper labels quite well already.
IMHO, when I'm looking for a cheap readily available household chemical to remove the goop, I don't need to make the problem *harder* by also asking that chemical to remove the (paper in this case) label, especially since there is already a cheap readily available household solved (aka dihydrogen oxide) which removes paper labels quite handily.
I hear you on the miracle-in-a-can as I knew about it, and had tried it years ago, and decided it was a myth. But I can try it again, especially if, as you say, they supply a liquid version of this miracle in a can.
I appreciate that advice since I didn't know they made a liquid form. I have only used the spray, and found it to be substandard in every way for "lubrication" and "protection" of metal-on-metal surfaces.
Thank you for that point, which I agree with you on, which is that for my use, the miracle in a can will best be the liquid version.
Interesting that you mention a "label". I always remove the label first, generally by soaking in plain old water. Once I have the label removed, that's where I need the solvent to remove the goop.
I think I've tried it, but I see I don't have any on my shelves at the moment, so, if California will allow me to buy it, I'll pick up some lacquer thinner if it's still sold.
And wipe your shoes before you come in the house. Otherwise, someone might slip on the mud.
Robert Bannon posted for all of us...
AS a FF I was going to let this pass but I see from some of your replies are less than "manly" as you put it.
Please let me know where you live, when you are going to do it and if there are innocent victims in your abode. I will update the run card and CAD so responders will not endanger themselves to recover your charred unrecognizable remains.
-- Tekkie
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