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Dettol 10 years 11 months ago #20593

The reasons I use De-Solv-It Grafitti Remover on ABS/Styrene shells is that it's better than sanding, and way faster than brake fluid, but it does have disadvantages - principally that it does soften the plastic, and it reeks & dissolves gloves - or goes straight through them :blink: so I'm keen on exploring alternatives ...

My question is, does Dettol really have any advantages over using caustic soda? B&Q have 1 kg packs for 4.98 GBP, I think that would go quite a long way ...





I can't say I've seen any problems with buying Acetone in the UK, I don't tend to buy more than a litre in a year, but I've seen quantities up to 25L Acetone on eBay - that's 99.5%, so the very high end of "Technical" grade & very nearly "histo" grade.

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Dettol 10 years 11 months ago #20599

:huh:
The only dettol I know in France is a hand wash product :silly: :lol: :silly: :lol:

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Dettol 10 years 11 months ago #20601

Caustic Soda are you serious !!! the most lethal and dangerous and corrosive cleaner to use and you're worried about dettol smelling bad, wait till your hands smell from being eaten up by the soda!!!
Mike

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Dettol 10 years 11 months ago #20605

:cheer:
I 'm serious Mike,
Dettol is a gamme of cleaning products without "javel" and very good for the health. "bactericid and other thinks... In France it is a mark.
Flo

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Last edit: by stingray-63.

Dettol 10 years 11 months ago #20609

Hmm...
Not convinced about acetone NOT going for ABS, but I'm curious now so gonna have to blag some from work... I know they use it there for "Cleaning off polyester resin", but it seems to melt everything else BUT that from what I've seen (In fact, what are fake nails made of? - it definately melts those!)

Yes, fully aware of MEK & its uses. Been splashing about in it today in fact (uPVC pipework in a dosing cabinet for Center-Parcs)

Caustic soda isn't as bad as you're making out. Sure it's unpleasant to get on your hands, you wouldn't want to bath in it, but believe me it'll take a good 3 minutes before it starts stinging & you'll be frantically washing it off long before it gets anywhere near taking your skin off. Been there, done that, splashing about in a bund-full of it at Scott Bader's site after a pump blew a hose off & emptied an entire IBC of the stuff into the bund!
The most significant risk with caustic is getting it in your eyes - it will blind you. Apparently it reacts with proteins in yer eyeballs & turns the clear bits white, like frying an egg.Probably not a good idea to drink it either...

Having said all this, you could be in just as much trouble using acetone, MEK, petrol, graffitti-remover, brake fluid, paint, thinners, Dettol, glues, peroxide etc as eyebath, mouthwash or soap, & we manage (In most cases) not to hurt ourselves on those things!

It's all about care & being sensible with stuff - a teaspoon of nutmeg can kill you, as can 1 inch of water

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Dettol 10 years 11 months ago #20619

eddick - you are correct, acetone is no good for ABS. I did some googling and apparently its now being used to help smooth 3D printed ABS projects. I then tried to see what printer cartridges are actually made of and the best I got (with a brief search) was an highly durable engineering grade plastics that will takes about 1000yrs to degrade.

I also agree with you on your comment on respecting what you are using. I've used HF at 50% and 25% concentration without any issues, which is a very dangerous chemical to be in contact with. The key is to understand what could happen if things go wrong, and be prepared.

Anyway, I soaked the test vehicle in dettol for about 24 hrs all up and this is the end result. I should also note I didn't scrub that hard either.



otherside wasn't as good, but I think it didn't get in contact with as much dettol.



This inside had what looked to be some staining, but I think this was from me trying out some WD40 which I think did nothing.




Like I said I didn't scrub it that hard and found it easier and quicker than the brake fluid I'd used on my renault body. But in saying that, I am unsure what the paints where, but most likely modelling paint from tamiya and humbrol. The body does reek now of Dettol though, but that is the only side effect I could see. When I used brake fluid, it seemed to whiten the plastic a little, I did not see that happen here.

So I might now try this on my Brat body and see how that goes.

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Dettol 10 years 11 months ago #20633

HF?! You're a braver man than I, that's some seriously nasty stuff, worse than nitric - apparently it leaches through your skin & proceeds to dissolve your bones. Then, as the calcium builds up in your blood stream, you will suffer ever greater heart attacks until you die from it, & this can take days, & there's no treatment/antidote for it. If you get it on your skin & act quickly seeking medical attention, they usually amputate the affected part to try to stop it spreading through your body.

Somewhat unhelpfully, some plastics bleed the stuff when they've been burnt - burnt out cars & electrical gear are things you really don't want to be poking about with.

What was the print cartridge material in the end? - it's funny stuff, sticky tape won't stick to it & you can't CA glue it. Does funny things if you try to weld it too

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Dettol 10 years 11 months ago #20636

Hi Eddrick I'm either brave or stupid :unsure: I was doing a science degree at the time, my project was forming polymers inside clays, and HF was the only way to retrieve them. Agreed HF is nasty stuff, I'd read many horror stories before I setup my experiment. But I was well protected, so even a spill wouldn't have really been an issue for me (think fume cupboard, lots of protective clothing etc). Better than the glass blower in the chem lab, they use 2% HF to clean glass and one day he had he head over the cleaning bath a little too long and and the vapours fused his contact lenses to his eyeballs, luckily no permanent damage was done. One idea I did say no to my supervisor, was purging pure Hydrogen over a metal at 1000C. If anything went wrong, bye-bye lab.

Agreed you have to be careful with plastics, they can give off some dangerous chemicals. I also didn't end up finding out what the printer cartridges were made off, I kept on getting mainly environment orientated hits that talked about the need to change the plastics that were being used,

regards

Johann

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Dettol 10 years 11 months ago #20646

ok, so I gave my Brat front and rear bumpers a dunk in the dettol. This Brat came to me via ebay, is an original and I have no idea what the paint is. For a first clean I was quite pleased overall. The smudging of paint on the rear bumper is due to me trying to scrub off paint under running water. The large red panels turned out to have a protective coating, so will need to remove and try again. It took me about 5-10 mins with a toothbrush to get this far.


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Dettol 10 years 11 months ago #20662

Next experiment HAS to be to try it on lexan!

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