Thread: 100% Metho

Metho, or its US equivalent denatured alcohol, contains 5% methyl alcohol so that it poisons the poor drunks for whom it is the drink of first choice. I was not aware that you could purchase 100% ethyl alcohol.

Does it make any difference to the quality of the shellac mix if pure ethyl alcohol is used as opposed to normal metho?

I was brought up in the Port Adelaide area and saw my share of drunks. I was told back then that the additive to metho could be removed by straining it through bread crust. The old bloke that told me that didn't look very well, so I didn't try his recipe.

G'day.

Ya bark'n up the wrong tree..... the problem is the water content.
Most common & garden variety meths has 5% or more water in it &
thats crook for shelac, makes it go cloudy....

I haven't seen it at the regular hardware or supermarket but
it is available throught some of the paint places & chemical suppliers.

'Tis called 100% Industrial Methylated Spirits or 100%IMS or Ethyl Alcohol (Ethanol). It contains less than 1% denaturant to make it unpalatable and NO WATER.

You will most often find it under the name Industrial Methylated Spirits. Don't even bother looking at Bunnings. A good paint shop or most Mitre 10's and other good hardware shops will either stock it or get it in for you.

Cheers - Neil

[QUOTE=Neil]'Tis called 100% Industrial Methylated Spirits or 100%IMS or Ethyl Alcohol (Ethanol). It contains less than 1% denaturant to make it unpalatable and NO WATER.

I must admit that this has had me bugged for a while, on Neil's web site it also says this as well. To me as a scientist Methyl alcohol is what makes up methylated spirits not ethanol so with todays post I did a bit of searching. IMS is so called because it is ethanol doped with methanol to make it poisonous to drink. 95% methlyated spirits does refer to the water content, see attached specs from BP (admittedly from the UK) but as that is the standard that is also used with scientific supplies I doubt that it would be different here.

http://www.distill.com/specs/BPChemicals5.html

The other issue is that all alcohol solutions are hygroscopic ie they absorb water. The 100% you buy may well not be, every time it is opened to the air it absorbs water. For moisture critical applications this may be an issue, we usually maintain such stocks over chemical driers to absorb the water.

I must look toooooo much like a low life cause when I bought a large quantity I was just given a strange smile and served quickly :eek:

It's ethyl alcohol, and surprise surprise, a hell of a lot of it is made by a certain company that makes rum. The father of doctor mate of mine used to be the Man Dir of the company and he assures me that the rum is cheaper to make.
Kind hic regards
Shlurmite

Originally Posted by Termite

It's ethyl alcohol, and surprise surprise, a hell of a lot of it is made by a certain company that makes rum. The father of doctor mate of mine used to be the Man Dir of the company and he assures me that the rum is cheaper to make.
Kind hic regards
Shlurmite

You can air distill to make the rum, ie no special equipment required. Once you go beyond ~70% you need to do some fancy chemistry to get higher (either azeotropic distillation with toluene or chemical dehydration of the alcohol/water mix) and so the cost goes up, however the marketing cost goes down. I think we pay about $5/L for pure methanol/ethanol for general purposes, this can be a lot greater for special purpose stuff ie> $100/L.

Is there such thing as 100% methanol? would that be any good for shellack?

Originally Posted by Rowan

I must look toooooo much like a low life cause when I bought a large quantity I was just given a strange smile and served quickly :eek:

Rowan,
Next time don't ask for the big chilled bottles out of the fridge! :eek:

Mick

"he assures me that the rum is cheaper to make"

Can you mix shellac flakes with rum?

Marc - Methanol is highly toxic and is banned from use as a solvent in many countries, including (I think) Australia. It is also known as Methyl alcohol, Wood alcohol, Wood Spirit and other names.

Don't use it as a solvent, even if you can manage to get hold of it

100% Industrial Methylated Spirit is Ethyl Alcohol and the stuff we get is 99% pure alcohol with around .5% denaturant and .5% water this makes up the 1% that isn't pure alcohol. The denaturant as a rule is Methanol but not always, there are others that are sometimes used.

From PAH1 - The other issue is that all alcohol solutions are hygroscopic ie they absorb water.

You are dead right, However some of the stuff may have as much as 10% or more water in it directly from the manufacturer. This is the main reason I always suggest people buy 100% IMS. Why on earth would you want to give the water a 5% or greater head start?

Unless you were to do something really, really stupid, I would suggest that the absorption rate of water into an open bottle of metho would be less than a fraction of a % even if the lid was to be left off for a few days or even weeks.

Cheers - Neil

PS don't believe all you read on MSDS's I have seen the same specs quoted for 3 different types of Meths.

I've often wondered what denatured alcohol was and after following this thread I did a Google on methylated spirits and got

http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/ME/me...ed_spirit.html

Here it displays a safety data sheet for Meths and states it is also known as denatured alcohol.

I've only had a quick look but for the purists it seems it all depends where the stuff comes from determines it's actual makeup but there's always some water albeit not very much.

There, that's my two penuth.

Strewth :eek: - There is no way in the world I'd want the stuff in the above MSDS in my shellac.

It consists of:
Ethanol > 60%
Methanol or MIK < 10%
bad taste - trace
colouring - trace
topped up with < 10% water
Total 80% give or take a bit

I have no idea what the missing 20% (or there abouts) would be. Maybe a bit of orange juice. :confused:

Well, there ya go..... I rest my case. Use the good stuff.

Cheers - Neil

PS Like I said earlier don't believe everything you read in an MSDS.

Now now Neil, your the alchemist, dont you know what the little < & > are for?