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Post by cory62 on Jul 23, 2021 16:26:13 GMT -8
I found a solution to this problem at my Canadian Tire / Home Depot
"Solvable Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK), 946-mL"
I am going try tomorrow and will post the results
Cory
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Post by kevinkk on Jul 23, 2021 18:26:03 GMT -8
I found a solution to this problem at my Canadian Tire / Home Depot "Solvable Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK), 946-mL" I am going try tomorrow and will post the results Cory I used MEK for dispatching, I was able to buy it at the hardware store here in the USA, then they changed the formula, and now I can't find it, I use ethyl acetate now, I bought 2 oz bottles of it from Bioquip fairly recently, but maybe supply has changed now.
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jwa121
Junior Member
Posts: 28
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Post by jwa121 on Jul 26, 2021 7:19:01 GMT -8
I also use Ethyl Acetate. I buy mine in 500 ml canisters from www.westlab.com.
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Post by yorky on Jul 26, 2021 9:03:45 GMT -8
As a kid with no money I used my sisters nail polish remover, worked a treat.
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jwa121
Junior Member
Posts: 28
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Post by jwa121 on Jul 27, 2021 7:52:59 GMT -8
When I was a kid and just getting started with Lepidoptera, I used liquid Carbon Tetrachloride I got from an old metal fire extinguisher.
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Post by papiliotheona on Jul 27, 2021 11:08:18 GMT -8
I hate EA as a degreasing agent--odorless mineral spirits and xylene are much better (the latter is very expensive and smells horrible). All of these are extremely vile toxic polycyclic hydrocarbons that you must use outdoors with gloves. A respirator would be a good idea.
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Post by Cassida on Aug 6, 2021 17:07:58 GMT -8
I have the best experience with pharmaceutical (pure) petrol to clean beetles from fat.
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Post by africaone on Aug 6, 2021 23:32:26 GMT -8
buying in big quantity allow very very low price. It is an industrial chemical. Seems that is a non toxic chemical contrary hexane and such cyclic molecule (also those based on Chlore). My favourite as preservation and killing agent (mixed with sawdust), in field and domestic. Be carefeul for hard plastic ( and lunettes), supported only by soft plastic bottle and glass
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Post by jhyatt on Aug 7, 2021 5:57:14 GMT -8
Fats are generally very hydrocarbon-soluble, and hexane always works well for me on moths and butterflies.. less risk of extracting pigment than with ethyl acetate or acetone -- both of which are more polar than hexane and not as efficient at dissolving fats. jh
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Post by johnnyboy on Aug 7, 2021 10:39:24 GMT -8
I think that Toluene is the best all round degreaser, Acetone has a strong affinity for water and can cause wings to crack, toluene smells pleasant too.
Johnny
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Post by 58chevy on Aug 7, 2021 15:33:48 GMT -8
If I remember my chemistry correctly, toluene is a major ingredient in dynamite (TNT, or trinitrotoluene). Toluene by itself is non-explosive but can cause neurological damage if too much is inhaled. It's also an ingredient in plastic model airplane glue, which is why you have to be at least 18 years old to buy it in the USA. I built lots of plastic models in my youth but never suffered any neurological effects. Ditto for carbon tetrachloride, which I used as a killing agent for decades. Neither chemical was regulated when I was young.
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Post by jhyatt on Aug 8, 2021 7:14:15 GMT -8
58chevy, While toluene is a raw material necessary for making TNT, it's not an ingredient in TNT, in the sense that there is no toluene present in TNT... the toluene has been converted to something else when it's used to make TNT. The oral LD50 values for toluene and ethyl acetate are about the same, at close to 5000mg/kg body weight... both are fairly nontoxic. Both are highly flammable. Carbon tetrachloride has an oral LD50 about half that of toluene or ethyl acetate, and is a liver toxin which can cause chemically-induced hepatitis upon chronic exposure. jh
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Post by Adam Cotton on Aug 8, 2021 12:09:04 GMT -8
For those who don't know, LD50 is the dosage at which 50% of subjects die (Lethal Dose 50%).
Adam.
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Post by 58chevy on Aug 9, 2021 13:01:28 GMT -8
Thanks for the technical input. It's nice to have a variety of experts on this forum.
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Post by jhyatt on Aug 10, 2021 5:57:32 GMT -8
Note that a 5000mg/kg LD50 means that a 220 lb person would have to ingest 500 grams of ethyl acetate or toluene to have a 50/50 chance of dying from it. That's over a pound. But it doesn't say that one wouldn't get pretty sick ingesting considerably less. And these are oral LD50 numbers; inhalation is a whole 'nother kettle of fish, with good inhalation toxicity data harder to come by. Always best to avoid inhalation and ingestion of things that aren't normal foodstuffs! jh
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