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Topic: New finishing technique

I was scrolling through thingiverse and found someone who claimed, that carburetor cleaner smoothed ABS and made PLA flexible. So i headed out to take a look in the old garage and see if his claim we right. Unfortunately i have no photos at the moment, but I'll post my results when i do. But it worked! I hung my piece by some wire and place the jar in semi-hot water after just About 5 minutes i saw it starting to gloss over. I stopped as soon as it was starting to shine so i still see ridges of the layers. I will update with photos at 5 minute intervals.

2 (edited by adrian 2013-06-13 05:58:07)

Re: New finishing technique

That would be because Carbie Cleaner is 20-30% Acetone, and 35-45% Toulene, and 20-30% Methanol.... and its Acetone that does all the work anyway... I personally, would not like to handle/inhale Toulene and Methanol on any regular basis.

Acetone is naturally produced in the body, and disposed of from the body in normal metabolic process. Diabetics actually produce it in quite large amounts... as do Pregnant women and nursing mothers...

Toulene on the other hand, produces anti-depressant-like effects in tested animals, and is a blocker and antagonist for various receptors in the body. Theres a reason its abused as an inhalant wink

Methanol is also highly toxic, although you need to be ingesting pure methanol to make it relevant.

So yeah.. the new technique.. is just using a pressurised can version of the 'old' technique that also used only the primary active ingredient anyway (Acetone...) and the new technique is far worse for your health...

The MSDS for one of the more popular Carbie Cleaners out there (at least here in Australia) : http://www.crcindustries.com/faxdocs/msds/5079.pdf

Personally, I'd rather stick to the purer 'traditional' method... Or you could dable with using acetone in a 'spritzer' bottle to achieve the same effect.... without the Toulene or Methanol (which don't help the process, just makes it far more unhealthy....).

MSDS's are always worth checking too before launching into experiments... you can for example create deadly gases (we are talking less than 1 part per 1000000 is lethal...) from PVC without very much effort at all....

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Re: New finishing technique

yeah, i was going to add only do this outside.
well I'm finished with my little experiment, here id my results. http://imgur.com/a/xsFwq#9qNQRaC
Hmm, for some reason this worked better than when i tried it with acetone. Maybe I was impatient with it i'll have to try it again.

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Re: New finishing technique

Putzy16 wrote:

yeah, i was going to add only do this outside.
well I'm finished with my little experiment, here id my results. http://imgur.com/a/xsFwq#9qNQRaC
Hmm, for some reason this worked better than when i tried it with acetone. Maybe I was impatient with it i'll have to try it again.

Acetone works because it eats the Styrene (the S in ABS).
Acetone vapour works better than liquid acetone, as its easier for the acetone to latch onto the styrene.

In the same way Liquid Fuel ("Gasoline" so to speak) doesn't burn, only Fuel Vapour (which is why it burns above the pool of liquid when ignitied), so is the same here. Acetone liquid is massively saturated.. but once its vaporised its far easier to bond to things than as a saturated liquid.

This is why the commercial smoothing stations are generally speaking derivatives of Acetone Vapour Baths.... and then theres the whole 'whats the best ratio of acetone vapour to air' etc etc discussion...

The methanol and toulene in the carbie cleaner will cause faster evaporation of the acetone, and thus, forming of acetone vapour, which is whats doing the actual heavy lifting...