The whole problem with this "what do I use to thin epoxy/alcohol" question is that there are three different types of alcohol commonly available out there and all of them are available with different percentages of alcohol. "Alcohol" can refer to any of a great number of different compounds and simply means that one carbon atom has an "OH" on it.

Methanol="wood alcohol"= "methyl hydrate". This in glow fuel. TOXIC!. [:'(] Available in concentrations up to 99% in paint stores. Also sold as gas line "antifreeze". Also sold as fondue fuel. The other 1% is water and trace contaminants. Produced by the oil industry. Is one carbon long.

Ethanol="grain alcohol"="spirits". This is the stuff in beer/wine etc. Usually taxed like crazy because people like to make things out of it... like rum punch. [sm=bananahead.gif] To allow it to be sold without all the tax, it can be bought as "denatured alcohol". Denatured alcohol is ethanol to which relatively small amounts of things like benzene or methanol (hence "methylated spirits" ) or any combination of about 20 or so other chemicals have been added. These additives make it taste horrible, make it poisonous and make it darn near impossible to distill into anything even close to being drinkable. A real good chem lab might be able to clean it up, but you would spend so much time/effort/money doing it and need all the right equipment that if you have all that money, you may as well go out and buy a bottle of whisky (Single malt please!). Produced by fermentation... yeast and sugars. Is two carbons long.

Isopropanol. Often sold as "rubbing alcohol". ... but not all "rubbing alcohol" is isopropanol. Confusing huh? [sm=confused.gif] Not as toxic as methanol, but still toxic if you decide to make rum punch out of it. Available in concentrations of up to 99%... usually in drug stores. the other 1% is water and trace contaminants. If you're looking for it in adrug store, you might have to ask for it as some jurisdictions have restricted it's sale because the idiots who run illegal drug labs use it as a solvent. Often used in antiseptic wipes prior to giving injections. Again... an oil industry product. Is three carbons long... the "iso" part just refers to which carbon the "OH" is on.

"rubbing alcohol"... a non specific term for either isopropanol or denatured alcohol.


For what it's worth, I use 99% isopropanol to mix with epoxy. Denatured alcohol works too... just get the highest percentage you can and don't make it too thin. The other thing I've found that seems to work OK is finishing resin... really thin watery epoxy with about an eight hour cure time.

Sheesh... and here was me trying to forget all that organic chem!