US Jargon.

Could someone please tell me what the Australian equivalents are for Naptha and mineral spirits? What are they. Are there common names?
I noticed Naptha's in the materials section of A Polishers Handbook as "Petroleum distillate used as a solvent and cleaner"
The guys at Mitre 10 looked at me funny when I asked them about it. They haven't heard of it.

Are there any other strange terms I should look out for??
What do the Americans call Turps for instance. Not once have I read anything about it.
Cheers,
Mark

G'day Mark

Naptha is a petrolium distilate which is a colourless and highly volatile intermediate between gasoline and benzine. Don't go looking for it at Mitre 10. They will look at you funny if you ask for anything out of the ordinary. Try them with liquid hydrocarbon and see what sort of response you get. http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/wink.gif I think you will find that Naptha is usually only available in quantaties of 60 or 200 litres and you won't get it at the local hardware shop. You will need to go to an industrial supplier of petrolium and spirit products like Solchem in Spotswood Melbourne. You will also find that you may have to have a liscence to obtain it.

Turpentine (the mineral kind) is also known as Petropine, Mineral Turpentine and Liquid Hydrocarbon.

The pure kind is oleoresin derived from a varity of conifers especially the long leaf pine, and I am pretty sure there is a pine called the Turpentine Pine.

I think it may also be called wood alcohol in the US but am not sure if that is turps or some other kind of alcohol like methylated spirits. It is known as Turpentine oil in the UK and I presume also the US. I think you may find that mineral spirits also refers to turpentine, but again I am not 100% sure.

Hope this helps a bit Mark. It is really confusing, I have tried to find out the names in various countries of these for years and am basically still none the wiser. I am sure if some of our American friends answer this post you may even get more variations in the names.

Cheers
Neil http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/smile.gif

Neil,
I Tried a post on a badger pond forum and got some great responses. I noticed Mitre 10 where selling cigarette lighter fluid in the finishing section right next to turps and metho. One of the posts at Badger suggests that NAPTHA is the main or only ingredient in lighter fluid!!!!
If you get the time, have a read of the responses. Even one from Jeff Jewitt who started this with all the funny terms he uses in his books http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/wink.gif.
http://www.wwforum.com/cgi-bin/forum...gi?read=140376

Hope this link works if not it's the main forum at Badger pond then 'finishing'.
Cheers,
Mark.

[This message has been edited by Mark Woodward (edited 20 February 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Mark Woodward (edited 20 February 2000).]