Low water alcohol for shellac

Quote:

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Edit! I was going to mention they usually have highly refined versions of most of their chemicals for a few more $$.

Here is the 99.9% IMS: https://www.sydneysolvents.com.au/me...-grade-5-litre

I don't think that link is IMS Woodpixel, the description says 100% Methanol, which is the nasty version of alcohol. IMS is mostly Ethanol with a dab of Methanol to make it undrinkable.
I am guessing that pure methanol should not be used as a solvent for shellac!

Do not use Methanol it works but is highly toxic.

Methanol used to be used to denature ethanol by adding 10% to the alcohol to make it unpalatable and nauseating for recreational use. The addition of methanol is what gave us the term Methylated Spirits spirits, or Metho / Meths.

Methanol is mostly no longer used as an additive here in Australia. However in the USA it can make up as much as 50% or more of the mixture in Denatured Alcohol

Where to buy 100% IMS
You can buy 100% IMS (100% Ethanol) in Australia, quite readily if you are prepared to buy it in 4, 20 60 or 200 litre containers. 1 litres are much harder to come by but are available as per the original post.

Water absorption and shellac

There should be no real need to bother too much about the water absorption of 100% IMS. So long as the container is kept sealed when not in use it shouldn't absorb enough moisture from the air to hinder it's usefulness for shellac which will work fine with 95% IMS, which in turn could have up to 10% water in it even though it's only supposed to have 5%. Leaving the lid off a bottle for a whole day in really humid weather wouldn't make it unusable. Probably get away with leaving it off for a week, but that would just be dumb.

Shipping and postage.
I'm very surprised that it is being sent through the mail Australia Post as it is Highly Flammable Hazerdous Goods and as such is not allowed to be carried by Australia Post and for most freight Companies and Couriers there should be a Hazardous Goods surcharge of up to $20 per item above regular price.

Some transport companies like Star Track refuse to carry it. Or used to some 10 years ago after hellishly expensive cleanup due to a DG spill.

The above is why we don't sell it, even though we would have up to 1000 litres of it in the factory at any one time.
Hope this has been of some use.

Cheers - Neil
THE BELOW :aro-d: SHOULD NOT GO VIA AUSTRALIA POST :blowup:

https://www.sydneysolvents.com.au/as...THANOL5LTR.png

My apologies for causing confusion. I need to write this down and try to memorise it.

Thanks to all for clarifying.

(100% IMS (Industrial Methylated Sprits) ISNT methanol/methylated-spirits at all, but ~100% ethanol + denaturant).