working with pure acetone in the home

[blythaustinsandroid]

On Saturday, October 13, 2012 8:45:10 AM UTC-6, Larry W wrote:

ks are very, very low, I am still very concerned as I have a lot of equity = in my house. does regular home owners insurance cover fire? I'm not conc= erned with my floor/carpet as I have laid out an old piece of carpet in tha= t room ((I think he figured out why I did it). I really didn't want him la= ying the tubes out to dry on newspaper. my guess is he probably only uses = a few ounces of the stuff at a time (although he does have the entire 1 pin= t bottle with him when he is working. I've never been able to smell anyth= ing. he saws the tubing into 5 or 6 pieces each 18 inches in length and do= es that many at a time. if he can sell them faster (which he hasn't been a= ble to do), then he may try and do 10 or 15 pieces each time. he'll do the= m, lay them out to try on the newspapers (on the living room floor) and the= n go run errands or go relax in the back yard. he already told me he tried= to find a non flammable chemical that would work but there isn't any. I a= ctually think scotch brite might work. although he might say it will scrat= ch the tubing. I'm a bit surprised he didn't ask me when he started doing= this (especially since the bottle of acetone says flammable right on it). = I would like to tell him to blot out the stamped numbers on the back porc= h, let it dry, and then bring it back in and finish putting the items toget= her. I honestly think it probably only takes him a minute or less to do one= batch. I think the bulk of the time is just letting it dry. he still did= act like it would be a big hassle to take it outside. =20

[Douglas C. Neidermeyer]

Yes, the simple solution is generally the best one...except for top-posting ;-)

[nestork]

Blythe:

Acetone is one of the safer industrial solvents. The concentration in the air needed to make you puke is only 1/10th the amount needed to start a fire or house explosion. So, with acetone you get dizzy and light headed long before there's any real risk of a fire or explosion.

I've worked with acetone for years, and my best advice is to get him to do his work over the kitchen sink. Acetone will not harm stainless steel nor plastic laminate. It WILL, however dissolve any acrylic gloss coating put over a marble or granite counter top, and it will dissolve cultured marble.

Acetone is completely soluble in water, so if you ask him to pour some water down the kitchen sink every few minutes, you'll get rid of the acetone dissolved in the water in your p-trap. Tell him to pour a full gallon down the sink to ensure that any acetone in the p-trap gets past any garburator you have on the kitchen drain piping.

I'd tell him to do his work in your garage, and if he starts daydreaming too much, then to take a breather. But, it shouldn't harm a stainless steel kitchen sink with a plastic laminate counter top.

[DestroyTheMormonCult]

Dont worry about it. Jesus used to drink pure acetone. This is what caused him to hallucinate and make him believe that he was God. If you love the Mormon cult Jesus, you MUST drink acetone to be just like him.

[Tomsic]

thanks

Do you have a bathroom with a tub and exhaust fan? If so, clean the tubing in the tub (acetone won't hurt the porcelain finish), rinse the tub when finished and let the fan deal with the fumes.

Tomsic

[CRNG]

On Sat, 13 Oct 2012 06:16:38 -0400, "John Grabowski" wrote in Re Re: working with pure acetone in the home:

Not safe at all. I would put a stop to it.

[clare]

You do not want to do that with a fiberglass or acrylic tub. Check first - if a magnet sticks, go ahead.

[G. Morgan]

have been helping him sell some gadgets online (he makes them himself). he purchased hard plastic tubing to make the items (it's pretty small tubing). he buys the tubing in bulk. he uses pure acetone to remove some manufacturing numbers that are stamped on one side of the tubing. he uses a cotton swab and dips it in a pint bottle of pure acetone and then uses the swab to blot out the stamped number. I think that's great. however, he's doing it on my living room floor which concerns me. and what concerns me even more, it he spreads out some newspapers to work on and lets the area of the plastic tube dry (the area where he blotted out the stamped number). is this safe? sorta safe? or not safe at all? and when I say safe, I mean safe on the living room floor of someone's home. I really thought laying newspapers under it is a stupid idea. I know nothing about pure acetone other that I read it is

women use all the time in the house) so it should be no big deal to use in the house. all responses are much appreciated. I asked him to take it outside, but he told me he would be extra careful. it's starting to get cold where I live (that may be one of the reasons he doesn't want to take it outside).

Acetone is extremely flammable. It should only be used in a well ventilated area (preferably outdoors). The fumes are not good for lung tissue either. I hope he is soaking the newspapers in water before disposal, you have a major fire hazard there.

[Ed Pawlowski]

So you suggest he draw the flammable fumes over the electric motor?

[hrhofmann]

Bathroom fans are 100% shaded pole motors that do not have brushes to spark. The on-off wall switch might spark, but only on turning off, when the fumes are hopefully gone.

[micky]

When I needed a motor for that 78-year old fan I posted about, that burned up, I looked at the bathroom fans, and yes, they were shaded pole, bruhless, but still one size too big for my table fan. (Rewinding that motor is postponed now that it's not hot out!)

[Ed Pawlowski]

Them silly regulations for explosion proof motors are a waste when any shaded pole motor will do!

[Tomsic]

Bathroom fans are 100% shaded pole motors that do not have brushes to spark. The on-off wall switch might spark, but only on turning off, when the fumes are hopefully gone.

Exactly right. And turn the fan on before opening the container of acetone too.

Tomsic

[Roy]

rote:

nd. I have been helping him sell some gadgets online (he makes them himsel= f). he purchased hard plastic tubing to make the items (it's pretty small = tubing). he buys the tubing in bulk. he uses pure acetone to remove some = manufacturing numbers that are stamped on one side of the tubing. he uses = a cotton swab and dips it in a pint bottle of pure acetone and then uses th= e swab to blot out the stamped number. I think that's great. however, he'= s doing it on my living room floor which concerns me. and what concerns me= even more, it he spreads out some newspapers to work on and lets the area = of the plastic tube dry (the area where he blotted out the stamped number).= is this safe? sorta safe? or not safe at all? and when I say safe, I me= an safe on the living room floor of someone's home. I really thought layin= g newspapers under it is a stupid idea. I know nothing about pure acetone = other that I read it is flammable. my roomate just told me it was fingerna= il polish remover (which women use all the time in the house) so it should = be no big deal to use in the house. all responses are much appreciated. = I asked him to take it outside, but he told me he would be extra careful. i= t's starting to get cold where I live (that may be one of the reasons he do= esn't want to take it outside).=20

e. Acetone vapors are heavier than air and will travel along the counter to= p or floor. If they encounter a source of ignition - flame or spark, for ex= ample - the flame will flash back to the source, possibly causing a larger = fire or explosion. Acetone should be used indoors only with adequate ventil= ation."

dows should be open when he's working? it's a fairly large room he's worki= ng in (probably 10 feet by 25 feet...it's a kitchen/dining room/family room= ....but it's all kinda one big room). it's starting to get pretty cold whe= re I live so that may not be an option. I'd like to tell him to take it ou= tside or search for some other chemical that will do that job that isn't fl= amable. I just don't want to come off as unreasonable as a landlord (and r= oomate).

Fine...but when things go BOOM, don't say we didn't warn you.

=3D=3D

[clare]

The motor has no brushes and produces no source of ignition.

[Jeff Wisnia]

have been helping him sell some gadgets online (he makes them himself). he purchased hard plastic tubing to make the items (it's pretty small tubing). he buys the tubing in bulk. he uses pure acetone to remove some manufacturing numbers that are stamped on one side of the tubing. he uses a cotton swab and dips it in a pint bottle of pure acetone and then uses the swab to blot out the stamped number. I think that's great. however, he's doing it on my living room floor which concerns me. and what concerns me even more, it he spreads out some newspapers to work on and lets the area of the plastic tube dry (the area where he blotted out the stamped number). is this safe? sorta safe? or not safe at all? and when I say safe, I mean safe on the living room floor of someone's home. I really thought laying newspapers under it is a stupid idea. I know nothing about pure acetone other that I read it is fl ammable. my roomate just told me it was fingernail polish remover (which women use all the time in the house) so it should be no big deal to use in the house. all responses are much appreciated. I asked him to take it outside, but he told me he would be extra careful. it's starting to get cold where I live (that may be one of the reasons he doesn't want to take it outside).

That mention of "the floor" reminded me that about 5 years ago a half empty brown glass bottle of acetone which resided in my basement workshop somehow got knocked over and fell down and smashed on the floor.

Even though I mopped it up with rags as fast as I could it did one hell of a number on the vinyl floor ties down there. There's a two foot diameter rough and dull patch right in front of my workbench.

I've tried putting floor wax on it without that being much help.

I'm just glad it happened in my workshop area and not in the kitchen where SWMBO would have insisted on a whole new floor pronto.

I now buy acetone for use in my shop in pint sized metal cans. Keeping it in that brown glass chemical bottle was just a bad choice.

Jeff

[nestork]

On just about every DIY forum I've ever been on, there have always been discussions on the safety of using flammable solvents indoors.

While it's always better to be safe than sorry, it's also true that the risk of solvent vapour explosions is most often over estimated rather than under estimated.

The reason is that the air is mostly nitrogen. There's only about 22 percent oxygen in the air, and so it doesn't take much change in the oxygen level to have an effect on us. Typically, even when the vapour content in the air is well below 1 percent, say at 10 to 50 thousand parts per million, people start getting dizzy, get sore throats, start to vomit and eventually pass out well before the lower explosion limit is reached.

And, on the other side of the coin, 78 percent of the air is nitrogen, which is non-flammable. So, getting a fume explosion in air is much like setting fire to a pile of garbage where 78 percent of the garbage is non-flammable. So much of the energy that solvent vapours release when they burns ends up going to heat all the nitrogen in the air that you have to have a LOT of solvent vapours in the air to keep the combustion going.

Not trying to fan the flames here, (no pun intended) just trying to keep things real. You're far more likely to puke from inhaling too much solvent vapours than you are to blow yourself up.

Better to open up a window on each side of the house or space you're working in to get a bit of a breeze in the room, and to go outside for some fresh air whenever you find you're day dreaming a bit too much.

[Norminn]

And remember that if acetone is getting into your bloodstream in sufficient quantity to make you feel high it is killing a few brain cells. And heart and liver.

[Tomsic]

While I don't think using acetone in the home is a good idea in any enclosed space due to health considerations and the potential fire hazard, the OP doesn't seem to want to put a stop to it. So, it seems to me that the bathroom is the safest space, the tub makes the stuff easy to wash away and the fan deals with the fumes. I doubt that the fumes will be concentrated enough to be flammable if the fan is already running when the acetone container is first opened. But, I share your concern, along with others, that this isn't the kind of thing to be doing in a home.

Tomsic