cleaning with lacquer thinner

shine

shine

Member
my pet peeve is folks talking about thinner to clean metal. yes the idiots are still out there. got a new can of wash thinner for cleaning guns. this stuff is so bad i cant use it without the fan on pulling the fumes under the bench. it will absolutely take your breath away. good example of not knowing what is in it. no way would i ever let this stuff near fiberglass or even metal. this came from my local napa so no telling what it is.
 
When i get the call about a few bubbles popping up here or there, I can right away from where the bubbles are tell them, the metal was cleaned with thinner or acetone, it has its own road-map as to what and how it happens and when the truth comes out,I'm always right in my guess. Yes it's a great cleaner but will always cause a problem on 3 or 4 panels when an allover is done that way.
 
I just get lacquer thinner from home depot for cleanup since its 12 or so dollars a gallon. I did not see the "real" stuff, just the green label lacquer thinner. It actually did a really good job cleaning the CARC paint from the guns. CARC paint will seal your gallon cans like concrete if you get any in the lip. Usually chance cans each time we open a gallon. But I always run a little bit of urethane reducer thru the gun before starting again.
 
this latest stuff is bad. you absolutely cant breath it. first time i used it my throat shut down immediately . body is smarter than me . no telling what is recycled into it . corvette guys are bad about using it after stripper and there is no talking to them .
 
Last 5 I got from the jobber was pretty bad. I use it only to stretch my recycled reducer for gun cleaning, about a half pint of it to each gallon of recycled stuff. It's just no good in the summer, the evaporation rate is too fast.
 
I keep a 5 gallon can of laq thinner around and dispense it into a small gun cleaning squeeze bottle. I only use it for flushing out my gravity guns which are all fitted for DeKups or PPS.

710 goes into my 32 oz spot sprayer which I use to dispense the 710 onto my wipe cloths for body panels. I'm currently using scott blue shop towels. I'm sure there are better wiping towels out there but that's what I'm currently using.

I'd not wipe a car down with laq thinner. If I was in some kind of macgyver pinch where I was out of 710 and had to use something right now, I'd grab a bottle of isopropyl alcohol long before I'd consider using thinner.
 
i normally get sw clean up thinner but my napa is a private store so he buys any cheap junk he can find. this latest go round is horrible. i've bought my last there.
 
Barry this might be another niche for ya, a gallon and or 5gal of gun wash, just a thought. Remember you heard it here first :).
 
I have you guys to thank for all the great advice, but one thing in particular and that is to really be afraid of these chemicals. I wear my respirator pretty much from start to finish, including when I clean the gun with lacquer thinner :)
 
DATEC;n81328 said:
Barry this might be another niche for ya, a gallon and or 5gal of gun wash, just a thought. Remember you heard it here first :).
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I looked at this about 6-8 years ago as it was something all my jobbers wanted.
Here is what i learned at the time breaking some of this crap down, i have nothing in this place that I can use and to buy the recycled solvents, I would have to go to new suppliers and not getting the best deal because they don't know me, my cost was about the same as a jobber sells it for. A lot of this is private label and the couple of companies that make most of the stuff, this is all they make and they buy right. Yea, I know these are virgin solvent. LOL
 
the sw wash thinner is ok.. this napa just pushed it's own relabel junk on you. my bride picked it up for me . should have returned it. but this is the worst i've ever seen. it's not that it smell bad , you cant breath it period. will use it for some excitement on a burn pile .
 
Raymond_B;n81337 said:
I have you guys to thank for all the great advice, but one thing in particular and that is to really be afraid of these chemicals. I wear my respirator pretty much from start to finish, including when I clean the gun with lacquer thinner :)
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Always wear the respirator while painting and priming, don't be a dumbass like I was when I was younger. I was a total stubborn dumbass looking back when I was starting out. I think we have all done things then we wouldn't think of doing now though. Just respect the material you are using, do I dress in a hazmat outfit now? No but I always wear a respirator.
 
As a kid I got handed a gun full of lacquer primer and was told to climb inside a movie car and prime up all the square tubing. Of course nobody told me I needed a mask. So after about 15-20 minutes of that, I staggered out into the alley and threw up. Felt wrong for days after. Who knows how many brain cells I killed. :p
 
Barry;n81339 said:
I looked at this about 6-8 years ago as it was something all my jobbers wanted.
Here is what i learned at the time breaking some of this crap down, i have nothing in this place that I can use and to buy the recycled solvents, I would have to go to new suppliers and not getting the best deal because they don't know me, my cost was about the same as a jobber sells it for. A lot of this is private label and the couple of companies that make most of the stuff, this is all they make and they buy right. Yea, I know these are virgin solvent. LOL
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Maybe you can let us in on what you learned though and we can choose to mix our own. I think gun washes have some mineral spirits in them since it acts as an oil to coat the needles and seats after the solvent evaporates.Maybe small amounts of MEK, acetone and the rest lacquer thinner? When Producers Chemical comes in here they always want me to buy the recycled lacquer thinner for line wash, I just dont have a flammable storage room to keep a 55 gallon drum around.
 
If lacquer thinner is so horrible to clean a panel with (I have never done it, what does it do?) should we be using a different product altogether to clean our guns with?
 
the problem is most cheap lacquer thinner is recycled solvents. there is no telling what is in it . you can rinse with it then a quick rinse with urethane reducer . but never put it on a panel. if it flashes it leaves residue . ESPECIALLY fiberglass !
 
I used to buy the "recycled" gun wash before I changed supplier. I now use PPG's Omni MS251. I don't think it's recycled, it's more expensive, but I use less since it is stronger.
But I like to pass some reducer in the gun once done cleaning.
 
Marty Comstock;n81366 said:
If lacquer thinner is so horrible to clean a panel with (I have never done it, what does it do?) should we be using a different product altogether to clean our guns with?
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Cleans good the the first solvent to evaporate will dump all the crud in one spot and you will not know it, until the bubble shows up.
Normally fine to clean your gun.
 
anotheridiot;n81365 said:
Maybe you can let us in on what you learned though and we can choose to mix our own. I think gun washes have some mineral spirits in them since it acts as an oil to coat the needles and seats after the solvent evaporates.Maybe small amounts of MEK, acetone and the rest lacquer thinner? When Producers Chemical comes in here they always want me to buy the recycled lacquer thinner for line wash, I just dont have a flammable storage room to keep a 55 gallon drum around.
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Well a mix of MEK and Acetone would work great, mineral spirits are no good in automotive paint for cleaning.
50/50/ mix 25/75 or anything close will work great both very good cleaners.
 
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