[sdiy] keys!

[John Mahoney]

At 05:40 AM 7/17/2008, cheater cheater wrote:
>Andre,
>looking back, I have used a variety: between Ethanol (unmarked purity
>but the standard thing you can get in stores in Poland) and alcohol
>used in surgery. I've never used anything that had turpentine. I
>remember at least once I used 'nail polish remover' and it just melted
>plastic straight away. I am not sure but don't think it had turpentine
>in it. What are your experiences with different alcohol types?
>Cheers
>Damian

Ouch! The active ingredient in nail polish remover is acetone. I 
don't know of anything better than acetone for dissolving plastic.

Is "unmarked Ethanol" the same as denatured alcohol? "Denatured" 
means that *something* has been added. Maybe the additive doesn't 
need to be listed on the label? Here's the Wikipedia definition 
(which should be good enough for our purposes):

Denatured alcohol is ethanol which has been rendered toxic or 
otherwise undrinkable, and in some cases dyed. It is used for 
purposes such as fuel for spirit burners and camping stoves, and as a 
solvent. Traditionally, the main additive was 10% methanol, which 
gave rise to methylated spirits. There are diverse industrial uses 
for ethanol, and therefore literally hundreds of recipes for 
denaturing ethanol. Typical additives are methanol, isopropyl 
alcohol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, 
denatonium, and even (uncommonly) aviation gasoline.
(From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol)

I presume that alcohol for surgery is very pure. Let's hope so!

John