Acetone

Acetone is easy to get as nail vanish remover, but there is an acetone-free version.

It's a very useful solvent because of its low toxicity - it's approved as a food additive and the LD50 in rats is about 6,000mg per kilo, which is a huge amount.

Much lower quantities of vapour can cause respiratory failure, especially in children.

The hazard is the flammability of the vapour.

Neil

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I was told to provide waste bins for oily rags so turned to the metal basher and asked him to make some bins. He went ahead and used empty anti freeze drums about 20/30 liter size. Next thing I heard a bang and he came running out of the shop, he had no injuries but had started cutting the end of the drum with oxy/aceteline torch which of course ignited the remains of the antifreeze in the tin. I then introduced him to a cold chisel and a hammer.The drum he was working on was ballooned out and split.

One other inident with Ether occured causing death, a worker (female) employed in our Singapore facility managed to ignite about 2 ounces of Ether which was used to clean optics. She died in hospital that night. having been enveloped in a cloud of flame, she had inhaled the flame. and it had damaged her lungs.

The amount of Ether was within the permit allowed on the bench so it was not thought to be dangereous.

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I usually type, 'Acetone 5L' in to ebay when I run low, then sort by price and postage. Are we expecting a problem getting it after Brexit? I will stock up. I got chloroform out of Italy as, 'goods in free circulation', but I think they have put the mockers on that one. Apparently you can make chloroform by reacting acetone and hypochlorite but I haven't checked for awkward byproducts.

Sometimes wonder how I am still alive...

Certain aircraft that were in service in the Air Force used a liquid mono fuel in a starter to get gas turbine engines going, the name of the mono fuel was Avpin. Being a mono fuel it contained its own oxidiser and would support combustion without any oxygen being present, understandably you needed to take great care with said liquid. I was working at a large maintenance unit in what was a very large scrap compound and we heard an almighty bang from the other side of the salvage compound, it transpired that a civilian contractor had tried removing the end of a large steel drum with an oxy acetylene torch unaware that its previous contents had been Avpin. No serious injuries resulted but I think the person concerned checked very carefully any future containers that he encountered. In respect of Acetone, freely available from Ebay in litre bottles, very reasonably priced, also I think available from Amazon.

Dave W

Seems to be widely used in the cooking up of drugs, I think it's a bit hard to get in large quantities, think you have to sign it out.

Most of the acetone nail polish remover has an oil added to prevent the nail drying out.

Ian S C

I've bought Acetone 5 litres  at a time from Fibreglass Material suppliers in the past -the only solvent I know of for the polyester resin. Acetone still seems to be available in anything up to 205 litre drums;

**LINK**

Edited By Stueeee on 28/07/2019 14:00:43

As a possible explosive precursor, acetone is listed as a "reportable" substance. Legally anyone who sells it (including mixtures like nail varnish remover) must report any suspicious transactions. Thus shop staff must be trained to spot such transactions. I guess that's why many outlets no longer sell it.

The same rules apply here in France yet nearly all supermarkets still sell it

Russell