A 'panic buy' of acetone based nail varnish remover

Up until recently, I have tended to steer clear of printing with ABS, favouring PLA because of past problems with warping and delamination. However, things are getting better - ABS juice and all that - and I am now experimenting with the 'actone vapour bath' treatment for ABS 3D printed objects. I'm getting some fantastic results - just wish that there was something similar for PLA.

Of course, this has increased my consumption of acetone based cheap nail varnish remover which led to a visit to my local pound shop last weekend .... and then to another pound shop as all I could find was "acetone free" stuff. Oh calamity - what is going on? It took me quite a while before I could find the real deal - acetone in 440ml plastic bottles at £1 each, phew! I now have six bottles of the stuff .

Is this a global trend? Is acetone in nail varnish remover on its way out? The alternative is nail varnish remover containing ethyl acetate - is this as good a solvent for ABS as acetone? (I should have laid out the £1 for a bottle to try it out I suppose.... but didn't).

Alan

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2013 08:32AM by Alzibiff.

Wow, it really becomes smooth and glossy after an acetone bath!

Do you vapour the acetone? Doesn,t it stink a lot?

You should get your aceton in a building centre. There you can get
big canisters and it´s without parfume.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2013 09:59AM by merty.

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merty
Wow, it really becomes smooth and glossy after an acetone bath!

Certainly does!

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Do you vapour the acetone? Doesn,t it stink a lot?

Yes and No. The ABS print is placed in a glass container with a lid. (I use a PYREX casserole dish or glass beaker which I cover over with a glass sheet. This is then heated on my heated bed. As I keep everything enclosed, there is very little 'stink'.

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You should get your aceton in a building centre. There you can get
big canisters and it´s without parfume.

Ooooo - don't think I will need that for a while yet but thanks for the heads up..... but what do builders use acetone for?

Alan

I buy pure acetone on eBay. Much cheaper than high street chemists.

Not sure what the objection to the smell is. It smells like pear drops, not unpleasant like ABS fumes are.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

The building centre has it because it´s a very strong resolvent. With it you can clean nearly every paint - even nail varnish

You heated the acetone? So the print was just in the acetone-steam? Do you know that it is highly explosive?
And it is narcotic - of course not very healthy!

I just put it in pure aceton for 5 secs and moved it a bit for that nice effect. Please try this, it´s much less dangerous and unhealty.

There are videos of people setting light to it to show it isn't explosive when contained in a jar.

It isn't very toxic either because your body makes it naturally.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Then there must be nearly no oxigen in that jar. A good mix of oxigen and acetone makes it explosive.

You are right, in normal use it´s not toxic. I wouldn´t breath the steam anyway:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetone

Even if you fill a jar with hydrogen the explosion is not big enough to do any damage. Acetone is far less explosive. If you fill a room with acetone vapour then it becomes dangerous.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

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Alzibiff
It took me quite a while before I could find the real deal - acetone in 440ml plastic bottles at £1 each, phew! I now have six bottles of the stuff .

Bugger me - a quid for a 440 mil bottle? That would cost about 30 dollars in NZ!

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Waitaki 3D Printer

@waitaki
I bought "pure" acetone ONCE - a couple of years ago from a high street pharmacy and that was VERY expensive and probably nearer the £30 mark when scaled up to the quantity of cheap nail varnish remover which I purchased for £1.

@Nophead
Thank you for the note about buying on EBay - I must admit that this had never crossed my mind for some reason which is odd given that EBay is usually my first port of call for most things these days.

@Merty
The first time I tried the acetone vapour bath I was VERY apprehensive but as I had done my homework, that is, read everything I could and watched a number of YouTube videos, I decided to have a go. (I also discussed the technique in person with somebody else who had tried it). As I mentioned, my container has a lid which only comes off when outside. It might be worth mentioning that Nail varnish remover - acetone - is sold as a household product. My teenage daughter uses it to remove nail varnish when she is sat in her room with the doors closed. You are absolutely right to be cautious of course but I would enourage you to give this technique a try.

Alan

Now I watched those videos, too. Putting the prints in cold acetone just seems to be much easier and faster. Is the result of the vapour so much better that it is worth the effort. Did anyone tried both of it?

Are we supposed to use pure acetone, or just nail varnish remover is enough?

acetone from the paint store is much much cheaper than the nail polish remover variety. If you use nail varnish remover be carefull not to buy the acetone free variety which is very common nowadays