Zumber Posted July 12, 2012 Posted July 12, 2012 We all know the spirit(purple in colour) found in medical use or in spirit lamp used in chemistry laboratory.But yesterday i saw the colourless spirit(named ethanol spirit and diluted with 20 percent water) which is used in dispensary.So can i use it as a alcohol for binding stars.
taiwanluthiers Posted July 12, 2012 Posted July 12, 2012 (edited) When binding stars with a water soluble binder, 25% alcohol is added to help the water "wet" the composition. Straight alcohol is going to dry too fast for you to do anything useful. It doesn't matter much which alcohol you use but you want to avoid anything harmful like methanol. Edited July 12, 2012 by taiwanluthiers
Zumber Posted July 12, 2012 Author Posted July 12, 2012 thank you mate...Well i will use more water to dilute ethanol.....One more question,can i use this alcohol to dissolve shellac?
taiwanluthiers Posted July 12, 2012 Posted July 12, 2012 alcohol will dissolve shellac but very slowly so I don't know if it's a good binder by itself. Plus its also more brittle. Normally stars are bound with dextrin.
Potassiumchlorate Posted July 12, 2012 Posted July 12, 2012 It's too much water in it. You should have at least 96% alcohol for that. Shellac becomes hygroscopic with water present. Paradoxically you can bind with dextrin and dry the water out, but if you bind with the shellac itself, the water might be trapped in the stars. I now bind shellac stars with dextrin. Only my green Bengal fires are bound with the shellac itself, and then I use 99.5% isopropanol.
Zumber Posted July 13, 2012 Author Posted July 13, 2012 Just asked because i am to suck to make shellac into powder form.I also use dextrin to bind stars but above question arrises in some shellac based composition.
mabuse00 Posted July 14, 2012 Posted July 14, 2012 I prefer pure isopropanol. This stuff is dirt cheap and unlike non-taxed ethanol comes without water content.No need to misuse germicides and lamp fuels...
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