Building Tips and technical articles. > Paint and finishing

Denatured alcohol

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Larry Renger:
It seems this mild solvent is now banned in California. Anyone know why? Acetone and others are still available. ⁉️

Dave Hull:
Larry,

From what I can read, it doesn't make a lot of sense. It seems the legislation on this goes back to 2010. I'm not sure of the implementation date. The idea was that the VOCs from denatured alcohol were thought to damage the atmosphere, and probably that it was an "easy" target. It starts to sound foolish if you were using acetone as the denaturing solvent and you can still buy acetone. But acetone is not an easy target due to all of its uses and no substitutes. Or so perhaps someone judged.

I prefer denatured alcohol as the solvent for a shellac finish on my furniture projects, when shellac is suitable. Bummer. Now I might have to resort to using some Golden Grain 190...?

Dave

Steve Dwyer:
Looks like it's right up there with the growing unavailability of Naphtha, another mild solvent.

bill bischoff:
I was trying to find out what the actual composition of denatured alcohol a while ago. What I learned by looking at various MSDS info is that most denatured alcohol these days is essentially an equal mix of methanol and ethanol. I also learned that denatured alcohol started out as ethanol that was "contaminated" with other chemicals to make it unfit for drinking. Compared to "beverage" alcohol, with its associated taxes and fees, "solvent" alcohol was much less expensive, and they didn't want people to drink it because it was cheaper. All that being said, I would think that straight methanol would be an acceptable substitute in most cases. Just my $.02.

Dave Hull:
Bill,

Thanks for the research. I may have to resort to methanol for any future shellac work. Some report that it works. I just haven't had the need since I repaired a couple of antique rocking chairs a couple of years ago. It is going to take a test panel for sure, but I still won't know what it might do over time. I find it interesting that the denatured alcohol I previously bought had a soft, almost oily feel to it. Methanol feels totally different.

I haven't seen naphtha in the store for a while either....

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