Acetone as a Cleaner!

You have to be very careful - gelcoat may be able to resist it, but it plays havoc with many plastics and sealants...
 
It's a powerful solvent. Prolonged contact with GRP may be detrimental.

It is very volatile and it is highly flammable.

It might be useful at times to remove "stuff" that requires a powerful solvent but would not be my first choice normally.

AFAIK there is no spontaneous combustion risk but maybe Stemar knows something that I dont.
 
I have used it a lot on grp, where it has no obvious effect on the material itself but is superb at removing unwanted paint and dirt. It evaporates extremely fast, so there is little risk of any remaining on rags or cloths. It has a devastating effect on some plastics, especially slide rules! In the days when we used them in the lab this was a regular cause of needing a new one.
 
I found it was the only thing that would remove teak oil overspill from my GRP toerail.

I also used lots of it to remove sticky residues from the GRP in the cabin.

If a damp rag won't shift it, I pretty much move straight on to acetone.

Pete
 
maby said:
Can't be too bad for skin - in moderation, at least - it's the active ingredient in Nail Varnish Remover.
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Because the skin is on the outside of the body, there is a tendency for some people to treat it almost as if it were some kind of impermeable leather. But skin is actually an organ of the body (nails aren't) which will happily absorb whatever's brought into contact with it. That's how ointments work, and that's how even a few splashes of some agricultural chemicals onto the skin can be fatal.

I make a habit of never pouring anything onto my skin that I wouldn't be equally as happy pouring onto my liver or kidneys.
 
electrosys said:
Because the skin is on the outside of the body, there is a tendency for some people to treat it almost as if it were some kind of impermeable leather. But skin is actually an organ of the body (nails aren't) which will happily absorb whatever's brought into contact with it. That's how ointments work, and that's how even a few splashes of some agricultural chemicals onto the skin can be fatal.

I make a habit of never pouring anything onto my skin that I wouldn't be equally as happy pouring onto my liver or kidneys.
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That's all perfectly true - but my point was that thousands of women paint it onto the ends of their fingers every day without any detectable side effects, so acetone cannot be too disasterous for health, in moderation at least. I know that you are supposed to apply it to the nails but there will inevitable be some spillage and if it were positively dangerous it would not be legal to sell it as nail varnish remover.
 
It will permeat your skin and into the blood stream though most of it evaporates, at least thats what the old bold boatbuilders used to say. A little different on nails I think.

Its also bad for the skin and can help bring on conditions similar to eczema.

If you want to clean topsides do the job properly and use quality polishing compounds followed by waxing. An electric polisher with a good supply of heads and mops will make the job easier.

If you have white topsides then Oxyalic acid is what the charter fleets used to use. Dont use it on anything but white though!
 
I used to use Acetone to clean my brushes when I was making fibreglass canoes. It will certainly disolve gel coat and might leave it tacky. I thought its use was advised against now as it might be carcenagentic.
 
Once upon a time I was driving down the A80 on the dual carraigeway past Cumbernauld following a tanker.
On one of the rounabouts now since gone the inside lane was closed causing the tanker to maneuver suddenly into the outside lane and just as in a slowmo replay its load shifted and the tanker gracefully rolled onto its back.
The driver crawled out with little more than a bloody nose and someone offerd him a cigarette.
In the meantime I noted its cargo gushing out into a field drain and smelling that distinct Eau de Acetone I got in my car and got the h... out of there expecting to see the lorry go up in my rear view mirror!
PS it works wonders on Perspex/Polycarbonate windows and hatches-dissolves them!
 
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Mat of mine in the replacement windows and facias game, waters his cleaning acetone with 50% water and uses the mix via hand pump spray bottle for cleaning and whitening up new installations - brings them up bright white and seems to do no harm. He reckons it slows down the evaporation nicely so as to allow better wiping off of dirt and stains.
 
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