Thinners

[Blue5]

At one time when you bought paint it would say "Clean brushes in............white spirit, meths or cellulose thinners........Now they all seem to be e.g. No 1 thinners or No 7 thinners, are they all that specialised or is there a comparative chart somewhere e.g No 1 = white Spirit

 

[MoodySabre]

When I bought some varnish it said clean with No 1 thinners. When I asked if they had any they said it was white spirit. Branding is the thing - International No 1 thinners may be more than white spirit. Just an assumption of course

 

[VicS]

Both Blakes and International No 1 thinners appear to be a mixture of white spirit and solvent naphtha.

I am pretty sure that International no1 thinners were at one time just white spirit.

The safety data sheets give some indication of the composition

One day I'll discover what this "solvent naphtha" is!

 

[Pasarell]

Thinner

Thinner No 1 from International and Blakes is white spirit. Thinner No 3 is xylene. If you use those 2 you will not notice any difference from the branded products. Other thinners are blends that can be more difficult to obtain.

 

[VicS]

Thinner No 1 from International and Blakes is white spirit.

If that is so why do the material safety data sheets say differently?

White spirit could be used in place of these though for conventional single pack paints and varnishes

Thinner No 3 is xylene.

International thinners no3 contains 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene (cumene), 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene (mesitylene) and solvent naphtha.

Blakes thinners no3 is 70-100% solvent naphtha

Xylene (dimethylbenzene) if available may make an acceptable substitute and is part of the solvent mix in some if not all the common antifouling paints

 

[earlybird]

Vic; Where do you get this info on compositions from? I'd be interested in the make-up of International Thinners 333, as specified for International Schooner varnish, which seems a fairly traditional one-pot finish.
When I dutifully bought some, it cost nearly £10 for 500ml. Was I paying a rip-off price for what was basically white spirit? As for cleaning brushes in it....!!!

 

[xtiffer]

If you are just cleaning up then white spirit should be OK but I got snookered by some local stuff that ruined my varnish years ago so now I always use the proprietary brand of thinner for adding to paint/varnish.
Better safe than sorry.
Cheers,
Chris

 

[VicS]

Vic; Where do you get this info on compositions from

what I am quoting comes from the safety data sheets, but of course they only list components that are hazardous to health.

Thinners 333 contains 50-100% Distillates (petroleum), hydrotreated light and 10 - <25% Naphtha (petroleum), hydrodesulfurized heavy.

Wiser? No nor am I!

I note thinners no 3 is specified for spraying and that the varnish itself contains 25 -<50% Stoddard Solvent which, as far as I know is white spirit. So why you don't just use white spirit for thinning I have no idea. Maybe because white spirit, as xtiffer discovered, can include all sorts of rubbish.

Xtiffer's advice is probably sensible. Correct solvent for thinning but use white spirit for brush cleaning