Acetone price

fitzo

fitzo

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I just paid $31 for a gallon of acetone. Ace Hardware. Wife paid $22 just a couple months ago for the one I emptied today. Rapid cost increase.

How much is acetone in your area? Did I get gouged or is this just in keeping with the rise in other petrochem where they're sticking it to us all? Premium is up over $4 here in Chicagoland.
 
Here in NW Indiana (about an hour from Chicago) we're at about $20 per gallon at Menards and Home Depot. I like Ace Hardware for some things in a pinch, but I rarely expect to save any money there. With Menards' perpetual 11% mail in rebate, it comes to about 17.77 per gallon. (Or $80 for 5 gallons).

Last time I bought 25 feet of Romex from an Ace Hardware, it was right around the cost of 50 feet from Menards.
 
Thanks, guys. I had a hunch that tingle back there meant I'd been had. :( I went down to the Ace because it's much smaller than HD and I don't get around so well. Emergencies only from now on.

Guys, thanks for mentioning 5 Gallon cans available to consumers. I didn't know that. That'll be my next replacement.
 
I think that in today’s situation, the supply chain is so messed up, that the price you see at the receiving end reflects what it took to get it in to your hands. I guess the only way to respond to that is … do you like and have a relationship with the small guy who is trying to get by… oh, and by the way stocks all the small, low demand, stuff that HD or menards does not? At least for me, it is not “who gives me the lowest price on XXX item”, but rather who do I want to maintain an ongoing relationship with … because in general they treat me right. If today, they are at the bum end of a bum supply chain, it is not their fault
 
It’s about $14 a gallon here in the St.Louis area. 14-2 romex is $130 for a 250’ rool.
 
Cushing H. said:
I think that in today’s situation, the supply chain is so messed up, that the price you see at the receiving end reflects what it took to get it in to your hands. I guess the only way to respond to that is … do you like and have a relationship with the small guy who is trying to get by… oh, and by the way stocks all the small, low demand, stuff that HD or menards does not? At least for me, it is not “who gives me the lowest price on XXX item”, but rather who do I want to maintain an ongoing relationship with … because in general they treat me right. If today, they are at the bum end of a bum supply chain, it is not their fault
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I'm going to check out the Ace about two miles down the road. Different owner. That's where my wife bought a gallon for $19.99+T about 4 months back. If the price is still $20, the $27.62+T would be a bit excessive, even for "local" business.

I haven't been in a HD or Menards in years since I found out these B stores sell lesser quality hardware than over in the ritzy towns. I'm also glad to buy local and pay a little extra for the local economy.

Provided, of course, I am not getting screwed. That would be sad. I have frequented that particular Ace since I was a 13 year old. Next month I'll be 70. That's pretty damned good patronage.
 
I found some in a small town, out of the way independent lumber yard that sold some paint. 30% less than the current because they physically sticker price tagged it 5+? years ago and prices have since risen.
 
Pretty sure Ace will price match. Find a gallon of it online at Lowe's/HD and show them when you go in. They should match it then you can still go there but pay the same
 
Instead of complaints on the price on acetone you should be happy that you can still get it in stores at all.......... In Macedonia you can't buy it anywhere , purchase only with special permit .Same is in several EU country I know for sure .............Luckily I can get it from a friend who owns a furniture factory. Someone was explaining to me that it was something drug related but I’m not sure ........
 
Natlek said:
Instead of complaints on the price on acetone you should be happy that you can still get it in stores at all.......... In Macedonia you can't buy it anywhere , purchase only with special permit .Same is in several EU country I know for sure .............Luckily I can get it from a friend who owns a furniture factory. Someone was explaining to me that it was something drug related but I’m not sure ........
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Apparently acetone can be used in one step in the synthesis of Meth (in the same step white gasoline (aka Coleman or Campstove fuel can be used). That step is incredibly dangerous, as it includes heating the stuff to a high temperature, which generates very, very flammable gas fumes. Not even mentioning that breathing those fumes is a Really Bad Thing, one small spark In the room and …. Boom. Acetone is even *more* flammable than white gasoline. Using it in that synthesis step is … insane (but it sounds like enough people have done it that some countries have restricted access to it)

For our purposes, I have tried acetone for surface cleaning/degreasing … but I have a small indoor space, and it’s fumes are so strong and lingering (and I am concerned about impurities in it) that I have stopped using it. I’ve settled on 90% isopropyl alcohol, which is not quite as good a degreaser, but seems ok, it’s fumes are not nearly so bad, and it is really pure. If you are concerned with cost of acetone, you might consider switching to isopropyl…
 
Isopropyl fumes are still toxic.

If you can get pure ethanol, that's the best one.

Everclear 95% is sold in alcohol stores​

 
12345678910 said:
Isopropyl fumes are still toxic.

If you can get pure ethanol, that's the best one.

Everclear 95% is sold in alcohol stores​

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Technically isopropyl fumes are indeed toxic … but they are produced in much lower concentration than from acetone, and I find them tolerable (if they were that bad, I doubt the stuff would be sold in drug stores for application to bare skin). Iso would be a slightly better degreaser than everclear, as the isopropyl alcohol molecule is less polarized than the ethanol molecule is (and not all of the US states allow sale of the 95% stuff … MN only allows sale of the 150 proof (75%) everclear 😒
 
You might consider using M.E.K. Methyl Ethyl Ketone. I get it at Lowes, or Sherman Williams. I like it better than acetone.
 
Tom Lewis said:
You might consider using M.E.K. Methyl Ethyl Ketone. I get it at Lowes, or Sherman Williams. I like it better than acetone.
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Ugh .... I had to use that in a manufacturing process many years ago ..... it was not well controlled/ventillated, and now I can not stand the smell of it....
 
Nail polish remover is acetone nowadays. At least in the US.

N Natlek I am sad to read that access to a solvent like acetone is so limited in Macedonia. Regulation can be a good or bad thing. I make no comments, lest I offer offense where I would not want. I am glad your resourcefulness manages to keep you cleaning with acetone when wanted. :)

As a retired chemist and safety officer for a huge pharma company, I have a much different viewpoint than most here because I worked with chemical processes for so long. Much like a welding flame, a flame-spewing gas forge, the airborne grinding particulate we try not to breathe, exposure to the the chemical factories called exotic wood, or a near-sharp blade flying off a grinder, it's all very dangerous both short and long term. That said, learning how to do things safely makes it no worse than any of those other activities. Driving a metal box at 100kph down a concrete slide with other metal boxes all around is sorta nuts, too, if you think about it for long.

And I agree with Mr Cushing. There are a few solvents I just cannot stand. MEK is one of them. The methyl isobutyl ketone in current denatured alcohol turns my stomach, too. You have a strong constitution, Mr Lewis!
 
Acetone is kept in squirt bottles beside every sink for rinsing glassware in the labs I worked in. Jugs are on hand to make dry ice baths also. Overall it is pretty far down the list of safety concerns.
 
Richard338 said:
Acetone is kept in squirt bottles beside every sink for rinsing glassware in the labs I worked in. Jugs are on hand to make dry ice baths also. Overall it is pretty far down the list of safety concerns.
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Actually, I take back what I said earlier about acetone being more flammable than white gasoline (it is not). But it still has a pretty respectable vapor pressure. Several times I used it in my little basement shop. 15 minutes later you could smell it throughout the entire house. In a well ventilated area, like a dedicated shop building, or a lab roomin a business with its hvac and exhaust to outside, that would be less of a concern .

I agree, in the labs I have worked in, acetone was pretty regularly used … but then again, they had good ventilation to the outside
 
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