Rust protection - joint lubrication

Cougar Allen
Acetone is not flammable??????
Oh yeah, oh yes, yes, yes it is! As a Navy Opticalman we use acetone for glass cleaning often and I can share a small trick we used to use when we needed to light a smoke but were "sans" lighter, matches, etc. A weld striker and a sterile cotton swab dipped in acetone makes a nice lighter, mostly 'cause acetone is quite flammable.
Chris
 
Great offer. I might have to take you up on it. Great to have a neighbor like you folks at ag russell.
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Cougar Allen:
Although the fumes of acetone aka nail polish remover smell bad and are toxic, acetone is not flammable. It sure smells like it ought to be flammable, but it isn't.
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Acetone implies pure acetone, while nail polish remover contains acetone and other stuff (see below).

Please know that pure acetone is extremely flammable folks... I have personally burned off my waste acetone (after cleaning up stuff) in a metal trashcan several times during the past month. Let's just say it goes "whumph" like a BBQ grill light off when I toss a match into the can and get that ignition/deflagration.

Acetone is much more flammable than mineral spirits (paint thinner) which is also flammable, and not far from the gasoline range of flammability.

My wife's Cutex nail polish remover has other additives yet still says "extremely flammable" on the front label:
acetone
glycerine
water
diglycerol
gelatin
fragrance
yellow 11

Those other components will assuredly dilute nail polish remover's flammability from that of straight acetone. But it is the evaporation of the flammable material that gets it into the vapor phase that makes hydrocarbons & solvents flammable... liquid hydrocarbons (gasoline, mineral spirits) and solvents (acetone, MEK) generally don't burn, their evaporative fumes when mixed with oxygen DO burn. So evaporating nail polish remover is going to be almost pure acetone. And therefore flammable.

[This message has been edited by rdangerer (edited 04-21-2001).]
 
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