A few posts down it is asked where to find denatured alcohol. I find 91% isopropyl alcohol readily available. Will isopropyl be as effective as the denatured alcohol? ( I can't find my chemistry book and can't remember the difference!!!)

Denatured alcohol is ethanol (grain alcohol) that has been "denatured" by adding a small amount of methanol (wood alcohol) so that it can't be consumed.

Should be available at almost any hardware store or Wal-Mart, etc.

Isopropyl alcohol is just a tad larger molecule and may act differently with some materials.

I've found denatured alcohol to be a good general purpose solvent for most of my rodbuilding tasks. It doesn't seem to be too aggressive on my rod blank finish while providing good ability to clean up excess epoxy... etc.

I recall having some issues with ispropanol in the past that made me switch to denatured alcohol... but I just can seem to remember what the issues were specifically. Sorry...

Erik

Some places have stopped handling denatured alcohol, due to it being one of the ingrediants of meth. Our local area Wal-Mart being one of them. I buy mine at the hardware store or Lowes.
Good Luck

Eric (with a c)

For techical applications there is absolutely no differences between isopropanol and ethanol (I think - methanol and buthanol - too). Grade of purification - is key factor. Best ethanol is 96% for medicine , best isopropanol is aerosol for clearing of electronic equipment, plastic etc. (Cleaner or IPS).

The important factor is the water content of the solvent. The 91% IPA you mentioned contains 9% water. The more water in a solvent, the less effective it will be in dissolving organic chemicals. Go with denatured alcohol. It can be denatured with different chemicals depending on the grade but it is dry.

Home Depot sells denatured alcahol, in the paint section, by the gallon. Works very well for clean up as stated above.

On matte blanks, I use isopropyl for clean-up, because it doesn't discolor the finish of the blank like Denatured Alcohol does. (By the way, the isopropyl I buy is something like 76%, so it's pretty weak.)

I use denatured alcohol for cleaning up epoxy on gloss blanks, reel seats, cork, etc. I also use it to pull the oils out of my more oily exotic wood inserts, so that I can use oil finishes on them.

Also denatured alcohol burns better , as in your alcohol lamp for flaming bubbles. E..

The only thing I use denatured alcohol for is in my burner. I don't like the smell of it. I use the iso. alcohol for clean up and have had no problems.