MEK

[Peterm]

I've put this on MRF, but thought I'd share it here too. Just common sense is needed.

I've heard all the horror stories about the use of this stuff, but I'm fed up with paying exorbitant prices for glues. I found some straight Methyl Ethyl Keytone, namely the stuff that plumbers and drainers use to prime plastic drainage/sewerage pipes before gluing. I work in our double garage with the doors and windows open which gives a nice flow of air even without a fan. I don't leave the container open, so I'm not breathing the fumes in anyway. It's doing a magic job of gluing a Ratio Kit together and at A$8.00 for 250ml, I'm well pleased.

[GWR_fan]

Pete,
is that the pink primer fluid? I use it to glue the ABS plastic on LGB conversions. A lot cheaper than Plastruct ABS glue, although the plumbers concentration is only around 60% per volume. If 100% concentration where do you source it?

[Bufferstop]

Availability mustn't lead to overconfidence in its use. During our end of term examinations we heard the bells and sirens followed by an enormous bang that shook the hall. The head appeared a few minutes later to tell us that a lorry loaded with carboys of MEK had exploded. Quite some carnage - the lorry was shredded, it had pulled up on some waste ground next to an old air raid shelter. That withstood the blast because the doorway was bricked up, the pub across the road had lost its roof, a pair of semis in the other direction were demolished, many roofs and windows were broken. It was 2 miles from our school. My father felt it through the raised decking he was walking along, eight miles away.
The MEK was being transported in glass carboys wrapped in straw, in metal cages. The straw had caught fire from the lorry's exhaust. The regulations for the transport of dangerous substances were significantly tightened a year or so later.

[brit-in-bama]

we use MEK for thinning paint, we still use oil based paint because it is much better at withstanding weather than any water based paint we have tried, we use it because it makes the paint retain its gloss, whereas most other paint thinners dulls the shine, its also really cheap in the usa, and yes we use it for glue on any plastic, its much less volatile that acetone, but still needs caution with fire, I personally just re-fill an an old pro-weld glass bottle, and for general use it lasts me about a year!, just a note of warning, try not to use it on styrene less than 10 thou thick, or it will dissolve it, but 20 thou and above it works better and quicker than most plastic cements, also if you find that can of pvc pipe cement is getting thick, use it to water it down, mix it well and store it in the fridge and it will stay liquid for years, they wont tell you but that cement is just clear pcv powder mixed with mek,

[Petepot]

Hi ,
I think the large explosion was maybe caused by MEK Peroxide, which unlike normal MEK, is used as a catalyst for polyester resin- as in fibreglass. Standard MEK is typically sold & transported in 20L or 208L steel barrels, just like oils and many other chemicals /solvents.
MEK Peroxide is a very different animal and is always treated with a great deal of respect, so it could well have been transported in glass carboys as referred to above.
Continue to use standard MEK, but remember it is flammable and should be used in a vented room.
P.

[GWR_fan]

MEK Peroxide is (or was a generation ago) the hardening agent used for car dent resin filling 'bog'. I recall the safety instructions on the little bottle supplied stating that any contact with the eyes would cause blindness. I always treated it with respect when handling.

[Peterm]

Thanks for the replies.
GWR_fan, I'm using the clear one and it's invisible once applied. It's simply described as MEK 100% Hydrocarbon fluids. UN1193. I found it right beside the pink/red stuff in the local hardware shop.

Bufferstop.
How long ago was that. I can remember carting those on a lorry when I was a youngster, but thought they'd done away with them. The straw was always a nuisance.

brit_in_bama.
Thinners such as Turps tends to dull the shine when used for house painting, so I always stand the paint in hot water so that it flows on nicely and retains it's gloss.

Petepot.
I thought the carboys had been retired, as I said earlier. Too fragile and as for the cork/bung in the top, well....

GWR_fan again.
I well remember that smell now you mention it, but never connected it until now.

[GWR_fan]

................... they wont tell you but that cement is just clear pcv powder mixed with mek,

My son always keeps a container with Tamiya thin solvent glue to which he has dissolved styrene sprue. He then uses this as a filler as unlike other fillers this does not shrink.

[TimberSurf]

This is a real blast from the past!
I served an apprenticeship in the RAF, in an Instrument repair workshop of with 2,000 benches.
Lots of dial painting, soldering fluxes and general gue ended up on your workbench. The regime was to clear and clean one’s work area (Melamine surface) every night with swarfega, great green gobs dolloped on, then scrubbed in and wiped off. Not the best solution, but got rid of the grime.
Friday's regime, was the same, with the addition that a carboy would be shared down the line of benches, so that we could tip it and a splosh a 1/2 pint of MEK over the bench, to get rid of all the paint marks and solder flux! (We used to have a small lidded jar each, for use as a paint brush cleaner) MEK will removed any paint, however old and dissolves solder flux (used to use it on the PCB's after soldering). The stench in the workshop come Friday afternoon was overpowering!
Needless to say, one Friday, stores refused to issue us any MEK, as it had been classified as carcinogenic! and could only be used now, in a fume cupboard!
Modern coshh regs would probably say you need to be in a Hazmat suit!
I love the smell (but will probably die young from my earlier encounters) and it is a great product, acts as fantastic brush cleaner, neat as thin plastic glue, with dissolved plastic bits makes thick glue, fumes warps plastic for bending or that “molten” look, paint stripper, flux n grime remover (degreaser).
It is a very noxious substance and I am surprised the public can even buy it? It MUST only be used in a very well ventilated area and skin contact should be avoided (don’t clean hands with it like I used to 30 years ago, non of my fingers have dropped off so far, nor have I contracted cancer, but watch out for my funeral eulogy)
I might have to get some just for the reminiscence

[Bufferstop]

@peterm - the incident was 1961, the actual site is now twenty feet below the road which was built to take out the dogleg where the pub was. From the road you can see the where the houses were demolished there's now a pair of 1960 style council houses in the middle of a row of 1920s ones. The pub reopened with a tin roof for a few years as it was already scheduled to go when the road was re aligned. We all wondered what would have happened had he not spotted the waste ground to pull onto as it would probably gone off as it passed under the Tame Valley canal at the mid point of the longest straight without locks and weirs to stem the flow.

John W
aka Bufferstop
Merry Christmas to one and all from everyone at Bufferstop Halt.

[Peterm]

Talk about a party at the local... raised the roof.