broganj

Member

Registered: 9 Jun 2020

Posts: 4

Denatured alcohol vs methylated spirits

Hi,

just purchased a Tenderly kit due for delivery sometime next week. Can anyone suggest a supplier of clear denatured alcohol in the UK? I understand that it is possible to get clear CDA that is not classed as Industrial denatured alcohol (IDA) but cant find a supplier that can supply small quantities less than a barrel which may be a little too much for my little 10ft dinghy build

What about methylated spirits? Can this be used or does the purple dye cause issues?

Thanks in advance

DerekD

Member

Registered: 12 Aug 2013

Posts: 33

Re: Denatured alcohol vs methylated spirits

Have a look on Amazon, lots of alcohol on there.

I had looked at this at the end of last year and could only find one seller who turned out to be localish to me in Scotland but at the time you had to get HMRC clearance / permit to prove that you weren't watering it down to drink.

Having just looked, the regs have been relaxed under covid conditions to allow for more hand sanitiser production.

Amazon have gone from 1 uk industrial bulk supplier to loads selling 99%+ alcohol by the litre.

Like you I did wonder if the dye in Methylated spirits would contaminate a project but never tried it or found an answer

broganj

Member

Registered: 9 Jun 2020

Posts: 4

Re: Denatured alcohol vs methylated spirits

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, feedback very welcome

Looked on amazon and lots of people selling isopropyl based alcohol but from the pdf manual I downloaded a while back it explicitly states not to use isopropyl based products. I am not a chemist so not sure I really understand the differences between some of the products. I also notice that a number of products advertised on amazon as clear products have comments that state that when the product arrived it was in fact dyed the same as normal meths. I will continue to look.

Could you perhaps give the name of the supplier in Scotland, they may be willing to deliver to me?

In the meantime, if anyone has any experience of using dyed meths or can point me to a reliable supplier for a suitable clear product i would be most welcome

spclark

Member

From: "Driftless" Wisconsin USA

Registered: 19 Mar 2020

Posts: 465

Re: Denatured alcohol vs methylated spirits

One possible avenue for finding suitable denatured, un-dyed ethyl alcohol is to look for marine or camp stove alcohol fuel.

Here in the USA what's commonly sold as denatured alcohol can have ingredients in it besides the ethyl and methyl alcohol mixture that's suggested for use with epoxy resin. In the UK I'm sure there are other ingredients besides the dye that's used to mark properly compounded and untaxed ethyl alcohol so best to contact the manufacturer for whatever information may be lacking on the labels of what products you can buy.

Lacking a suitable product you can use plain water for smoothing fillets too. Of course it doesn't dry as fast but then you'll be waiting for the fillets to cure before doing anything further with them so any water used to smooth them should evaporate pretty quickly.

In fact I've found plain water's giving me more consistent results for wet-sanding between coats of epoxy than dry sanding followed by a denatured alcohol wipe-down ever seemed to. Maybe there's something to using water that removes any amine blush that may have formed even thought the MAS epoxy I'm using isn't supposed to suffer from amine blush? I just don't know... but water's certainly less costly and usually easier to find!

broganj

Member

Registered: 9 Jun 2020

Posts: 4

Re: Denatured alcohol vs methylated spirits

By way of an update. I spoke to PEC who supply / manufacture the epoxy resin for the kit and their advice was not to use Methylated spirit that is available in the UK as any additive that is required by UK law for products available for public purchase may cause bonding issues or blemishes in the final finish. Their advice, which is the same as Fyne Boats is to clean up immediately after as much as possible and use a scraper (possible with a little heat from a heat gun) to remove any stubborn remnants.
@spclark, thanks for the advice I will give your method of using some water for smoothing a try. I have also been advised that a little un-thickened resin on a finger once the fillet has gelled up can also be used. I will try both and see which i prefer

Last edited by broganj (5 Jul 2020 8:30 am)

broganj

Member

Registered: 9 Jun 2020

Posts: 4

Re: Denatured alcohol vs methylated spirits

Appreciate this is a long while after the last post and I have now completed the build and sail it on a regular basis. In the end I personally found the best method was to clear up as much as possible initially then, once the epoxy / wood filler mix has started to gel I dipped a gloved finger in a new batch of epoxy and ran this over the fillet. This gave me a really good finish especially where the fillet goes around tight bends. Its about timing, too early and you can create ripples in the fillet, too late and it can have little effect. Do it a couple of times and you will start to get the feel for when the right time is.

Keith Clague

Member

Registered: 16 Jun 2022

Posts: 2

Re: Denatured alcohol vs methylated spirits

BroganJ and Derek
This is a bit late for your build but may help anyone asking the same question.

Like Derek, I'm in Scotland and having found no clear methylated spirit locally, I searched Amazon.

I purchased clear methylated spirit twice from Amazon and it was supplied by Industrial Plasterers Limited

It was called Supadec Methylated Spirit 5L

In both cases, it was totally clear and I have used it to wipe down wood and epoxy without any problems.