I got tired of spending big bucks on IPA, yet using dirty IPA and getting sticky prints, so I decided to try using a water distiller to recycle the dirty IPA on a regular basis. There are special alcohol distillers tuned for the purpose so get one of those (google: moonshine distiller). Or do like me and get a 750W water distiller, a 0-240 freely variable voltage regulator along with a voltage display to keep track of the exact voltage applied. Run it full power for a few minutes until it warms up and you see liquid flowing through the outlet, then lower the voltage to about 60V and plug in a cable to run the cooling fan on full speed (240V). Since the thermostat in water distillers is set too high for use with alcohol, the voltage regulator is needed to find the correct balance between cooling power and boiling power.
A gallon of alcohol takes about 4 hours to distill using my setup. Maybe voltage could be increased, not sure. With a better distiller you should be able to considerably decrease the time needed, but this solution is rather convenient since it uses ambient air for cooling an needs no cold water supply.
Something about this seems awfully dangerous.
Please be careful.
Be careful and do this outside.
These fumes are very toxic and heated IPA has some explosion risk…
I haven’t had to change my IPA in months thanks to simply pointing my curing over at the IPA tanks. I have one of the salon edge curing oven and when my IPA starts to look dirty I simply remove the slide out base, tip it up, and put it up against the tank. Come the next morning and my IPA is almost as good as new. If I need to do this while also curing something I’ll just butt the face of the oven against the tank and use the wasted light.
This method is definitely going to be safe than distilling IPA but hey, if it works, it works.
Thats generally a good idea when dealing with these chemicals. I wear a proper mask to avoid the fumes but does anyone know if the resin also evaporates during heating of the alcohol/resin-slurry, or is it only the alcohol fumes one should worry about?