Need alcohol? Check it out

General Discussion
1

I am an industrial purchasing agent so finding stuff to buy is what I do. Finding 90% + Isopropyl Alcohol for less then $50.00 a gallon was not as easy as I thought. I have seen it for $75.00 a gallon! YIKES! Most do not have or even know what the concentration level is.

I am big on using eBay. It is the first place I look most of the time. Check this out http://www.ebay.com/itm/181156963029 I have a battery transfer pump coming to fill what is now my first empty gallon for easier handling.

If you don’t want to buy 5 gallons I got my first gallon at Graingers http://www.grainger.com which was about $40.00. Why is this so expensive I don’t know.

Thanks
Bill

2

Is IPA so expensive in the USA? I can get about 15LTR (5 gallons) for €65 ($80). and it’s 99.9%

3

I’m spend under $3 a quart for 91% from the local drugstore.

4

Me too, I spend like $11 for a gallon over at the Walmart pharmacy for 91%.

5

I have just heard that Uline has 70% and 99%.

6

I think the costs are high because of the shipping and it being a flammable. I have enamels I use that UPS kills me on costs, small bottle of base color is usually a fraction of the cost of the shipping itself.

7

I use denatured alcohol, $15 a gallon from lowes.

8

What about Denatured Alcohol? What’s the difference, and will that difference have adverse effects on our prints?
Formlabs: Can we use denatured alcohol?

9

I have noticed denatured alcohol dissolving some of the details on “fresh” prints. If you allow your print to set for a couple hours then rinse it works well removing excess resin with an toddler toothbrush or foam sponge.

10

I tested denatured and it does dissolve the surface and will ruin the model.
You can use 85% which is common, just takes slightly longer but is much cheaper and easier to get. I had no problems with the 85%.

11

I buy mine at CVS pharmacy. It is 90% or more and the price is good and it is readily available. Since I started buying a bunch of bottles at a time, they are never out of stock…LOL. Have to love reordering programs and how they work. I always expect to get a funny look at the register when I drop 8 bottles on the counter but they’ve seen everything, I guess.

12

I use IPA from my Local Walgreens, its 91%, 946mL Bottle.
The prints my clients need tend to be large, requiring between 80-110 mL of resin.
Wall thicknesses are 1.5-2.8mm thick, details are 1mm at the smallest. I usually print at 0.1mm layer resolution.
I don not see any issues with dissolved features from IPA baths. Typically I use a fine bristle tooth brush (an old used one), and dunk the part in the IPA, brushing off as mush resin as I can reach with the brush while the part is in the IPA Bath. Then remove the part and wipe off all areas on the part that I can with a surgical cloth. There are some cloth “fuzzies” that stick, but when I leave the part to cure in the shade for a few hours, then they can be easily wiped off. My needs are different than yours apparently. I rely on the Form1+ to create prototype parts for testing, and show models. Some times I need to carefully file down/sand some residual support bumps.