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[OM] Cleaning oily films off of glass; what is "denatured alcohol"?

Subject: [OM] Cleaning oily films off of glass; what is "denatured alcohol"?
From: Joe Gwinn <joegwinn@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 21:35:17 -0500
At 12:02 AM +0000 1/30/02, olympus-digest wrote:
>Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 09:39:22 +1300
>From: "Brian Swale" <bj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [OM] Cleaning oily films off of glass
>
>Hello Joe,
>
>Thanks for the posting.
>
>I have problems with terminology.
>
>Is the 'denatured alcohol' you refer to ethyl alcohol (booze), or methyl 
>alcohol 
>(meths)?

In the US, "denatured alcohol" is largely ethyl alcohol, but with enough methyl 
alcohol and some bad-tasting additives to prevent people from drinking it.  
Denatured alcohol is water white, and is not dyed any color.


>I have meths here (with the blue + bad-taste additive to deter drinkers) but I 
>wonder if the additives will add their own film. 

Methyl Alcohol can also be used for cleaning lenses.  In the US, it's often 
called "Wood Alcohol".  It may leave a film, but that film is probably easily 
removed with water and/or glass cleaner.  The additives have to be compatible 
with paint and shellac, so they cannot be that bad.


>I'm not aware of ethyl alcohol being available in bulk except for scientific 
>purposes.

Well, 50 0.000000e+00thyl alcohol is widely available for non-scientific uses, 
under names such as "vodka".  Pure grain alcohol can also be bought, if one 
pays the tax, but it's hard to find in stores.  However, there is no reason to 
go to the trouble, as denatured alcohol and methyl alcohol are at least as good 
solvents, and far cheaper and more easily obtained.  Again, these may leave a 
film, but this film is easily removed, far more easily than an oily film.


I would try any planned procedure out on a piece of window glass first, to make 
sure there aren't any surprises when one tries it out on a lens.


Joe


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