rubbing alcohol for cleaning/

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emilianoksa

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The only alcohol I can get here is isopropyl 97%. It's recommended for cleaning purposes. There's another one at 95% which is recommended for medical applications.

Are either of these the equivalent of the rubbing alcohol sold in the States, which some people use to clear grease from firing pin channels, and crud from tight corners?

What does the term denatured alcohol mean?

When the alcohol evaporates, is there any water briefly left behind in cracks and corners to attract rust?

Chemistry was never my strongest subject.
 
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According to google, denatured alcohol is ethyl alcohol that has been poisoned to prevent people from drinking it.

According to google, rubbing alcohol is isopropyl or denatured ethyl alcohol at 70-90% concentration.
 
Its a very good degreaser.

The rubbing alcohol sold in the states is usually ~37-60% isopropyl although you can find the 91% if you look.

Denatured means poison has been added so you can't drink it.
 
Isopropyl is rubbing alcohol in the United States.


Denatured means it is poisoned so it cannot be used for drinking.
Isopropyl is already toxic (like methanol and other common industrial alcohols) so that is typically a term used for ethanol which is the same type found in drinks minus the poison.
Ethanol is extremely cheap to produce industrially and is used for many things. But governments want all alcohol meant for consumption to be highly taxed whether for tax purposes or to increase the price to reduce consumption.
As a result industrial ethanol is required by law to be poisoned with various denaturants and formulas depending on how the alcohol is to be used.
Laws determine the type of poison to be used for different applications, and it is typically something that is intentionally very difficult to separate from the alcohol, especially things that will form an azeotrope and not separated by distillation.
(That is why a lot of people went blind or died from drinking during prohibition as the government mandated increasingly toxic and hard to separate poisons, methanol was and still is a common denaturant that destroys the optic nerve. A lot of the early illicit alcohol during prohibition was diverted from industrial sources which required ethanol for many things, and the government responded with more toxic poisons.)






Alcohols are typically strong solvents, so they would remove a lot of oils and maybe even some finishes. They dry things out a lot too. You would need to re-apply protective oil or grease if you use strong solvents to clean a gun because it will expose the metal to air and moisture.
 
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It works great for some stuff but will take the finish off of wood stocks if you aren't careful. Skip the small bottles and get a gallon jug of it in the paint section at Lowes/Home Depot. Get some rubber gloves to avoid absorbing it through your skin.
 
So...would alcohol, (rubbing, denatured, etc.) achieve the same result for cosmoline as mineral spirits??
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It works pretty well on cosmoline and evaporates more quickly without the smell of mineral spirits. Downside is that you gotta just use it on the metal parts as it will take the finish off of wood. I have two Mosin Nagants that have the cleanest wood you have ever seen, took every bit of finish right off. It wasn't what I intended to do but I'm glad to have learned the lesson on a couple of cheap rifles.

Be careful with alcohol if any spark, flame or other source of ignition around as it burns with a clear flame.
 
OH, and use them in well ventilated areas

Methanol poising is treated with ethanol, the ethanol (not denatured, aka vodka) tricks the body into metabolizing the methanol, so you have an excuse to drink a shot or beer after you clean...
 
Alcohol mixes with water and in high concentrations will actually evaporate the water as the alcohol evaporates. I wouldn't worry about 3% water in 97% alcohol causing any rust problems.

I tend to stay away from "denatured" alcohol as there's really no way of knowing what was used to denature the stuff you buy off the shelf. I used to use the stuff in an alcohol lamp, but I don't use it for anything nowadays. When I was taking a varnish class everyone had a can of denatured alcohol and getting whiffs of them you could tell different substances were used for the denaturing. My instructor said she actually had to return a can once because it smelled like pure gasoline and she didn't trust it.

Pretty much everyone in class soon switched to using Everclear.

I stick with high-concentration rubbing alcohol, or I just buy Everclear from the liquor store. Everclear is food-grade, though I never have tried to actually consume it. Wisconsin at least used to sell it up to 98% pure (196 proof IIRC) though I believe many other states only allow 180 or 190 proof.

If you can get straight grain alcohol like that it might be your best bet as far as purity is concerned.
 
When I drop a firearm in water I always use alcohol to evap the water out works pretty good never had any rust. Also lube as nesacery. I like to use this instead of wd40 wich can leave a film or so ive been told.
 
I don't think I've ever picked up a bottle of rubbing alcohol or iso and said, "hey, I think I would like to drink this stuff", !!!!! JEEZE!!!!!

Just saying folks.....

The Dove
 
don't think I've ever picked up a bottle of rubbing alcohol or iso and said, "hey, I think I would like to drink this stuff", !!!!! JEEZE!!!!! Just saying folks
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Sorry Dove, I haven't ever picked up a tube of glue and thought, "wow, wonder what'd be like to sniff this stuff", nor have I picked a random weed and wondered if I could get high if I dried and smoked it, but stupid is as stupid does.
 
Try some diesel fuel or kerosene for cleaning. (wear rubber gloves) Automatic transmission fluid is a good carbon cutting solvent and lube. I use ATF for lubing guns and it works very well. Don't laugh, it has been a field expedient for the military for years when gun solvents are not available. Do not use gasoline! I have never tried alcohol for cleaning firearms but it would not seem to me to be very effective of powder residue. Could be worth trying though.
 
I use 91% isopropyl rubbing alcohol to clean my bowling ball after league night but I wouldn't use it to clean my guns. I don't want them smelling like the free clinic at any rate.
 
Pretty much everyone in class soon switched to using Everclear.

I stick with high-concentration rubbing alcohol, or I just buy Everclear from the liquor store. Everclear is food-grade, though I never have tried to actually consume it. Wisconsin at least used to sell it up to 98% pure (196 proof IIRC) though I believe many other states only allow 180 or 190 proof.

If you can get straight grain alcohol like that it might be your best bet as far as purity is concerned.
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In California the strongest that can be legally sold for beverage purposes is 151 proof, or only about 75% alcohol (leaving about 25% water.)

Pure unpoisoned food grade alcohol is certainly best, but is also very expensive.
It is expensive because it is taxed a lot at various stages.
Most of the cost of alcohol is taxes, some taxes in creating it, and taxes federal and state selling it. The cost of "cheap" beverage alcohol is typically from 50% to 90+% taxes depending on additional state taxes. However additional taxes also exist for the manufacturer.

For example here is industrial 190 proof alcohol prices:

http://www.ethanolmarket.com/industrialethanol.html

Ethanol prices per gallon are extremely cheap. It is made primarily from corn in the USA. Denatured fuel ethanol being around $1.50 a gallon ($1.60 is says as I write this.)
Almost the same process is used to create cheap beverage alcohol, but they don't add the poison, and they must pay more to process it under the proper licenses.

Now compare that cost to what retail food grade 190 proof costs.
You certainly are not likely to find an entire gallon of 190 proof even sold.
Consider your typical 750ml alcohol bottle. 25.36 US fluid ounces is 750ml.
There is 128 fluid ounces in a gallon.
It would take over 5 typical 750ml bottles to make one gallon.
Yet each one of those 750ml bottles is going to cost several times what an entire gallon of the poisoned stuff costs.
The percentage of cost increase is mind boggling. Thousands of percent for the same product without poison added.


If beverage alcohol was unrestricted most of the cost of the cheap grain alcohol would be stemming from bottling and shipping costs (and marketing). It would be similar in price to soda.
The cost is artificially high to reduce consumption, and to fill the coffers of government.


I have run into this issue making perfumes and food/flavoring extracts (where the alcohol is evaporated off and is not contained in the final product) which require the beverage stuff.
190+proof alcohol and diethyl ether are the primary food quality solvents used industrially to produce food quality products.
Diethyl ether works even better as food safe solvent (very low boiling point makes it easy to remove, and it is a strong solvent) that does not leave toxic byproducts, but it is restricted because it is also used to manufacture drugs.
(Of course I don't do any of that stuff anymore because I could just see some overzealous prosecutor or cop claiming it was a meth lab or something crazy and a jury not knowing any different. Lab equipment is too much of a liability to keep as a result.)
 
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[That is why a lot of people went blind or died from drinking during prohibition as the government mandated increasingly toxic and hard to separate poisons, methanol was and still is a common denaturant that destroys the optic nerve/QUOTE]

Actually, it's a metabolite of methanol, namely Formic acid, which in sufficient quantities will kill the optic nerve. It's bad enough that it can cause blindness, but imagine formic acid (indirectly self administered at that), coursing through ones' veins.
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I use isopropanol for gun cleaning. High percentage isopropanol is sold for industrial purposes and used in the electronics industry, etc. If you shop carefully you can find high percentage isopropanol in drug stores. I found some 99% product which will do just fine. Really high percentage isopropanol will pull water out of the air, diluting itself a little bit if left open.

I use it for the better indoor fume safety compared to the alternatives, and for the price.
 
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