Isopropyl alcohol for cleaning negatives?

[Fireguy2002]

Not fighting. Just showing. I'm sure you are quite a bit more experienced than me. I've processed two rolls. Woohoo.

[Reinhold]

As Nicholas says:
PEC is a "Mixture of 99 Methanol and N-Butyl Acetate. Solvent combinations often work much better than either of the ingredients alone. Considering the price of the ingredients the stuff is hideously overpriced."

On of my gripes is their packaging which promtes rapid evaporation. Plastic spritzy bottles are feeble barriers to the vapor pressures of methanol and butyl acetate. Buy a bottle today and 6 moths later you can buy another because half of it has evaporated. Buy a cut little wipey in a cute little foil pouch and watch that 0.05 ounce of liquid gold disappear into the air... ain't convenience wonderful...

Instead, I buy a pint of butyl acetate (in a steel can....zeeeeero evaporation) at the hobby shop or local auto paint supply. I don't bother blending it with methanol, I find it unnecessary. It works just as well on prints. For an applicator pad I use Kimwipes. I've been working on that can of butyl acetat for 10+ years now...

Reinhold

www.classicBWphoto.com

[Fireguy2002]

Glad to know where to get it now. Thanks all.

[michaelbsc]

Some brands of isopropyl alcohol have oils and other addatives to make them undrinkable. The best bet is 95% ethyl alcohol, Everclear.

Everclear may be fine for negatives, but that's ethanol (ethel alcohol), just like they put in automotive gasoline expect it has the ATF taxes instead of the highway taxes applied. (At least for the US, not sure how other places extort money from their citizens.)

Isopropanol, even chemically pure, isn't digestible. It will make you drunk while it literally kills your liver. So there's no need for a denaturing agent in isopropanol. (This is not a claim that drug store isopropanol is good to use!)

Many - but not all - brands of 'rubbing alcohol' *ARE* made with ethanol, and are denatured with some toxic additive. (Note, this alcohol has neither the ATF tax nor the highway tax paid!)

Klean-Strip brand Denatured Alcohol, available at many home supply stores, appears to evaporate completely, and also appears to be very pure. The denaturing agent claims to be methonol, or the PEC folks are mentioning. So it is possibly an inexpensive source that is actually quite pure. I haven't tried it on negatives yet.

MB

[JulesG]

seems like no general consensus is being agreed upon... i'm just going to try 99% isopropanol, as i've no clue as where to get pec fluid.

[Worker 11811]

Isopropyl or ethyl alcohol will work to clean film but it's not the best choice. All alcohol has water in it, even if you get "pure" alcohol. Alcohol is hydrophylic. It attracts water molecules right from the air.

In large quantities, alcohol can attack the film base and damage the emulsion. This damage occurs over time or if used in large quantities. It isn't so much a problem if used sparingly and occasionally, however.

Yes, alcohol can be used if you are careful and keep these things in mind.

The best things to use are carbon tetrachloride or trichloroethane. The problem is that they are both restricted chemicals due to environmental and toxicity concerns.

I have a small bottle of trichloroethane squirreled away for use in the projection booth when I need it but for general cleaning, I still use alcohol. I am just careful to use it sparingly and carefully.

[Diapositivo]

Maybe it's time to buy a distiller. They're not expensive. One can have 100% pure alcohol of vegetal origin without any additive. If you do it for personal use (alimentary or not) it is even legal probably most everywhere. (If you want to sell, then you would probably need an administrative authorization of some sort). A small quantity for film cleaning, the rest "cooled" down to 38% or 40% for the good health of our liver (helps digestion. Very important. Ask your doctor. Ask the right doctor, that is).

It would match very well with the Jobo machine. Titillates the apprenti sorcier in me Good idea!

Fabrizio

[JOSarff]

FWIW I used to work in a motion picture laboratory and the film cleaning machine was filled with 1,1,1 trichloroethane (methyl chloroform) which was also used to clean film by hand. Otherwise 1,1,2-Trichlorotrifluoroethane (Freon TF) was used. Both removed grease, grease pencil, fingerprints, loose dust and dirt, etc. Environmental hazards not withstanding.

I believe that Kodak Film Cleaner is 1,1,1 trichloroethane.

[ic-racer]

is[/I] 1,1,1 trichloroethane.

I guess would be "WAS" as it is now gone, like just about any other Kodak film product.

[Gerald C Koch]

Some brands of isopropyl alcohol have oils and other addatives to make them undrinkable. The best bet is 95% ethyl alcohol, Everclear.

You are thinking of denatured alcohol which is ethyl alcohol. (Uncle Sam can't allow people to get drunk too cheaply.) It can contain various additives depending on its intended use. The government publishes formulas for the various denatured alcohols. One of the common denaturants is sucrose octa-acetate which is intensely bitter. Isopropyl alcohol does not have to be denatured as it is already poisonous and undrinkable and so needs no additives.