What's the difference?

Yes and the difference is Isopropol is about 70% water so does you no good for drying. DNA basically has no water in it. The amount is so small it makes no difference.
 
Yes and the difference is Isopropol is about 70% water so does you no good for drying. DNA basically has no water in it. The amount is so small it makes no difference.

Not necessarily so. I have a couple bottles of 92% pure Isopropol that I got over the counter at a local drug store.

The so-called 'rubbing alcohol' is only 70%, though.
 
Right Jim, also, the DNA that you get at a big box store is about +/- 92% pure. 99% pure runs about $50 per gallon.

If you know someone with a still, you can some White Lightening.
Depending what day of the week it is, you might be able to get a gallon of 98% pure for about $5.
 
This interests me as I had a hard time finding a convenient source of DNA when I needed to mix up some shellac recently. I was given to understand that Isopropyl (sp?) alcohol can range anywhere from 70% to 99% depending on how diluted it is. I commonly see 70% and 98% in my local pharmacies. DNA is supposed to be Ethanol which has had a toxic agent added to it so as to make it poisonous to humans and therefore not consumable (without bad things happening...). I also read that almost "any" alcohol can be used for any of the woodworking purposes that we will run into and that the difference has to do with speed of drying and with the toxicity to us whether through ingestion, respiration or physical contact.

I would be very open to being educated on this subject. For what it's worth, I used methyl hydrate to dissolve my shellac and it worked very well although it did dry very quickly!

cheers eh?

John
 
I know too many people use methyl hydrate as a replacement for DNA.

But that stuff is major time toxic. Inhaling and contact can cause some very serious irreversible problems.

I wouldn't go near it.
 
Yup, I have a bit of an idea that M.H. is nasty stuff. When I used it for my shellac I wore gloves and did my applying with a brush in the open air. I really wanted to spray, but decided against it because I couldn't get D.N.A.

cheers eh?

John
 
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