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I'm curious how much MEK builder's used over the life of their project. I was going to order a gallon, but it looks like the shipping between 1 gallon and a few is small.
 
Why are you going to ship MEK? It is available at every hardware store that I've been in recently.
 
I used about 5 or 6 quarts, and am just about done. Buy it locally at Home Depot or Menards and save on the HazMat and shipping charges.
 
Ditto,

Bought mine at Lowes. Have seen it at Home Depot....Even Wal-Mart for the small cans.
 
Yup. I've used just over a gallon so far, about halfway through the fuse. I buy it at Lowes in the paint section - right next to the Acetone! :cool:
 
Home Depot sells it by the gallon. I'm pretty liberal with it, I clean everything with it. Ive used 1 1/2 gallons so far and I'm only on my wings.:D It works great for cleaning epoxy primer off my paint gun.
 
Yep, get it at Lowe's or Home Depot. Hold your breath while you use it. Anything that can remove ProSeal cannot be good to breathe.
 
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I have a 5 gallon can in the garage; my local HD doesn't carry MEK by the gallon and it was priced right.
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I used MEK as a last resort and had about a pint left out of one gallon. Great stuff, but treat it with care. Got mine at Lowes.

Bob Kelly
 
avoid MEK fumes

PLEASE read the material data safety sheet on MEK. Breathing MEK fumes is a sure way to destroy your liver. It doesn't take much. It is an effective solvent but using it without precautions can cost you years off your life.

I built an RV-4 without using a drop.

Chris Murphy A&P and former USAF aircraft maint tech where we washed our hands in the stuff before we knew better.
 
Don't use it!

According to my doctor.
Stay away from that stuff as far as you can.
It will absorb through your skin and one day your body will have reached
a cumulative saturation point of no return.
There are good alternatives.
 
N427EF said:
According to my doctor.
Stay away from that stuff as far as you can.
It will absorb through your skin and one day your body will have reached
a cumulative saturation point of no return.
There are good alternatives.
Click to expand...

seriously? If you dont use gloves the first time, you will the second! The stuff dries out your skin! I use it all the time. Never heard anything like that tho. :confused: I'd believe MSDS and research facts over a doctors opinion tho.
 
Threadcreep warning

As an A&P I use MEK frequently. Using it to clean hands not only drives whatever furter into your pores, but also carries it into your bloodsteam. I clean any sealant that gets past my gloves as follows. Apply baby powder asap. This absorbes some and keeps it from going any furter into my pores. Next apply Go-Jo and put some type of laytex glove over that. Then work gloves. Leave them on until your hands sweat really good, then it will all come off with a little scotch brite scrubbing.
Andrew
 
Kind of off topic from the original question...I like MEK a lot, its good stuff, but it is pretty toxic so you need to take precautions when using it. With that being said, I use Acetone as much as possible and then step up to MEK only when its warranted. Not to downplay it, but as homebuilders that work maybe 1000 hrs/year total and not much of that time is actually spent working with this stuff. With that limited exposure, I think its kind of a non-issue. If I were an A&P working with MEK 40 hrs/week for a career, my precautions would be different. Just be sensible with it, wear gloves, but you're not going to drop dead if it accidently gets on your skin like some people like to make it sound.
 
Read the MSDS sheets....

MEK is not as bad as some people think but it is still bad enough that you want to take normal precautions when using it.

Acetone is no less as bad and if you think you are safer using it instead, you have been misinformed!

Most MSDS's list MEK as a health score of 1. Some list Acetone as a 2. Depends on what MSDS you look at.

The scale is 0 for least and 4 for extreme.....
 
Brantel said:
Acetone is no less as bad and if you think you are safer using it instead, you have been misinformed!

Most MSDS's list MEK as a health score of 1. Some list Acetone as a 2. Depends on what MSDS you look at.

The scale is 0 for least and 4 for extreme.....
Click to expand...

hmm, I didnt know that? It appears I have been misinformed. Always learning, thanks.
 
Laquer Thinner

In answer to the specific question about other solvents that cut Proseal, laquer thinner does. Mostly Naptha I believe.

No intent to say this is safer than MEK. It surely not. It's just another tool. Use at your own risk.

And I did use roughly a gallon of some kind of solvent dealing with proseal.

The majority was cleaning clecoes. If you use the technique posted elsewhere of letting the proseal cure before removing the clecos and then not specifically cleaning them (reveling in the "padded clecos") then one might use less. I did not do this. YMMV.
 
d-Limonene

I haven't gotten around to any proseal work yet, but I've done all my cleaning and primer prep using high purity d-Limonene. This after using instead of naptha for paint clean-up, as a bug/tar remover on my car, and general metal degreasing.

It's non-toxic, basically distilled citrus oils. Works as well as acetone as far as I can tell, evaporates with no residue (though far slower than acetone) and smells like oranges. Which ends up being a much more pleasant carryover from the basement shop upstairs to the rest of the house.

While things like goo-gone have Limonene as a main ingredient, they have lots of other stuff in them and don't make very good cleaners, I've had very good luck with the high purity product here: http://www.greenterpene.com/

Use a water diluted mix for sticky removal and undiluted for metal prep. I'm not too sure about proseal since unlike MEK this is safe (diluted) for painted finishes, but I'll give it a try when I get there. Probably ok for uncured proseal, will write back with results in a few months.
 
Christopher Murphy said:
PLEASE read the material data safety sheet on MEK. Breathing MEK fumes is a sure way to destroy your liver. It doesn't take much. It is an effective solvent but using it without precautions can cost you years off your life.

I built an RV-4 without using a drop.

Chris Murphy A&P and former USAF aircraft maint tech where we washed our hands in the stuff before we knew better.
Click to expand...

Chris,
Thanks for saying this! There was a previous post about MEK some time ago, and as I am sure you will see, there were much differing opinions. I am choosing to stay in the "it is not good for you" camp.
I too used MEK like soap and water in the earlier days, until a good friend was given a diagnosis of the possibility of a bad liver disease. After much testing the original diagnosis was proven incorrect, and life went on. Lets just say that MEK inhalation and absorbing through the skin is a distinct possibility. So, I have barely used a gallon in the past 10 years!
I am sure that there are those that disagree and as such I say; "to each their own".
 
We used MEK quite extensively at my old work place. I always held my breath to keep from breathing it. One co-worker I knew used it to wash his hands with fairly regularly. Some 20 years later his hands are very dry and crusty, worst case I?ve seen, and there is no doubt in my mind it was the MEK that did this to him. His hands are like 16 grit sandpaper. Others tried to warn him, but he didn't seem to care enough to change his habits.
 
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