[mercado]

Does anyone know a type solvent I could us to remove a reflective sticker, like the one on a road sign.  I have good intentions.  Thank you.

[Alberto_Kravina]

Try Acetone!

[Borek]

Thing that I have found working reasonably effective when removing adhesives is a kind of white paraffin sold in Poland as barbecue starter. No idea what are names used in other countries - it is colorless liquid, slightly oily/greasy to touch, but quick to pour (similar to water in that aspect).

It may leave greasy stains (that usually disappears in few weeks) but works wonders if you have to remove price stickers from glass, plastic or metal.

[limpet chicken]

They sell much the same sort of white gas over here, filthy stuff, it just will not evaporate at room temperature, for a very, very long time, smell reminiscent of a mixture of aromatic hydrocarbons, napthalene, and higher, long-chain hydrocarbons?

[Borek]

Must be the same thing. It can be used as a grill starter and in so called "oil lamps" - that have nothing to do with oil Glass bottle and cotton wick, that's all.

[constant thinker]

You can either use nail polish remover (which some contain acetone) or just go to to the hardware store. Check the paint area, they usually sell acetone there.

There is also this stuff called GooGone that's sold up here in New England (Northeast United States). I haven't seen it anywhere out side of New England. I don't have a bottle of it right now, otherwise I'd tell you what was in it.

[limpet chicken]

You could try gamma-butyrolactone, although I wouldn't, if your in the US, as its illegal (potent downer, GHB precursor) but in other countries, the stuff works a treat for dissolving glue.

Borek, heh, the only thing that I use that white gas for, is use as a dirt-cheapo nonpolar solvent, for extracting alkaloid freebases, that crap won't evap at any speed, well it will, but glacially slowly, I didn't realise first time, but tried letting it evaporate, and a small jar (250ml tops) half ful, over the course of about 6 months, slowly deposited ephedrine in a thin, hard to recover film, over the jar wall, and it until know, reached about 200ml left in the jar, until I accidentally knocked it over into a hexachloroplatinate solution I was attempting to prepare just a week or so ago.

That, annoyed me no end, I lost the ephedrine, and hexachloroplatinate went all over the floor (and me).

Moral of the story? don't be a clumsy bastard handling expensive chemicals, and using cheapo white parrafin? its gas or nothing to precipitate your alkaloid

[pantone159]

I use 'Ronsonol Lighter Fuel', which comes in yellow and blue containers.  It says it contains 'naphtha'.  Works pretty well.

[limpet chicken]

I find the white parrafin great actually, as its something like £2.50 for a liter or so, for simple cleaning/extraction of alkaloids and amines in general, just not if your going to evaporate it to get the freebase amine/alkaloid, gassing with dried hydrogen chloride, through my 2-liter coke-bottle gas generator(tm) works great, but evaporating a liter of that? damn, I could grow a peyote cactus to a massive size before a liter of that evaporated (those lil darlings grow an inch or so every ten years )

Pass HCl through a tube into the white gas though, and its actually one of my favourite nonpolars, just for said extractions, as is clean, and SOOOO cheap, whereas lab grade tolly, costs me £15 for three liters (anyone with cheaper online suppliers of nonpolar solvents, feel free to tell me any gooduns, scooby snacks on the way to anyone who helps, especially methylene chloride/chloroform on the cheap, as I pay through the nose for chloroform )

Jesus, I use too much nonpolar solvents, too fast, as one of my main interests, bordering on obsession, is phytochemistry, and dammit, drying (and in some cases fermenting) before defatting, A/B extraction followed by multiple solvent recrystallisation, and where possible, sublimation followed by further recrystallisation, resolution of isomers, and taking advantages of solvent selectivity for plants with large and variable alkaloid contents (in the same plant material) to obtain pure samples for bioassay/org. synth. as precursor material, is both tedious, stinks my bedroom out, and for a guy who is on benefit, costs way too much.

Not that I'm up to no good, well, maybe once in a while, but the likes of isolating pure caffeine (which I HATE ingesting in any form at a dosage subjectively noticeable) is just, well, good to keep boredom at bay *takes off the nerd glasses and returns to his black metal music )