Will lacquer thinner attack plastic?

[Gabriel]

That's pretty much it.

[Ross McTavish]

Yes

As a kid i tried to paint strip a figure that way. Their was nothing left but a pile of goo in the bottom of the jar that the thinner was in. It disolved a 1/48 pilot in a few minutes.

Edited September 23, 2005 by Ross McTavish

[Tom]

Gabriel,

As a matter of fact, some people use it as liquid glue instead of buying actual liquid glue itself.

Tom

[jrallman]

i forgot about it one time when i was shooting lacquer clear coats and picked up a plastic paint jar for my airbrush instead of the glass one and it melted the jar pretty bad.

[balbukerke]

Both enamel and lacquer thinner will dissolve plastic!

[be carefull!!!]

Cheers,

Bruno Albuquerque

[Jamie Cheslo]

lacquer thinner is about one of the "hottest" substances we use in modelling. That stuff will clean a penny, then eat it! Imagine what it can do to plastic, then. I only use it to clean my airbrush with... Nothing else. And even then, I use a respirator and latex gloves. As mentioned above, be careful with that stuff!

HTH

B)

J.C.

[Bails]

Hi Gabriel. Yes, lacquer thinner will craze plastic, even when it is used as thinner for our enamel and lacquer paints. The key to avoiding problems is to always begin painting with very light, mist coats. This approach avoids problems with "etching" the plastic. Personally, I only use a high quality lacquer thinner for ALL of my paint-thinning purposes.....for one reason.....it helps produce a better finish. The stuff I use is...Duracryl DTL 876, Acrylic Lacquer Thinner by PPG. This stuff is for our enamel and lacquer paints, NOT acrylics. It can be obtained at your favorite automotive paint store. At about $25 per gallon, it is far cheaper by ounce than the hobby paint thinners, and its better, IMHO. For cleanup, use the cheapest odorless mineral spirits you can find.

bails

[adgemage1966]

Lacquer thinner specifically for plastics will slightly craze the plastics, which is why lacquers adhere to the kits better than enamels and acrylics. If you were going to use lacquers, please use ONLY the same brand specific thinner.

Note: Gunze Lacquer thinner is best for thinning paint in the jar as it is the main diluent. There is another thing called Levelling thinner which is for airbrushing, which is much "hotter" than reguloar thinner and will craze the plastic..

Strongest paint thiner is by florquil which is Xylene based and can dissolve the kit no problemo.

Take care.

[Gabriel]

Thanks a lot for the tips!

[jrallman]

xylene? man that is some nasty stuff! i worked in a metal shop for a summer and we used to use that to clean the steel.

[habu2]

xylene can also be used as a gasoline octane booster ;)

[MarkusN]

xylene can also be used as a gasoline octane booster B)

It's also quite carcinogenic. (Or was that toluene?) Not something you wnant to inhale by the spoonful, anyway.

[charlespattison]

Back to the lacquer thinner for a moment - is there any real difference in quallity? I bought a quart from the hardware store for $5 - is it inferior to other types?

[Karl Sander]

I use the stuff from Ace Hardware. Works fine for me.

Pretty rough on the liver though.

...and I thought Jaeger hangovers were bad....

[adgemage1966]

Back to the lacquer thinner for a moment - is there any real difference in quallity? I bought a quart from the hardware store for $5 - is it inferior to other types?

Hi Charles,

There are trace element differences in the different lacquer thinners (especially used during cracking), these can affect the chemical properties of the paint; for example Gunze lacquer thinner and their finishing thinners; both are lacquer based, but one will start the paint curing, while the other is a pure diluent and shoulc be used to thin the pain in its bottle. So to answer your question, Indeed, there are tremendous differences in what we know as lacquer thinners.

Hope this helps. By the way, I strongly suggest that for thinning paint in their original bottles only use the manufacturer's recommended thinners / diluents.

Adrian

[jiawei_91]

One whole 1/72 X-35 destroyed because of a spilled lacquer container!!

Be careful......................

Lim

[F-16]

I tried to use Testors LT to "melt" plastic strips into a past that could be used as a filler.

However the LT did not even touch the plastic after a few hours?

Is Testors LT hot enough to melt small plastic bits into a usable putty mixture?

[doctorpepper]

i (very wisely i might add) dumped a bottle of lacquer thinner (industrial strength, for REAL paints ie house walls etc) into a plastic cup, put my airbrush in it to clean it out, 10 minutes later the plastic cup's bottom was gone, and a gooey mess was left....