Acetone

What do you use it for? apart from removing nail varnish :-)

I'm looking for chloroform to use as perspex solvent, unfortunately it's not available any more :-(

Cheers Don

Overhere CHCl3 is available at shops that sell lab stuff

Try bondrite.co.uk and look up their WC102 weld cement, if you are trying to weld a clean smooth edge to a matching piece of acrylic with no gap to fill.

Last time I ordered from them, they had a £50 minimum order, but I see no sign of it at the moment.

Mark Rand RTFM

Acetone is readily available on eBay - I've just bought a 5 litre bottle as one ingredient in a penetrating oil widely publicised as the best thing since sliced bread. (50/50 Acetone & ATF) The ATF doesn't dissolve in the acetone but forms a colloid but the mixture does seem remarably good freeing up rusted things.

AWEM

Use acetone instead. It's just as effective as a solvent for acrylic and less harmful to humans.

Cliff Coggin.

Try Methylene Chloride (Dichloromethane). Keep it off your skin though - it seems to get absorbed and feels like you've been burnt.

In article , Donwill writes

I seem to remember, having done several times in the 1960's, that chloroform is easy to manufacture in very modest quantities. Bleaching powder and acetone in a flask give off the stuff. Collect in usual retort / condenser / drip into bottle style. Heat, if any is very gentle and avoiding naked flame (the fumes, the fumes). Beware the low flash point!

DO ventilate your kitchen - and yes - it is simple kitchen table top stuff. Mind you, these days you will probably be sent to jail with screaming police sirens - for what was once a school boy, model makers, commonplace! My case is probably being prepared now, for imparting this secret and dangerous contraband information (that any chemistry master of the 40's/50's/60's routinely passed on)!

DO NOT BE TEMPTED BY ANAESTHETIC PROPERTIES - IT CONTAINS LETHAL IMPURITIES - look them up. Medical grade requires several stages of cleaning up and stabilisers added. Deaths, in formal medical practice, were caused by this in days gone bye!

John

An easy preparation if you have the equipment and some chemistry experience, but you need to be aware of and prepare for the hazards by reading lots of stuff first. I'd like to add that it's vital enthusiasts don't self sensor their amateur scientific experimentation! Besides, the initial witch hunt after 9/11 etc. has largely given way to rational policing again largely due to courts throwing out ridiculous prosecutions. Hopefully such inconveniences will be sweetened by generous compensation too. Mmm - perhaps I should place some chemistry glassware near the window so it can be just be seen by passers by ;-) Oh, and as I said, Methylene Chloride seems to work anyway and it can even be had off eBay sometimes. Unless someone knows for sure Chloroform works better?

Scrim