MEK

[ndbprr]

What is a good source for MEK and ballpark price please.  Thank you

[tstage]

Your nearest home improvement store - e.g. Home Depot or Lowe's.  The prices should be online.

Tom

[cv_acr]

I've found it in the automotive paint and finishing section of the local home and auto store.

[mbinsewi]

Same here, get it from the local hardware store in a gallon can.

Mike.

[doctorwayne]

I don't know whether my info will help much, being that the figure is from a couple of years ago, and is in Canadian dollars, but I got a gallon (actually a puny U.S. gallon), although it was labelled as 3.78 litres.  If we still had Imperial measurements here, that would have been 4.5 litres.

Since Sherwin-Williams is a U.S. company, your gallon will be a U.S. gallon too, but I'd guess it to be cheaper than the $36.95 Cdn, plus 13% tax, that I payed.

I attempted to get a current price from the same store, but they're closed today due to a statutory holiday, and will re-open tomorrow.

This outlet does not sell MEK in containers smaller than one U.S. gallon.

Wayne

[BigDaddy]

tstage

Your nearest home improvement store - e.g. Home Depot or Lowe's.

I didn't have any luck in Maryland.  Searching turns up various paint strippers but nothing that is identified in the SDS sheets as MEK.  I found some in one and only one Ace Hardware near me.

[richhotrain]

How safe is MEK?  Health risks?

Rich

[rrinker]

 Don't wash your hands in it or take a bath in it. Don't drink it. Don't sniff the vapors. It's somewhat nasty stuff but used in a well ventilated area and keep it off your skin since it can be absorbed directly and you will be fine. Unless you are using it 8 hours a day, every day.

                                          --Randy

 

[richhotrain]

Dunno, for some reason it seems scary.

Rich

[selector]

And that would go also for acetone, lacquer thinner, xylene, toluene, and about x number of other fluids that, alone or mixed, would create something best used sparingly and carefully.

[JDVass]

May be a stupid question but what do you folks use this for?

[hgodling]

I believe MEK cannot be legally be sold in California anymore. (It's an air pollution issue.) Other states make have similar laws. 

[GMTRacing]

MEK (methyl ethyl keytone) is a solvent in the VOC catagory. We used it to fuse plexiglass parts together and is/was a component of many of the hobby cements at least in the olden times. It can cause health issues if safety precautions printed on the container are not followed just like many other solvents.    

[richhotrain]

JDVass

May be a stupid question but what do you folks use this for?

 

Among other uses, they are using MEK to glue styrene parts together when building structures for the layout.

[richhotrain]

For the past 17 years that I have been in the HO scale side of the hobby, I have used Testors Liquid Cement for Plastic Models in the odd shaped black plastic squeeze bottle with the needle nose applicator. It works fine for me with little odor that quickly disappears.

To me, it is not only the use of MEK, but buying it by the gallon? Yikes.

Rich

[tstage]

BigDaddy

tstage

Your nearest home improvement store - e.g. Home Depot or Lowe's.

I didn't have any luck in Maryland.  Searching turns up various paint strippers but nothing that is identified in the SDS sheets as MEK.  I found some in one and only one Ace Hardware near me.

I was at our local ACE hardware this past Saturday and did see some there.  I think it was in a quart can...

Tom

[sandusky]

Outlawed here in Georgia some years ago. Had to fight for my last quart from Ace who had to get it returned from a sister location, I think. "MEK Substitute" you can buy all day long.

 

[JDVass]

Thanks Rich

[Overmod]

JDVass

May be a stupid question but what do you folks use this for?

Some plastic ("polymer") materials can be joined not with an 'adhesive' but by actually solvent-welding the pieces together -- there is then no visible glue line or weaker/stronger bond different from the material.  You'll commonly see things made of clear acrylic sheet (Plexiglas) made no other way than this, as all that's required for a bond as strong as the original material, and perfectly clear with the same optical refractive index, is to lay a needle applicator to flood the joint via capillary action.

Of the effective solvents that do this in materials like polystyrene, MEK is one of the least 'objectionable'.  Those of us of a certain age remember when it was the principal ingredient in women's nail-polish remover; the principal health concern with it is a prospective set of reactions (involving the presence of formaldehyde in the body) leading to DNA methylation and subsequent potential for cancer.

In the quantities actually necessary to solvent-weld applicable materials, which are almost vanishingly tny and restricted to the immediate area of tightly-fitting joints, it is difficult to imagine having serious health exposure if you use reasonable ventilation.  But you may choose, and I wouldn't dissuade you, to use it only outdoors or with breathing protection.

[danno54]

Your small use of MEK is not an issue as much as the storage and handling of MEK. Read the MSDS?

[mbinsewi]

Most of the big box hardware/lumber stores now have a "substitue MEK", I forget what they call it... "Just LIKE MEK?"  

I keep the gallon can in the cold garage, and have a couple of bottles, which previously held the Plastruc stuff ( the same as MEK) on my bench.

Is this going to be another "OMG  THIS IS TERRIBLE!!!" threads?

Count me out.  I use EVERYTHING Selector mentions.

Mike.

 

[hgodling]

mbinsewi

Is this going to be another "OMG  THIS IS TERRIBLE!!!" threads?

I was just looking for MEK a few weeks ago. I figured I would share what I had found so they wouldn't have to waste thier time to. 

[dstarr]

I bought a one quart can of MEK at one the the big box home improvement stores (Lowes or Home Despot) for $5 some years ago.  I expect that can to last the rest of my life.  I pour it into empty solvent welder bottles and use it for solvent welding plastic.  I read the MSDS once, and it wasn't all that dangerous.  You do want to take care not to spill it.  MEK is active enough to attack paint, plastic, floor tile, all sorts of stuff.  Years ago while I was in USAF, the boys managed to spill some in the instrument shop.  It attacked the floor tile, turning the tile into black sticky goo.  Some weeks later there was an all hands party to chip up the ruined tile and replace it with new tile. 

[richhotrain]

hgodling

 

mbinsewi

Is this going to be another "OMG  THIS IS TERRIBLE!!!" threads? 

I was just looking for MEK a few weeks ago. I figured I would share what I had found so they wouldn't have to waste thier time to.  

Same here. I was merely asking if MEK is safe or whether it might be considered a health hazard. Sorry if I ruffled any feathers.

Rich

[PC101]

8/29/2020 Sherwin Williams paint store York, Pa. #154-8734, Reducer #10, Methyl Ethyl Ketone, 1 gal. or 128 fl.oz. $31.59. 

3/2/12 Tenax 7.R 1 fl.oz. $4.49.

10/15/20 Plastruct Plastic Weld (orange bottle) contains MEK, 2 fl.oz. $4.99.

1/25/21 Plastruct Bondene (white bottle) 2 fl.oz. $?.??.

 8/22/20 Micro-Mark same stuff 2 fl.oz. $7.95.

10/15/20 Tamiya Extra Thin Cement, contains MEK, 40ml. or appox. 1.35 fl.oz. $4.79.

1/23/21 Testers #3502XT contains MEK, 1 fl.oz. $3.99.

I use all of the above items and then some.

They all have ''Safety Warnings'', follow them.

 

 

["JaBear"]

richhotrain

... I was merely asking if MEK is safe or whether it might be considered a health hazard...

Living is a Hazard, Rich!!

 

I buy it 20 litres (5.2 US gallons) at a time and use it, at work, for cleaning off the residue of paint/pain strippers; it will remove lacquer paint with out using stripper.  Until recently it was reasonably easy to purchase, though not cheap, but because it can be an ingredient in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine, I now have to prove I’m a legitimate user and go on a register.

 

For model railroading purposes it is my material of choice for bonding styrene.

 

The link is to a MEK Material Data sheet.

 

https://www.rali.co.nz/products/METHYL%20ETHYL%20KETONE%20MSDS.PDF

 

Cheers, the Bear.

 

Edit: I see from PC101 post the price is comparable to the US price.

[ndbprr]

I am 75 years old.  I grew up with no seat belts in cars or booster seats. Lead paint in houses everywhere and even lead pipes for the water. Nearly everyone smoked and there was smoke haze from my grandfathers pipe everywhere in the house. Kids got polio and Scarlett fever. If the kid down the street got mumps or measles you went to see him and get exposed to it.  By modern standards none of us should be alive but we are.  I am waiting for the government to ban the one thing that causes death 100% of the time. It is called life.  Be cautious but don't buy the draconian thinking of the idiots running the government regulations. They stay in their jobs by finding new things to ban. If it works it has to be life threatening and I get promoted by yelling fire. As a chemical engineer I have put up with their stupidity for my entire career. My two cents.

[BigDaddy]

Has anyone had success with the various substitute Mek products with styrene?

[zstripe]

ndbprr

I am 75 years old.  I grew up with no seat belts in cars or booster seats. Lead paint in houses everywhere and even lead pipes for the water. Nearly everyone smoked and there was smoke haze from my grandfathers pipe everywhere in the house. Kids got polio and Scarlett fever. If the kid down the street got mumps or measles you went to see him and get exposed to it.  By modern standards none of us should be alive but we are.  I am waiting for the government to ban the one thing that causes death 100% of the time. It is called life.  Be cautious but don't buy the draconian thinking of the idiots running the government regulations. They stay in their jobs by finding new things to ban. If it works it has to be life threatening and I get promoted by yelling fire. As a chemical engineer I have put up with their stupidity for my entire career. My two cents.

 

I agree 100%........just a few yrs. older than You.

Take Care! 

Frank

[Overmod]

BigDaddy

Has anyone had success with the various substitute MEK products with styrene?

Reports I have read often note the performance of the 'substitutes' varies -- none are apparently 'as good' and some of them show no effective bonding performance.

If you are willing to take the health risks doing solvent welding at all, there is little point tinkering with substitutes that were 'engineered' for a different purpose like specialty paint thinner.