What Is A Good Substitute For Dio-Sol ?


Silverton

Member
I have several bottles of 20 year old floquil paints and would like to be able to use them. What type of thinner would you use in the place of Dio-sol. A “denatured alcohol / shellac thinner”, or an “enamel thinner” or “lacquer thinner” or one of the original ingredients “xylol” or something else? Also what ratio of paint to thinner would you recommend for painting as well as weathering? I have read 40% paint to 60% thinner and also 35% paint to 65% thinner ( this or what else) ? Thanks very much....
 
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Laquer thinner will thin about anything but it may react with plastics as well. I read somewhere that diosol was a combo of Naptha , xylene in tiny amounts and ordinary paint thinner.. I do not know if that is true but it does seem to work pretty well with the Naptha and xylene making up no more than 25 percent of the mix.

Something I'm curious about is that I keep seeing statements that people buy higher quality paint thinner at hardware stores rather than at home depot. I would like to know if anyone can tell me that their results actually improved with differing suppliers.

I use xylene in my work. It supplies "Tooth" to adhesives and we add it to 90% isopropyl alcohol as a cleanser before laying down optically neutral epoxies. It comes as a concentrate and we put .5% by volume in the isopropyl and it does make a difference. Too much, and it actually causes delamination in the joints.. Based on cost, the stuff at home depot has to be diluted. It looks and behaves completely differently. It's also a carcinogen.

I think the trick to weathering is patience. Dilution is one thing but taking multiple passes is probably at least as important. Multiple airbrushes wouldn't hurt either. Consider Bragdon powders as well.
 
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I also read a thread some where that said a friend had Diosol analyzed and it was made up of 55% Xylene and 45% Tuolene. I can buy Xylene, but have not been able to find Tuolene. So I guess laquer thinner might be the thing to get.

What percentages do you use in your airbrush painting?
 
It may be the spelling. Toluene.
Toluene is also known as benzene or methyl benzene ( C7H8). It's a part of gasoline. Xylene is also a methyl benzene. It's vapors are viewed as poisonous. I think the two are pretty much the same, near as I can read, so your friend's compound would be 100% xylene or benzene, take your pick.

Naptha appears to be a petroleum ether which according to the literature is very good for solvating stuff, like boxcars.
 
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...and further, answering my own question: Paint thinner is another name for mineral spirits. They have as a composition a range from C7 to C12 in hydrocarbonland. They contain less than .0-1% benzene. Now, quoting Wiki, that ultra occasionally reliable source-
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"Artists use mineral spirits as an alternative to turpentine since it is less flammable and less toxic. Because of interactions with pigments, artists require a higher grade of mineral spirits than many industrial users, including the complete absence of residual sulfur. Odorless Mineral Spirits are mineral spirits that have been further refined to remove the more toxic aromatic compounds, and are recommended for applications such as oil painting, where humans have close contact with the solvent."
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And where does turpentine come from you might ask:

Turpentine comes from trees. Steam wood heat wood etc and catch those drippings.

Finally from the Lacquer thinner institute:
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Lacquer thinner:
Used to dilute, dissolve and clean up of lacquer products. Typically too caustic for oil paints, lacquer thinner is often used additionally for removing inks on metal, and adhesive residue from a variety of surfaces. Lacquer thinner is very strong and rapidly deteriorates many surfaces and fabrics. Always test in inconspicuous area before use.
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That last bit about "rapidly deteriorates many surfaces..." is the part to pay attention to. If you're going to try lacquer thinner on a boxcar, make it a Varney or a roundhouse kit..
 
I've been able to buy quart cans of both xylene and toluene at my local ACE hardware in the paint dept. Both products indicate they are a thinner for high performance and hard enamel paints. Mixing them 50 / 50 for use as Floquil thinner works for me. I have tried laquer thinner with the old formula Floquils and found it evaporates much quicker than dio sol so the paint coats have to be applied wetter and that can be a problem with many plastics like others have said.

The Floquil now being sold can be thinned with regular Testors airbrush thinner.
 
Lacquer thinner works great. It will thin almost anything.

That's what I use too. It's much cheaper to get the whole can than to keep paying for all those little bottles and I can find it at pretty much any auto parts or hardware store.
 
well some guessing. Based on what I got out of Wiki on paint thinner, the ranges on the thinner ( the aromatic portion of the stuff) seems to be a combo of white thinner and lower grade if I glean that from the MSDS. That's just saying it mixes high and low grade thinners up to 45% of the net weight. It seems quite close to the percentages I got elsewhere. I would still test first with Lacquer thinner.

Thanks for that link. I will mix some up this morning.
 
As a custom painter for 30 years, I use only Xylol, (Xylene) and Tuolol (Tuolene). I used to mix these together 50/50, but in my area Tuolol is hard to get now, so I just use Xylol.

Both of these solvents are major "players" in the old Dio-sol, as well as Scalecoat thinners. Since I use 99% of the time, just enamels, I find it cheaper and much more convenient to buy gallons. These, the last time I bought any, cost me less than $15 each. They can also be bought in quart sizes at most hardware stores. Big savings over the pint or quart sized "hobby" thinners, you get at the LHS.

Word of Caution!!!!!
Use these, or ANY solvent based paint/thinner in either a paint booth, or outside and definitely use a proper chemical respirator. These solvents can do a lot of damage to the nervous system. I even recommend that you wear one when using acrylics. There haven't been enough long term studies to determine what damages those long-chained polymers can be doing to your lungs.
 
Back when I was dealing with Washington State OSHA, the guideline was "If you can smell it, your brain cells are interacting with it and that's usually only good with chocolate chip cookies".
 
Back when I was dealing with Washington State OSHA, the guideline was "If you can smell it, your brain cells are interacting with it and that's usually only good with chocolate chip cookies".

I hate the smell of the floquill paint thinner. I had knocked over the small jar a few months back and my god did my apartment smell. I have the floquill thinner that is in the metal can so im good for a while. But when I run out, i'll check out that xylol.
 
I hate the smell of the floquill paint thinner. I had knocked over the small jar a few months back and my god did my apartment smell. I have the floquill thinner that is in the metal can so im good for a while. But when I run out, i'll check out that xylol.
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I don't think apartments are really compatible with solvents of this type. Xylene is not good stuff to breath. If it hangs out and smells bad, it's talking to you.
 



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