Scanning Wet Mount Fluid

[Jim Michael]

I don't know, perhaps the mineral spirits help reduce the evaporation rate of the naptha?

[Pere Casals]

I don't know, perhaps the mineral spirits help reduce the evaporation rate of the naptha?

It's the counter, naphtha has a lower evaporation rate than the odorless mineral spirit, as first one is heavier than the second one.


Naphtha and mineral spirit are quite similar. Naphtha is a wide concept that engloves hiyrocarbon mixtures sold to be burnt, of the kerosene (C16, 16 carbon atoms per chain) class for example, linear chains. Mineral spirit it's the same, C7 to C12, but it includes a content of aromatic hydrocarbons (rings of the Benzene type) under 25%, but odorless spirit has the aromatic compounds eliminated, so it's like Naphtha but a bit thinner.

Mineral spirit Refractive index is 1.42 aprox. Keronsene (Naphtha) is mostly the same 1.44. And glass can have 1.5. It is good that the refrative index of the fluid is near to the glass one...



Now I think that the mixture will always have some 1.44 refractive index, adding that 10% of white spirit (C7 to C12) just acts as a thinner of the nafta (C16) perhaps to be better distributed and to catch less air bubbles, I'm gessing.


The most important thing may be that it evaporates completely, so it has to be a well distillated quality product without diluted heavy chains that won't evaporate later.

[Pere Casals]

A way to eliminate heavy oils from Naphtha/Spirit that later won't evaporate may be to cool it to frezzing temperatures and filtering. This is a well known effect with diesel engines, diesel fuel at low temperatures get paraffin "solidified" and can obstruct filter, if a heater not provided in the filter assembly design.

[seezee]

I haven't done an A/B comparison to Kami or Lumina, but I have been wet-scanning for a few weeks now using Gamsol and Duralar. They seem to work just fine. No residue from the Gamsol, practically no odor. The biggest challenge is the dust — the mylar is much more attractive to dust than the film base. Even with a bulb blower, anti-static gloves, anti-static brush, and anti-static wipe, I still have way more dust than I like. Probably doesn't help that I live with a cat, so in addition to dead skin cells, there's always cat hair and litter dust hanging in the air.