Source for wet mounting fluid in Los Angeles/San Fernando Valley

[David Karp]

Do any of you in the Los Angeles area have a local source where you can purchase Kami or other wet mounting fluid? The San Fernando Valley, Glendale, or Pasadena areas would be ideal, if you know of an outlet. The sources I have found online have pretty high shipping charges that I would like to avoid if possible.

Thanks!

[LabRat]

The go-to is Aztek in (I think) Irvine...

949/770-8787 Or www.aztek.com

Good luck!!!

Steve K

[Doug Fisher]

As I note on my page for economical fluid mounting supplies (http://www.betterscanning.com/scanni...dmounting.html), GWJ seemed to have somewhat reasonable shipping prices the last time I checked. They are in La Quinta, CA. Aztek is in Irvine, CA.

I would look into using Gamsol. It is reasonably priced and very likely available at your local art supply store. People smarter than I have looked up its composition on the data safety sheets and after comparing to $$$ Lumina they feel Lumina is probably just repackaged Gamsol.

Doug Fisher

[David Karp]

Thanks Doug and Steve. I will look into Gamsol. I was hoping I could do a pickup, but if I go the Kami route with delivery I have not found any source better than GWJ. Thanks for that.

[David Karp]

From the MSDS it looks like Gamsol is basically Naptha. The Kami MSDS shows that it is <90% Naptha. Kami also has <10% mineral spirits <4% n-Hexane. Lumina's MSDS says it is 100% Paraffin Petroleum Distillate.

On the Gamsol MSDS, just below its identification of "Hydrotreated heavy naphtha" it states: "It consists predominantly of C11-C13 isoparaffinic hydrocarbons."

According to the MSDS sheets, it appears that Gamsol (145 degrees F) and Lumina (111 degrees F) have different flash points. Kami's flash point is much lower (16 degrees F). ("The lowest temperature at which a liquid can form an ignitable mixture in air near the surface of the liquid. The lower the flash point, the easier it is to ignite the material." https://www.msdsonline.com/resources...lashpoint.aspx)

I found a Coleman lantern fuel msds that says it is 100% Naptha with a flash point of 0 degrees F. (Interestingly, there are other msds sheets that appear to list the ingredients using more generic or technical terms. So, it may be 100% Naptha, or the composition has changed.) So, apparently, different Naptha products have different flash points.

I am not a chemist, but it does look like Gamsol and Lumina are very similar (and I guess Coleman fuel is too). Perhaps the difference in flash points is based on the degree to which these petroleum products are refined. Any chemists or experts out there?

I might give Gamsol a try. Artists use Gamsol to clean brushes. It seems no more dangerous to me than lots of other things used around the house. I can test it on a bad negative and see what happens.

This is not a suggestion to anyone to try it. Sometimes I found different MSDS for the same item. They are not identical. Do your own research.

[Pali K]

Gamsol Oderless Mineral Spirit works great and is available at Michaels art store for $10 for 8 oz and $15 for 16 oz. Use a coupon and get it even cheaper

Pali

[Jeff T]

Pali, how do you clean up Gamsol once done scanning?


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[Pere Casals]

From the MSDS it looks like Gamsol is basically Naptha.

Gamsol Oderless Mineral Spirit works great and is available at Michaels art store for $10 for 8 oz and $15 for 16 oz. Use a coupon and get it even cheaper

Pali

Good to know that Gamsol Oderless Mineral Spirit works great. I'm to try it.

One important property of an alternative mounting fluid it is has to evaporate completely, so it has to be a well distillated quality product without diluted heavy chains that won't evaporate later.

One may drop some on a clear glass to later inspect if some mark can be seen.



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


I guess that branded scanning fluid 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.

It would be interesting using a refractometer to measure branded fluid refractive index.

[LabRat]

At the last Meet & Greet here, I was talking to Evan Lippincott from Aztek, and I had asked him what happens to the film after wet scanning, and he said that their fluid was primarily Naphtha, and could be easily cleaned from film, so maybe you can buy a can of Naphtha from the home store and give it a try???

Steve K

[Pere Casals]

At the last Meet & Greet here, I was talking to Evan Lippincott from Aztek, and I had asked him what happens to the film after wet scanning, and he said that their fluid was primarily Naphtha, and could be easily cleaned from film, so maybe you can buy a can of Naphtha from the home store and give it a try???

Steve K

Hello Steve,

Cleaning film later is a nasty operation, also you can damage film, and one can spend more in the cleaning fluid than the few drops of a branded scanning fluid would cost.

(the cleaning fluid has to evaporate without residue, so better to use a residue less mounting fluid...)

Bare Naphta is a product primarily made to burn. A low concentration of difficult to evaporate fraction will be nasty, so a desirable mounting fluid has to lack heavy chains and some specially toxic compounds.

So bare Naphta will work but IMHO it's not desirable. Anyway manufacturing a more refined product it has low industrial costs, so IMHO Gamsol Oderless Mineral Spirit or the like is for sure a better option.

Regards,

Pere