[tangent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj Ever drip model airplane glue onto styrofoam?

They don't use toluene any more. It's xylene these days. Can't have people making their own TNT, now can we? (Toluene is the second 'T'.)

 

[ericj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tangent They don't use toluene any more. It's xylene these days. Can't have people making their own TNT, now can we? (Toluene is the second 'T'.)

Xylene also dissolves polystyrene. But like i said, if you switch to an organic flux, you can clean the boards with distilled water or ethanol or whatever you like.

Ethanol isn't an unheardof industrial solvent - a friend of mine used to work some sort of engineering job at an injection molding plant that used it to wash the release agents off product. Said it was not only safe but cheap & effective. They even made a point of not using the denatured stuff that's got a little methanol in it.

And when they had to call the EPA to say they'd accidentally dumped some, it always took the EPA goons a while to get over the "Big f'in deal, why'd you call us?" confusion. Worst case scenario, something gets drunk.

I doubt many people were making TNT out of industrial toluene borrowed from work - you'd have to buy anhydrous nitric acid, and that would make it look like you were stocking a meth lab, and for some reason that's more likely to get you a swat team at the door than trying to make explosives.