What kind of mineral spirits should I buy? - WetCanvas: Online Living for Artists (2024)

chicagirl_04

I was at the art supply store trying to find the brush cleaning fluid that I usually buy (silicoil) and since I didn’t find it I was looking at the mineral spirits. This man told me that he buys his odorless mineral spirits at Walmart (a lot cheaper) and that it is the exact same thing they sell in those little fancy bottles at the art supply store. Is this true? or are there different qualities of odorless mineral spirits?

WFMartin

If all you’re doing with the Mineral Spirits is washing brushes in it, you can buy the cheapest stuff that is on sale.

If you plan to use it as an ingredient in a painting medium, the art store quality stuff would be more appropriate.

wfmartin. My Blog "Creative Realism"...
https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com

chicagirl_04

Thank you for your response!

gunzorro

I use Mineral Spirits (not OMS) from Home Depot. I buy it in a gallon and it lasts a couple years the way I paint. It is fine to mix into paint or mediums — really good quality.

Silicoil is a type of distillate similar to kerosene — I like it, but is overpriced. Buy the Silicoil jars and fill with Mineral Spirits.

The only solvents I recommend from the art suppliers are artist grade turpentine and oil of spike.

Don Ketchek

Odorless Mineral Spirits (OMS) has less harmful ingredients than non-odorless mineral spirits, so that is what I would recommend. Just remember that – even though there is less odor – you still need adequate ventilation.

Here’s a link to an article that discusses Turps, mineral spirits and OMS:

http://www.chicagoartistsresource.org/dance/node/9209

Don

l Heather l

Turpenoid Natural is pretty good and AP Non-toxic.

stapeliad Moderator, NYC

Turpenoid Natural is pretty good and AP Non-toxic.

It is not to be used as a paint additive.

Lady Mars Orange Marmalade Stapleford
Moderator: OIls, Pastels, Plein Air
Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. -Oscar Wilde

Aires

Turpenoid Natural works quite well for cleaning brushes, even brushes that have paint set up in them. However, I would NEVER use it for anything but cleaning.

Artist quality paint is getting more and more expensive so that alone would convince me to use an artist quality OMS in painting mixtures. Cheap mineral spirits are fine for cleaning but it doesn’t seem reasonable to pay premium prices for paint and then resort to unknown quality as an admixture with paint. Lower flash points and less harmful vapors are added incentives to use artist qualty OMS when painting indoors.

Einion

This man told me that he buys his odorless mineral spirits at Walmart (a lot cheaper) and that it is the exact same thing they sell in those little fancy bottles at the art supply store. Is this true?

Basically, yes – you will even sometimes be able to see the same chemical identification numbers in the safety sheets for artists’ mineral spirits as in a type sold by the gallon in the hardware store.

The stuff sold in the hardware store is generally absolutely fine for cleaning brushes and for diluting your paint.

or are there different qualities of odorless mineral spirits?

Definitely, yes. For those with safety information we can find online there is quite a wide range of permissible exposure levels.

Einion

truck driver

Three manufactures of oms in the world.. and we turn it into this..

Snowbound

It is also possible to paint with oils– and to clean brushes without using solvents at all. And no, I am not talking about water-miscible oils.

Rataan

In my day job I’m a chemist. I am quite familiar with the solvent market, and I can assure everyone here that a higher price does not guarantee higher quality. I can do a full analysis on any solvent using FTIR and GC/MS, but as you can imagine, I’m not in a hurry to buy every type of solvent in the art world and spend months testing them. But eventually, I would like to test some of them and see what the differences really are.

I know a lot of people here are very particular about their materials, and to a point I can see the silliness of the argument of saving a few bucks on solvent when Old Holland cadmium red is $40 a tube. But I wouldn’t bet the farm that high priced artist brand solvents are noticeably better than hardware store brands at a fraction of the price. Do any of the artist brands certify the purity of their solvents or offer a certificate of analysis? That’s actually something you could probably get from the hardware store brands.

If I’m shopping for a solvent for work, the first thing I decide is what I’m going to use it for. If it is for GC/MS, then I will probably pay $100 per liter for the highest purity I can get. If it is cleaning extremely sensitive optical instruments, then I can get by with the stuff we buy for $250 per 55 gallon drum. The impurities in the cheaper stuff are not detrimental to the task, no matter how fussy that task sounds.

As far as I can tell, a solvent for artist paint has to work as a solvent, evaporate without leaving a residue in a reasonable amount of time, and not react with the paint. These are not demanding requirements that dictate an extremely high grade of solvent.

Mike

Einion

Three manufactures of oms in the world..

Really?

Einion

Anonymous

In my day job I’m a chemist. I am quite familiar with the solvent market, and I can assure everyone here that a higher price does not guarantee higher quality. I can do a full analysis on any solvent using FTIR and GC/MS, but as you can imagine, I’m not in a hurry to buy every type of solvent in the art world and spend months testing them. But eventually, I would like to test some of them and see what the differences really are.

I know a lot of people here are very particular about their materials, and to a point I can see the silliness of the argument of saving a few bucks on solvent when Old Holland cadmium red is $40 a tube. But I wouldn’t bet the farm that high priced artist brand solvents are noticeably better than hardware store brands at a fraction of the price. Do any of the artist brands certify the purity of their solvents or offer a certificate of analysis? That’s actually something you could probably get from the hardware store brands.

If I’m shopping for a solvent for work, the first thing I decide is what I’m going to use it for. If it is for GC/MS, then I will probably pay $100 per liter for the highest purity I can get. If it is cleaning extremely sensitive optical instruments, then I can get by with the stuff we buy for $250 per 55 gallon drum. The impurities in the cheaper stuff are not detrimental to the task, no matter how fussy that task sounds.

As far as I can tell, a solvent for artist paint has to work as a solvent, evaporate without leaving a residue in a reasonable amount of time, and not react with the paint. These are not demanding requirements that dictate an extremely high grade of solvent.

Artists also work in very close proximity to the paint and thus ingest the fumes, it isn’t merely the solvent dissolving power that is the issue since all are more than adequate. However since artists work in close proximity to solvents the evaporation rate and the relative toxicity of those solvent components in the profile make a difference in how much and what kind of solvents are ingested. Artists quality low odor solvents such as Turpenoid, Sansodor, and Gamsol have been further refined to eliminate more VOC’s than cheaper hardware store brand bulk OMS brands, in general. This is clearly reflected in the comparitive PEL’s which are significantly higher for the artists quality OMS’s.
Here is a post from a related thread in which I did several assays on various artist and hardware store components. This was a determined by GC analysis. I did evaporation rates in addition to the GC analysis, there is no question in the difference, it is significant. Try some assays yourself and compare results vs the MSDS information on the PEL’s.

It doesn’t matter if there is only one manufacturer of bulk hardware grade OMS in the entire world. Companies such as Winsor Newton have the capability to further refine solvents by a toller.
(btw, a toll manufacturer is a company that has specialized equipment and can process raw materials into finished goods for another company)
Same thing goes for their turpentine. I haven’t seen them myself but I was told about them by a Blick representative who did visit and toured the distillation facilities where they further refine these type of products.
Refining solvents requires time, manpower, energy, equipment, and these add up to a higher cost of manufacture.

Don Ketchek

The cost of OMS can be made less significant by re-using it. After use, if you pour your used OMS into a glass container (with lid), the paint particles will settle to the bottom, leaving you with reasonably clear OMS at the top. Since it may take a few days for settling, you may need two or three containers to maintain a clean supply. Eventually, of course, you will need to buy a new supply of OMS, but you can stretch the use of one can for a long time.

Don