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I have a bottle of ethanol 90% lying around that I'd like to use for stripping minis instead of isopropyl alcohol.
I'm thinking of using an ultrasonic cleaner. Would I need to set it up away in a garage (with the main door open) to avoid breathing any vapour?

Would this be okay? Are there any different risks involved? How significant is the risk from vapor inhalation?

Thanks for any advice.

Where did you get your hands on ethanol? Especially in Melbourne? I'd love to know

Normally you can't buy ethanol over the counter other than in the form of booze, if you need ethanol in a lab or for commercial reasons it can be difficult to get (or very expensive because you pay the "sin tax" on it). You used to be able to buy a Polish spirit at Dan Murphy's that was 95% but I'm not sure they sell it any more because you can kill yourself if you drink too much and Australia has turned in to a nation of of nanny state pansies. It was also really expensive so I wouldn't recommend it for stripping miniature (grog tax and all that).

Anyway, that aside. Ethanol can be a good paint stripper, I've used it to strip models in the past, BUT, I've never used it to strip plastics, I don't know what it'd do to plastics. The reason it's not commonly mentioned as a paint stripper for hobbyists is because it's not easy to get. I got it from my laboratory (well, technically I took my miniatures to the lab ).

I'm not really aware of any major health risks other than being flammable and inhaling it will get you drunk in a slightly more dangerous way (goes straight to the blood stream).

So, avoid inhaling, avoid flames, test it on plastic first, and tell me where I can get some

Since I think I've claimed publicly to have something I get the impression I'm not supposed to have, I'm going to publicly say "I safely disposed of the product in an environmentally friendly and safe manner".

Nah you're allowed to have it. It's just normally the only ways to get it are through a bottle shop (where it's expensive due to large taxes, a 500ml bottle of 95% costs about $60-70AUD) or through a commercial distributor (where it's cheap but they usually won't sell to the common man).

It's all because of tax and fear of people buying cheap lab grade ethanol to get drunk. That's why you have methylated spirits, it's ethanol which has been poisoned so you can't drink it so it's not taxed as drinking alcohol.

Fun fact: pouring a bottle of metho through a loaf of bread will remove the purple dye, and low heat for 10 minutes will make it drinkable.

Source: NT ex girlfriend