Thinner for oil paints: characteristics, reviews

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Construction oil paint can be thickly ground or ready to use. With thickened ones, a solvent for oil paints is necessarily used. Enamels of this type are mixed in a certain proportion with a solvent liquid. This is necessary if the paint is dry or will be used as a primer. A suitable thinner is selected based on the characteristics of the surface to be painted and the absorbent properties.

Main solvent groups

Today there are five groups of substances that are used in finishing work as solvents.

These are petroleum distillates, or by-products of oil refining, various alcohols, ketones, ethers, and glycol ethers.

Petroleum distillates

Everyone knows what turpentine is, and it could be included in the sixth groupliquids. However, its performance characteristics are very close to those of petroleum distillates, and it is best to include it in this group. Each specific solvent for oil paints from the group has its own characteristics. The most common are petroleum distillates, which are also called hydrocarbons. The molecule of such a substance is a carbon and hydrogen atom. Liquids that are included in this group are produced by refining oil, or rather, separating it into fractions under the influence of temperatures. Turpentine is a product of distillation, however, it is obtained not from oil at all, but from softwood resins.

Petroleum solvents are used to work with waxes, oils, paints, oil-based enamels. Any oil paint thinner that is based on hydrocarbons has characteristics and properties that are similar to those of oils or waxes. Sometimes these fluids can be used in the manufacture of lubricants or furniture cleaning and care products. Distillates that contain significantly less oil, such as toluene or xylene, can be used to remove oil stains and are most often used for degreasing surfaces.

Any products based on petroleum distillates can be mixed in different ways and in any proportions. Alcohols and glycol ethers are not used with oil paints. They have different characteristics and properties.

How to dilute oil paint

Thinner for oil paints, if necessary, you can always buy in anyhardware store or hypermarket. There are several fluids that are suitable for working with oil-based dyes.

Solvent "647"

This is an affordable and popular solution. The substance is supplied as a liquid with a rather pungent odour. Care should be taken during operation - the composition catches fire very easily. As for its properties, the paint has a uniform consistency with it.

White spirit

This is the most widely used and popular liquid. If you look into textbooks on chemistry, then this solvent is a special kind of gasoline in composition, designed specifically for paint and varnish industries. The specific gravity is 0.77 kg, and this liquid will boil at 140-150 degrees.

It is made by distillation of oil. White spirit is a colorless liquid compound that has properties that allow it to dissolve the binders found in oil paints. Another characteristic is that the liquid has a low evaporation rate, which is very positive for artists.

Turpentine

This is no less popular solvent for oil paints than white spirit. The composition is widely used for mixing and diluting not only oil dyes, but also alkyd styrene ones. Turpentine is also used in the production of varnishes, which are based on copal, rosin or dammar. There is a sale of refined or unrefined turpentine.

Before chemists created white spirit, turpentine held an honorableplace of the main liquid for dissolving varnishes and paints. This essential oil has a complex chemical composition. Get it in the process of processing turpentine, gum and parts of coniferous wood, saturated with resins. Today, modern industry produces three types of turpentine - wood, stump and turpentine products.

Wood liquid is obtained by processing wood resin and branches of coniferous trees using special technologies. When fresh, it is a liquid with a yellowish or brown tint, which may disappear during processing.

Stump turpentine is produced using special technologies already from the stump parts of a coniferous tree. Turpentine are pure essential oils obtained by distillation of resin. It is extracted only from a growing tree. So turpentine will not lose its unique properties and valuable elements during the production process.

Kerosene

This liquid is great for use as a solvent for oil-based dyes. It is often used to restore old hardened oil paint. For greater efficiency, a desiccant can be added to kerosene - for example, any turpentine. But this may increase the drying time of the oil paint.

Petrol

This composition is familiar to everyone. It is a clear, colorless liquid with a characteristic odor. In everyday life, pure gasolines are often used as solvents for oil dyes, alkyd enamels, pentaphthalic compounds, putties and varnishes. Alsogasoline can be used as a solvent for oil-phthalic paints. With it, the oily liquid will acquire a matte finish. The component is popular in construction - it is used to dilute thick paint.

Tee

This mixture is popular with artists, but can also be used in painting work. This liquid contains refined linseed oil, turpentine, isopropyl alcohol and dammar varnish.

With this "tee" you can easily give the oil dye an optimal consistency in a short time. Artists love this solution because it not only helps thin the paint, but it can also clean tools. This composition significantly improves the penetration into the painted surface, and in painting it allows you to make the picture more accurate.

How to replace thinner for oil paints

Oil paints can be used in different ways, but in any case, solvents are added to the dyes. Now there are a lot of different solvent mixtures for enamels and paints, and each has its own disadvantages and advantages. It happens that there is no way to use a special tool. The most common replacement option is ordinary gasoline. In addition to it, you can use turpentine or white spirit with great success.

Odorless solvents

The paint and varnish industry is now more developed than ever - on sale you can find a huge number of types and subspecies of thinners and solvents. With all the practicality of white spirits andturpentine, they are quite toxic and have a characteristic smell. But what if a person prefers an odorless solvent for oil paints? There are several options. Artists appreciated all the advantages of linseed oil - it is a good solvent for oil dyes. One of its properties is the almost complete absence of smell. However, there is a minus - a long drying time of the paint.

It is recommended to use "Tee" - an industrial mixture, which also practically does not smell. Well, the best odorless oil paint thinner is the composition from the Tikkurila brand. It is offered in transparent plastic bottles with a yellow label. This composition dries quickly, and it lasts for a long time. Diluent also has no smell, but it is quite harmful on its own.

Reviews about solvents

Artists prefer to use "Tee". It is practically odorless, and at the same time the consistency of the paint is the same as it is necessary for work. Painters speak highly of 647 Industrial Thinner. But according to them, if this composition is not at hand, then ordinary gasoline is no worse. These compounds perfectly dissolve even very old oil paints.

Lots of positive feedback on Tikkurila products. Solvents from this manufacturer are widely used in various industries - both in art and in painting. Artists and painters happy with performancecomposition.

Which is the best solvent for oil paints? The one that is at hand. When working with oil paints, you just need to remember that this composition can only be dissolved by a similar one - and then there will be no problems with the choice.