Please, I know what Dio-Sol is, at least as far as what it was used for.
I have a large number of old 1970’s era never-been-opened Floquil paints. It is a simple matter of Out-of-Sight; Out-of-Mind; these paints have been languishing in a drawer for many, many years. The project for which I purchased them way back in my HO-Scale days has long since evaporated but, before I confine them to the local landfill - their age may, indeed, have rendered them unusable - I would like to see if there is some way these paints can be rejuvenated.
Dio-Sol is, of course, no longer available from Floquil but I seem to recall reading somewhere sometime that it was, in reality, a repackaged automobile paint solvent which may or may not still be available. Can someone shed some enlightenment on this?
I clicked your link and then I clicked on an entry at google and, low and behold, I wound up at a forum entry from 14 months ago. I even responded there recommending that the original poster try the all-time index. Didn’t follow my own advice! Like I said, I remembered seeing it somewhere; I just couldn’t remember where!
Anyway, thanks for the info. I now have someplace to go and get something which appears to work.
I have a few 12 year old bottles of Floquil that were getting pretty thick and chunky. I mixed some lacquer thinner into them and it brought them back to life just fine. I would recommend straining the paint before using it in an airbrush, but judging from your post yesterday, you don’t like airbrushes.[:D][;)]
It’s not that I don’t like airbrushes; I just have never had any luck trying to weather using paint and an airbrush so I stay away from them for that particular purpose. I have been weathering with chalk paste for many, many years.
What I was considering doing was shaking these up as good as possible and draining the liquid into a separate jar and adding thinner and then adding that back to the original jar and shaking again doing this several times until I had all the settled material off the bottom of the jar. Then I’ll add some more thinner to that and shake that well. I have been accumulating ruined pantyhose for years and they make great strainers.
I bought three bottles of Dio Sol several months ago, It says Dio Sol on the bottle, but it doesn’t smell like the old Dio Sol, and it doesn’t work as well as the old version, but it does thin the Floquil, so I use it.
I often had trouble locating Dio-Sol back when I still used solvent paints for my custom painting, I just substituted laquer thinner which worked just fine.
I would recommend stirring those old bottles at first rather than shaking.
Depending on just how old your Floquil paint is, it could have been made with the original “Dio-sol” solvent Floquil used which was XYLENE. Warning: this stuff is very toxic, more toxic than your average paint solvent — and very flammable. It was also the stuff that was infamous for attacking plastic. In more recent years Floquil changed their solvent based paints to a petroleum distillate base which is safer to work with (somewhat less toxic and less flammable) and does not attack plastic. I think they still use their proprietary trade name “Dio-sol” for the distillate solvent even though it is not longer xylene.
I do not know anything about the accuracy of the dio-sol ingredients.
I am very pleased you managed to unearth that old post. It was written by me, and I’m glad at least a few people read it.
I reiterate, DO NOT, DO NOT use Floquil’s original xylene Dio Sol!!! My original post should have also mentioed that in addition to its toxicity and flammability, it is also carcinogenic (as aromatic hydrocarbons tend to be). Do yourself a favor and trash all the old Floquil paint that used this solvent. I did.
The current “Dio Sol” is, as I mentioned, just common petroleum distillate, or so it seems to me from a basic smell test (I have a degree in Chemistry so I am not a layman at this stuff). This means, among other things, it is the same as what is commonly sold in hardware stores as generic “paint thinner.” You can get it for $4- or $5- something a gallon at Home Depot. I ask hobby dealers to forgive me for letting this secret out of the bag, but don’t pay Floquil’s price for it!
On what study do you base your claim that xylene is a carcinogenic? No one has ever linked this chemical to cancer in lab animinals or humans. It is very nasty stuff if treated and/or handled improperly, it is a fire and explosion hazard if handled improperly and it can cause death if handled improperly but then so can most chemicals. Most of us still park our cars in the garage at night and they contain way more of a chemical with the same warnings: gasoline. On the other hand, if you own a Ford F-150 you may want to think twice about the garage thing.
Seriously, used properly, that meaning proper air circulation, proper personal protection and proper handling to ensure it’s not used or stored near an ignition source and xylene can be used safely with no more health risk assoicated with it than you would be exposed to stuck in rush hour traffic. Do I continue to use it? Yes, until I use up my current supply of paint. Do I want to continue using it? No, water-base paint is safer, no question and I have kids so I worry about this stuff.
Even California does not list xylene on it’s big cancer list. Anyone who can do a search on Google can find more info out there. Here’s one snip from IARC:
“Information from animal studies is not adequate to determine whether or not xylene causes cancer in humans. Both the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and EPA have found that there is insufficient information to determine whether or not xylene is carcinogenic and consider xylene not classifiable as to its human carcinogenicity.”
“I reiterate, DO NOT, DO NOT use Floquil’s original xylene Dio Sol!!! My original post should have also mentioed that in addition to its toxicity and flammability, it is also carcinogenic (as aromatic hydrocarbons tend to be). Do yourself a favor and trash all the old Floquil paint that used this solvent. I did.”
He states it is a carcinogen here does he not? Am I missing something? I just asked for supporting documentation for his claim. I worked with xylene for 15 years in an industrial setting and we were Kentucky’s biggest air polluter because of it until the automotive industry moved into the state. I’m asking a serious question here because I would like to know if I have new worries from my exposure over the years. There was never anything in the MSDS concerning cancer and I’ve yet to find any studies doing so. I did treat the stuff with respect and it allowed me an endless supply for model use. Can one not ask for more information without being called a trouble maker?
Note that the Calif. warning is present? Why? Remember, the Calif. law doesn’t take percentage into account. Small traces, less than .1%, of benzene may be present, and so they require the cancer warning, and small traces of toluene may be present, hence the birth-defect warning. (Xylene may also cause birth defects in high doses. So does 50% ethanol i.e. vodka)
That’s probably where the confusion came from. That idiotic California law does more harm than good - through useless fearmongering, and through diluting the impact of other legitimate warnings.
I suspect the xylene was taken out when Floquil reformulated to be easier on plastic, or possibly because it was abusable as an inhalant. (I hope it was the first one, and not dear nanny government again).
Again, though, if somebody can bring up a study that shows otherwise, go ahead.
I like airbrushes; I have a couple of them. I get relatively good results on large surfaces! I do not get good results trying to weather with paint and an airbrush so I have developed weathering techniques using chalk!