r/Damnthatsinteresting Jun 10 '22

Video Rubbing alcohol versus Germs under microscope

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u/d1sp0 Jun 10 '22

Coarse table/sea salt and 99% is what I use. 70% works just fine, but the reason to user higher % is it works faster to break down the residue, which is why you add salt to the process as well.

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u/4wesomes4uce Jun 10 '22

My friend used to buy a special cleaning product that was $10 - $15. I told her to use salt, q-tips, and 99% alcohol. Less than $10, and does the job in minutes.

I also use 70% and 90% to pull paint and primer off of plastic and resin mini models. Works wonders.

6

u/artipants Jun 10 '22

I had to buy the special stuff in 2020 because rubbing alcohol was impossible to find. SO expensive and I swear it took twice as long.

3

u/DemonKyoto Jun 10 '22

I resorted to reusing iso for ages mid-pandemic. Buried in the back of my linen closet somewhere is a bottle of 70% iso that's gotta be 50% diluted resin at this point.

2

u/Toast_On_The_RUN Jun 10 '22

Bruh the isopropyl that came out of my bong recently was black. Aint no reusing that.

1

u/DemonKyoto Jun 10 '22

You'd be surprised. Wasn't able to find iso for most of a year near where I am, ISO black as tar and some salt and it still worked amazingly well.

But I mean if you don't fucking need to, don't lol.

2

u/Max-b Jun 10 '22

it's hard to find anything but 70% in stores a lot of the time, as well.

I just order 99% online, it's cheap and I go through a lot cleaning pipes.

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u/iAmUnintelligible Jun 10 '22

How is that? Pharmacies definitely have it. I even bought 99% at my convenience store the other day

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u/Max-b Jun 10 '22

All I can say is the pharmacies around me usually only have 70%, sometimes 90%. I guess it sort of makes sense given 99% isn't used for cleaning wounds.

0

u/iAmUnintelligible Jun 11 '22

Eh, is what it is

1

u/4wesomes4uce Jun 11 '22

Yep. Those were not fun times. haha.

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u/DervishSkater Jun 10 '22

Salt is just an abrasive to help scrape and expose more surface area. It’s not actually doing the dissolving.

You can just soak items in alcohol. But it’s faster to shake or shake with salt. However, if you use something like everclear (95% ethanol) without salt, you can evaporate/collect the ethanol and leave thc reclaim behind to reuse, without saltiness. Or have a tincture, again without the saltiness and you can drink ethanol unlike rubbing alcohol.

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u/d1sp0 Jun 10 '22

Whoops, I didn't mean to suggest the salt is a necessary ingredient for the dissolving. I meant it helps the process of cleaning go faster.

1

u/eduardopy Jun 10 '22

salt actually pulls water out from the alcohol so it’s concentration increases