"Does this actually work?" Topic

Does this work and is it safe?

2 minutes and 30 seconds in;
YouTube link

also;
YouTube link

There will some outgassing from the melting plastic which will adhere to the oven and vent off whenever it is used. Can make food taste bad, I would assume toxic but honestly don't know, and can be a fire hazard.

I've seen two apartment fires from art students doing this, which is why I used to have an old oven outside for such projects.

Thanks CFM but it looked to me like he was just putting the sprues in Acetone and waiting 24hrs and pulling the plastic out?

Acetone is quite volatile and flammable. Things that have pilot lights or make sparks can result in fire. Also, not the best to breath too much in.

Uh, yeah. I wouldn't let that sit and offgas indoors.

acetone is also not great on your skin, it gets absorbed and damages the liver or kidneys, I forget which.

Acetone gets filtered by the kidneys and broken down by the liver, so it would overwork both. If you have kidney problems (diabetes being the most prominent), you can get high levels of ketones, including acetone, in your blood and urine.

Years ago I posted a warning in response to someone who was touting toluene for some purpose or other. Probably paint stripping. I got indignant replies from several omodhauns who claimed to be graduate students in chemistry (!) who claimed that I was a Nervous Nellie, and that they used to wash their hands with toluene.
That was years ago, and I sometimes wonder if they had any children with tentacles and eye stalks.

So, no. I wouldn't use acetone on "fun" projects.
I have a BS in Chemistry, by the way. I was also Safely Manager in several jobs, and know how to read an MSDS.

Acetone is known to "de-fat" the skin. That's why using some household cleaners (not with acetone in them) make your skin feel dry and itchy if you don't wear gloves or PPE.

Reminds me of my chemistry teacher, who was cleaning a tarnished silver medallion in toluene by poking it about with his finger. "Don't you guys do this, it's carcinogenic, but I've been doing it for the last 30 years so it's a bit late for me to stop now".

As far as I am aware he did not die from cancer of the finger …

Acetone is reasonably safe except for the fire risk. I believe it is used as nail varnish remover, for example. OK in that kind of small quantity. It was trichlorethylene, another common solvent, that was bad for liver and kidneys.

Thanks all!

OK in that kind of small quantity.

The example in the video was filling a jar with it, dropping in bits of sprue and letting them sit out with the jar uncovered for a day while they emulsified into a plastic mass you could sculpt.

LOL in a letter video he does put it in the oven.