Recycling Thinner
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Just wondering if any of you guys recycle your thinner. My boss wants me to start using recycled thinner, but I have had bad luck with it not working as well as virgin and it has a terrible odor to it. Is there anything that you can add to it to make it work better?
Any advice would be great.Are you talking about getting one of those Recycling machines or just buying recycled thinner?
I have thought about getting one of those recycling machines but they are spendy. Take a while to justify the purchase that’s for sure. Buy a whole lot of virgin for what it costs to get the machine.
No we already have the machine. Its really old and I know nothing about it. I have just been dumping our used virgin thinner in it and cooking it off. It seems to work but the thinner just smells bad and doesnt cut as well as the new stuff.
I’ve never used one before, another painter at my shop told me he used one at one point. The recycled thinner was used more as a rinse and then he’s still clean it with a virgin thinner. We used to have our thinner recycled by another company that just kept exchanging the drums, it seemed to work pretty well but I imagine there recyling machine was a bit better. Safety clean (our new thinner company) tells us they can make virgin thinner cheaper then recycling it…I don’t know how it all works????
We recycled thinner for a long time. It does smell different. Doesn’t clean as well as virgin thinner. I was glad to see the recycler breakdown and never work again. I don’t have any idea what happened, it just quit working.(wink,wink)
recycling thinner is just a waste of time and money to me. compared to the cost of a quality recycler which most of you see to agree sucks and the cost to maintain it, i find buying fresh thinner the least of my expenses. If your looking to save money on solvents, i use Five Star urethane reducer on any basecoat system, whether it be reactive like DBU or regular like DBC, it works excellent. My paint distributor always argues with me on it, but he doesnt paint cars for a living.
Ok so now I know that Im not alone on this one. Recycling sucks! My boss is just trying to save money but we only use between 30 and 50 bucks a month on new thinner. He is also worried about the hazardous waste sitting around the shop. So, my next question is, how do you dispose of the used thinner? We currantly have about 40 gallons of waste thinner sitting around that he wants me to recycle and use for cleaning my guns because he doesnt want to pay someone to dispose of it for us.
i pour all my waste thinner, paint, left over clear, primer, etc all in a 5 gallon pail. when it gets full i leave the cap off until the thinner evaporates and the paint hardens then just toss it away. i did that with all the old enamel paint i had, just keep the lid open and give it a week.
We have a company haul ours away. They will come by once every 3 months if needed. I think it’s like $85 for solvent and $75 for water. There is no maximum amount, they will take any amount for the same price. You should really have it hauled away properly by a company. You don’t want solvent in the ground, and if the EPA ever came to your door, they would want paperwork showing how you dispose of waste.
For anything you mix that is hardened just keep and empty gallon an and pour all left over primers, sealers, and clears in there. Once it hardens toss in the trash.
I agree with having a company take the unwanted solvents away, I use Saftyclean for my solvent tank speaking of which I have to call them again :S But it will keep you from getting a big a$$ fine from the EPA thats an outfit you just dont want to mess with.
If all I had to do was recycle thinner to rinse my gun out with too make my Boss happy I would do it after all its his business and if thats what he wants to do its OK with me.
If in the end it doesn’t work out the way he wants he can at least tell himself he tried it and it didnt work.I would discuss it with him on how he wants the idea tested out to prove it works or doesn’t work the way he wants or a way you both agree to test the idea to his satisfaction. That way you both have a points to go both ways and in the end its still his choice his shop ya know! you get farther with Honey than you do with BS.
I am a shop owner and I am always looking for cheaper any good businessman is! Look at it from his perspective 50 bucks saved is 50 bucks in his pocket for something else like Beer! :exciOh my boss is not the owner. I work for a dealership and he is the director of fixed operations. He just oversees the numbers part of the bussiness. I totaly agree with trying to save money. He just needs to realize that we need to spend some money on getting rid of the waste. Thats just part of running a body shop.
was going thru some of my old chemistry notes, and apparently we can recycle thinner without buying one of those expensive machines. all you need to do is safely heat the thinner to boiling temperature and somehow capture the condensation. that condensation is the “new” solvent. btw, recycling thinner requires use of fuel (something to make the make the heat) so doesnt this just defy the purpose? just flush it down the toilet! lol thats my new answer
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