Where to buy acetone?

[Armageddon415]

I need to clean all the crap left behind from the thermal pad on my radeon 9700 and I can't seem to find any acetone in stores. I checked albertsons and walgreens and they only have isoprophyl alcohol.

 

[Sid59]

isoprophyl 100% is what i used. it works fine.

 

[bootoo]

You can get nail polish remover; try to get the kind with very few additives and then clean it with alcohol. I think it works a lot faster on those nasty nasty pad residues; for thermal grease I just go with alcohol.

 

[sodcha0s]

You should be able to get acetone at an auto parts store in the body repair section.

 

[magratton]

Acetone is also found at walmart in the paint department. $3.95 for a large tin of it. Alternatively any drug store will carry 90%+ rubbing alcohol. You may need to ask the pharmacist for it though as the generic stuff on the shelves is only 70%.

 

[EeyoreX]

And I have found the 70% stuff just as good at removing all manner of crap. I just get that and call it a day.

\Dan

 

[Nebor]

Um, the idea is to get asetone free nail polish remover. I think I remember someone saying the acetone is too abraisive, and bad.

 

[Blain]

Instructions from Arctic Silver about thermal pad removal...

"ONLY Arctic Silver thermal compound should be between the processor core and the heatsink. Remove any thermal pads or other interface material from the heatsink before applying the Arctic Silver. Thermal pads can be scraped off with a plastic tool that will not scratch the bottom then the remnants can be removed with a xylene based cleaner, (Goof Off and some carburetor cleaners) acetone, mineral spirits, or high-purity isopropyl alcohol."

 

[Armageddon415]

I've tried 70% alcohol and that didnt do anything to the pad. Is the 91% alcohol that much better then 70%?

 

[ROJAS]

Ace Hardware carrries it in a pint and quart size.

ROJAS

 

[Zepper]

Scrape the majority of the pad off with a plastic tool (credit card that's dead, knife from Mickey Ds) so as not to scratch the HS. Then get the rest with a solvent.
. You can get 100% acetone cheap in Target brand nail polish remover. I have found that lighter fluid (naphtha) does a fine job as well - works better than acetone. Give a final rinse after either with alcohol and it's ready for AS...
.bh.

 

[FPSguy]

Acetone at Walmart.




j/k

 

[0roo0roo]

all sorts of cleaners at home depot

 

[Wigwam]

akasa TIM cleaner is great stuff too; tried it recently and it got rid of anything the 100% alcohol swabs left behind.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

be very careful if you use acetone on your chips. It is a much hotter cleaner than alchohol and could very easily degrade all the non-metal parts of the chip.

 

[WA261]

409 and a toothbrush

 

[KoolHonda]

Disc brake cleaner works for me

 

[acemcmac]

I could hook you up with some 99.9% lab grade acetone

It's gunna cost ya tho

 

[LED]

Originally posted by: KoolHonda
Disc brake cleaner works for me

That's what I use or some WD40 which easily does the job followed by some rubbing alcohol to remove any film.

 

[WobbleWobble]

90%+ rubbing alcohol does work much better than 70%. I dislike using WD40 even though it practically melts the thermal pad because it leaves a residue that you won't ever be able to remove, inhibiting performance.

 

[PliotronX]

Originally posted by: Sid59
isoprophyl 100% is what i used. it works fine.

You mean the yellow crud on the stock 9700 HSF?? On my 9700, 99% and not even denatured alcohol touched it much, but acetone melted it like butter on a frying pan. Although the alkehawl works wonders with grease, the gluey stuff just laughs in the face of solvents weaker than acetone.

I can't remember if paint thinner is pure acetone or not, it might be worth looking at those. Haven't tried non-acetone NPR like Nebor suggested though. Zepper's lighter fluid suggestion is worth checking out as well. You could compare prices of all of these solvents, wewt

DerwenArtos12, good to know.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: Armageddon415
I need to clean all the crap left behind from the thermal pad on my radeon 9700 and I can't seem to find any acetone in stores. I checked albertsons and walgreens and they only have isoprophyl alcohol.

Thermal pads are nasty, you will probably have to remove 99% of it physically. Carefully scrape it off with a plastic card or such. The rest you might be able to clean up with IPA.

Also, i did not know it was possible to manufacture 100% IPA. Usually the distillation process will yield 95% IPA and 5% water after several iterations. You would have to use an extreme amount of iterations on the distiller to create 99% IPA. ...

 

[LED]

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
90%+ rubbing alcohol does work much better than 70%. I dislike using WD40 even though it practically melts the thermal pad because it leaves a residue that you won't ever be able to remove, inhibiting performance.

I have found little that can not be removed from a surface from paint to plated metals.

 

[OrganizedChaos]

a good hardware store will have it for about 15 bucks a gallon

 

[WobbleWobble]

Originally posted by: LED

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
90%+ rubbing alcohol does work much better than 70%. I dislike using WD40 even though it practically melts the thermal pad because it leaves a residue that you won't ever be able to remove, inhibiting performance.

I have found little that can not be removed from a surface from paint to plated metals.

I believe that you can remove the visible traces of WD40, but it's the microscopic pores that you won't be able to remove it from. I've been able to remove any compound or pad using very high concentration rubbing alcohol. That just saves the worry and hassle of having to clean up any residue left over.