Vinegar with an attitude | SouthernPaddler.com

Vinegar with an attitude

sskiff

Active Member
May 31, 2012
39
0
68
Jacksonville, Fl.
Hey Folks,

I stumbled across a nice trick for raising the acidity level in store bought vinegar while looking for safe weed killer and thought there may be others who use vinegar as a solvent for epoxy that might like to know. Apparently there is an 'agricultural' grade of vinegar out there with an acidity level of 20% but I can't find it locally. I did find that putting store bought stuff (about 5-7%acidity) in the freezer for a while and scooping out the slush will remove the water which freezes at a higher temp than the acid. I did this until I had reduced the gallon of vinegar by about a third. I have no idea of what the acidity is now but this stuff kicks epoxy butt. Much easier to clean things especially rollers and I haven't noticed any skin reactions. I have used it to wipe off excess epoxy from ply and it doesn't seem to have an effect on the wood either.

I do have the hard stuff, acetone and denatured alcohol in the shop but have always thought of vinegar as a more user friendly solvent for uncured two - part stuff.

Hope this isn't old news, I searched but couldn't find an old post.