Head cement thinner substition

Attachment 5286Ok this might sound strange. But I need some thinner for my head cement. So I go to the fly shop and a man about an hour before I got there bought the last 6 bottle's .
Now for the question. What would be if any would be a good Substition

You have to figure out what type of cement you have, Water based or not. Then if it is a solvent you need to figure out what the solvent is. I would start with Acetone. But it could be Toulene or MEK. Post what you are using and maybe someone can tell which to use. The other thing is that you can go buy some Sally Hanson HAN's.

all i can tell you is that it is wapsi's head cement. 1/2 oz bottle
I did get some griff's thinner

Hi Stream,

If it is the standard traditional head cement, then MEK from a paint store or lumber yard is the best choice. To tell if it is the water based head cement, smell it. If it has a solvent type odor, then it is likely solvent, rather than solvent, based.

Regards,

Gandolf

It all depends on what head cement you are using. What kind are you using? If it is Sally's Hard As Nails, I use acetone...or top off with fresh Sally's. If it is Loon's Hard Head...you can use alcohol to thin it.

I have always used lacquer thinner for regular head cements like Sally Hansen's. These can easily be identified by their smell.
By experimentation, I find that toluene is the solvent for Dave's Flexament, Softex and other rubber cements.
Both of these are hardware store items at about $7 - $8 a quart.

I have also had good success using lacquer thinner for regular solvent based head cements like those sold by Wapsi or Rumpf. Lacquer thinner can contain Toluene, Acetone or Xylene so you never know what you are getting until you check.

What I can also tell you is MANY lacquers and at least Griff's Thin & Regular are manufactured with butyl acetate. Where you get butyl acetate I have no idea.

I'll let the chemists explain if it matters using a different solvent than what a product was manufactured with.

I use MEK and actually I also just buy clear Lacquer and mix my own.

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