Preval Spray Gun extraction

Hey all ya'll...
I picked up a Preval Spray Gun for some touch-up painting and looked at the propellants that are used and thought, hey, these propellants seem to be ok for extractions. Dimethyl ether, propane & isobutane.. The unit comes with a glass vessel and a can of propellant. I bought extra cans of propellants for extraction purposes.
Can anybody enlighten me, besides the flammability, on the potential hazards of the end product using these as extraction solvents? Will the product be clean? This thing seems to be an extractor already built and ready to go, albeit small.
I would post the link to the MSDS but not sure how to do that. The link to the Preval website is Preval.com and there is a link to the MSDS is at the bottom of the page.

Am I barking up the wrong tree?
Thanks and Doobie careful.
M.B.T.
 

Blunter the kid

Well-Known Member
If the solvent is clean, and otherwise has no heavy metals or lubricants added to it I see no reason why you can't use it
Any heat applied directly to the solvent while it's in your Pyrex dish can cause the rate of decomposition to increase dramatically, which could lead to a violent explosion.
So to prevent an explosion during the initial evaporation step you should allow the solvent to evaporate undisturbed far away from your house.
If I'm not mistaken, ZHO uses a mixture of solvents which I'm fairly sure employs a mixture of co2 and dimethyl ether so obviously it's also safe for extraction, as are propane and isobutane.
The only hazard I can think of would be contaminants like heavy metals or additives like lubricants.
I'm sure someone else will post a much better answer than mine.
 

Fadedawg

Well-Known Member
Nothing notably toxic about any of the listed contents, though noted by SP, until lab tested you have no clue about purity below the 1% cutoff of what they must report on the MSDS for non watch list chemicals.

We had Dr. Z's Dimethyl Ether and CO2 mix tested and found it to be free of anything at any levels of concern, and have tested both n-butane and n-propane sources to see what was in them, but to predict the stuff in your can would require its own GC/MS analysis, which we get done locally for $350 per sample.
 
Thanks for all the replies.
I guess I am barking up the wrong tree. I will stick to the proven methods and solvents unless other info is posted. Better to be safe than sorry.
Thanks again!
 
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