You might think of spirits as paint thinners, but they are much more useful than that. They are excellent degreasers and are used in several cleaning applications in your home and in commercial spaces. They have many aliases such as mineral turpentine, petroleum spirits, solvent naphtha, and white spirits. All of these are used for several purposes.
Mineral spirits are highly refined iron paint thinners. Sunrise Industrial Cleaners offers high-quality mineral spirits suitable for your everyday needs. This blog post mentions the top uses of mineral spirits and some other ways you can use them.
What Are The Basics Of Mineral Spirits?
Mineral spirits are manufactured from petroleum. They are excellent cleaners and degreasers due to their insolubility in water. Mineral spirits are usually used to thin paint or as a mild solvent. However, many people use it as a cleaner as well.
Mineral spirits are inexpensive and go a long way. They might come in different fragrances and be odorless as well.
Uses Of Mineral Spirits
Cleaning Paint Tools
Mineral spirits are excellent for dissolving paint. You can easily clean your tools and remove paint from them using mineral spirits. Just soak the brushes and tools in mineral spirits for a few minutes in a well-ventilated place. After some time, take them out and rinse them with water after removing all the paint.
Degreasing Vehicle Parts
Another common use of mineral spirits apart from thinning paint is degreasing. They can degrease easily and remove oil particles from different vehicle parts. This means they can be used for machinery, metal, and automobiles. They allow the greasy material to be easily lifted off the surface and washed away.
Soak those items in a mineral spirit and wipe the grease away. Later, wipe the residuals with a clean cloth.
As A Solvent For Thinning Paint
This one is the most common use of mineral spirits. Mineral spirits have been used to thin paint for years. Thinning paint is critical because otherwise, it will not spread evenly on the wall or the surface. Moreover, thin paints are also required for sprayers. If the paint is too thick, the paint sprayer won’t spray properly. So if you want to use paint for your furniture or walls, it’s best to make sure that the paint has been thinned before spraying it on your walls.
Moreover, a mineral spirit can be used in place of turpentine. Painters and artists use turpentine to thin paint. But, it has a very noxious odor and can be disturbing to breathe in. Also, it is quite flammable and hazardous. On the other hand, mineral spirits don’t have any smell. So, they are much easier to use.
As A Cleaner For Floor Scuffs
Mineral spirits are solvent-based cleaners. They are used as a cleaner for cleaning floor scuffs and removing dirt and grease from a machine’s parts. Moreover, it is safe to use on wooden furniture with a lacquer or varnish finish. It requires just one finish application and doesn’t damage the polish or wooden material.
Mineral spirits can also be used to dissolve gum and other sticky resins left on carpets and clothing.
Some Safety Precautions While Using Mineral Spirits
Mineral spirits might be unhealthy and hazardous if not stored safely. Moreover, breathing them in too much might cause breathing-related issues and other problems. Anything having mineral deposits is likely to catch fire. Even that rag you used to clean up the materials must be disposed of securely.
Also, simply throwing it away will not be okay. You should soak it well in some water before throwing out the rag.
About Sunrise Industrial Cleaners
Sunrise Industrial Cleaners offers numerous industrial cleaners and other cleaning solutions at affordable prices. We have a wide range of industrial-grade premium quality cleaning products and degreasers designed specifically to meet your custom commercial cleaning needs. Explore our products section to see what we have to offer.
Having 20 years of industrial cleaning product blending experience, we also offer custom blending options as well. Contact us here for further information or to get suggestions for your cleaning needs.