Bestine Solvent and Thinner for Rubber Cement – Cleans Ink, Adhesive and Parts, 32 Ounce Can

Excelllent Rubber Cement thinner and cement spill cleanup, but it does seem overpriced.

This product is indispensible in our home. It cleans up any kind of adhesive residue on all surfaces: carpet, hard surfaces, glass, anything. i always keep it on hand. I used it to clean up residue from adhesive glue on some vinyl tiles I installed and it worked like magic.

Initially I had purchased this to dilute some rubber cement in order to make my own water color blocking liquid. That worked quite well making the standard rubber cement much thinner and paintable. What came next was an experiment. I enjoy collecting various labels when I travel be they wine labels or beer labels, it's something easy to save and reflect on the memories in the future. I've had issues removing those labels very often as the glue is meant to keep the label adhered through heat and cold. I've tried other methods too like oxyclean and acetone. The methods work but usually damage the label more than I'd like. Enter this solvent. Bestine has become my go to for all my wine and beer label removals now. It dissolves just enough of the adhesive to make pulling the label off pretty easy. Mind you there is plenty of adhesive usually left to stick it to whatever surface you'd like. I personally use wax paper to save my labels, but whatever you like will work. The nice thing about Bestine is that it doesn't seem to damage the label in any way. Even some of the labels with gold foil come away cleanly without cracking. If you've ever wanted to save that label from your favorite bottle of wine this solvent will help you amazingly.

Bestine Solvent is an excellent product for all kinds of cleaning in the art room. It was originally produced to thin rubber cement and to clean away “stickies” around the design area. I still use this solvent to clean ink from pens and airbrush parts. It is the best thing I have found to remove tape residue and labels. However, it is really shocking to pay more for a quart of Bestine today than I originally paid for a gallon can way back when!

I recently had cause to utilize this can of Bestine solvent in blending colors in a picture. It was the first time I had used the product and I was very impressed. The solvent allows the artist to nicely mix colors on high quality artist grade paper. Bestine is very thin and not at all turgid, as are some other solvents like turpentine. Additionally, the evaporative rate is "super fast" and I found that the product was totally evaporated within about 15 seconds. Thus, the product allows the artist to do the types of things that one would do with water, but not have to be prepared to allow the paintin to dry for 3 to 5 hours before going back and painting again on the same surface. There are a few warnings that one should be aware of when using Bestine. The product is highly flammable and it is NOT a good idea to smoke while utilizing this solvent. Additionally, the product is poisonous and should not be consumed. Also, the product should be used in a well ventilated room or the user will find themselves quickly becoming 'woozy' and potentially it can lead to unconsciousness. However, as long as the artist is aware of these characteristics of the product and make sure that the work area accommodates these concerns, one will find that Bestine is truly and excellent solvent and will give very good results when the need for even blending of watercolors arises. Thus, one should not be afraid to utilize the product as long as it is used properly with appropriate precautions. I do highly recommend this product as an excellent color blending solvent, particularly for use with watercolors.

Nothing better for getting the sticky off just about anything. Caution: this stuff is flammable! - do not use around open flame! Vapors may hazardous if inhaled! Responsible adults only! Not for kids!!!

I can't live without this stuff. Nearly every thing I buy has stickers on it, that leave gum residue when I peel them off. This solvent has barely any odor at all. It is NOT like "Goop-Off" which has a strong smell. I use this to remove sticky/gum and to final rinse parts when degreasing. I'll clean them first in cheap paint thinner. Then let them drip onto a rag. Then wash them just enough with this to rinse away the smelly paint thinner. Then let dry or blow off with an air gun. This stuff evaporates very quickly. If you get most of the paint thinner off first, then you can collect the runoff of this solvent into a sealable container (glass or metal with good seal, or else this will evaporate right through many plastics!). I can re-use it several times this way. This is a very pure n-heptane. The only other way to get something like this would be 3-10x more $$$ for lab reagent grade n-heptane from a chemical co., which consumers wouldn't be able to purchase anyway. NOTE: Hardware store Naptha is not quite exactly the same thing! Naptha is a mix of petroleum distillates with a certain boiling range (like gasoline), and includes some of hexane(s), heptane(s), and octane(s). There will be tiny amounts of other stuff too, like maybe a trace of benzene (but I think they have to remove that to "as low as reasonably possible" levels). So don't worry about benzene in Naptha. What concerns me is that in recent years some science came out which shows n-hexane to be quite toxic relative to n-heptane. n-hexane is present as a major constituent of naptha. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexane#Safety So I like this stuff. Safe. I don't bother with gloves, unless I've already got my hands too dry. The serious hazard is: it's basically like odorless gasoline. So if you are using more than a few mL (a few spoonfuls) indoors, then you need enough ventilation to prevent a vapor cloud from accumulating that could start a flash fire. One other thing: It's almost impossible to pour hydrocarbon solvents from any container without it running down the side and wasting a bunch. So I've tried to keep about 125-250mL (1/2-1 cup) in the house in a little Nalgene wash bottle. Problem: it evaporates very quickly! It basically passes right through plastic bottles, one molecule at a time through the gaps between the polymer chains. So even a sealed plastic container has the same problem. The only squeezable plastic container that holds it without loss is teflon wash and dropper bottles. These are VERY $$$!!! I look for them on Ebay and found a deal on 4 little 1oz Nalgene FEP droppers for about the price of one new ($69), and I found a 125mL FEP wash bottle for about $60 that to get new, they are about $118 (ouch!). So I'm set now. The stuff doesn't evaporate from these bottles at all, nor does it get contaminated from plasticizers extracted from the plastic--which can be a concern for cleaning optics or semiconductors, in case you are fabbing chips in your kitchen ;-)

Bestine Rubber Cement Thinner by Speedball, Union Rubber, Inc. is the only chemical I purchase, everything else is all non-toxic. But this is the only product that will do the job of removing old and new Stickers and annoying price tags, and if you need to thin-out you're drying out rubber cement. [Goo Gone is only good for non-porous surfaces.] Have been using Bestine for decades since design school. Hard to find, especially in the larger 32 oz size, and the 16 oz smaller size has gotten more expensive. Can't find it in any craft stores anymore, and can’t find it in Art Supply 🖌️ 🎨 Stores because they don't exist locally anymore unfortunately :( So Amazon.com thank you 🙏🏻 for stocking this product! *But the product/ container needs to be shipped way more protected 🎁, and carefully! I also recommend a manufacture Speedball to tape the cap closed so it doesn't leak and evaporate during shipment, which I recently have experienced. Especially when shipping all the way across the country. REQUEST: Speedball, Union Rubber, Inc., I would like to see the metal canister redesigned of a different shape; to a Shorter and Wider ↔️ size, so it is more stable and not so top-heavy when utilizing the product on the end-users work surface! Over the years I noticed the metal utilized in there canister is getting thinner, so it dents more easily :( See attached photos. The white plastic cap is just like the medicine bottle safety caps obviously for safety purposes, but it is still a slight pain to deal with, and can easily cause you to knock the top-heavy metal canister over spilling 🫗 the solvent. That’s one major reason why it needs to be a shorter 📏 squatter container. GearFreakNY Approved 👍🏻! But needs a packaging/container revamp!

Very good quality bestine, however you will pay a customs and excise charge when ordering this outside of the US