Hi! I'm looking for a New Zealand based supplier of PEC-12, the photocleaning fluid. Anyone can help? Thank you!

-- Andrew Patterson (lazerphoto@xtra.co.nz), May 28, 2002

Answers

There are several alternates to the stuff you're looking for...

A good quality lacquer thinner will work very nicely. Just make sure it has no oily components, which are a no-no in bona-fide lacquer thinners anyway. To verify, an old time test is to let a small amount evaporate in the middle of a piece of brown kraft paper. Any oils will leave a slightly translucent spot in the paper. Another way is to test for water beading on a piece of super clean glass. Test before and after letting some evaporate off of the glass.

Another excellent film cleaner is butyl acetate, although it's not as readily available. The local hobby shop will have "dope thinner", which is formulated with butyl acetate. If you need it in the large economy 10 gallon size, try a supplier to the fabric covered light aircraft industry. Butyl acetate is a common solvent for the "dope" on small airplanes. If you take a whiff of the High Priced photo cleaner, you'll recognize the odor.

The fiberglass industry uses several solvents which work well as photo cleaners, Acetone being the most common. It's also used as a cleaner in the computer chip industry. If you think that film needs a Fancy Label cleaner, think about the ultra stringent demands for compter chips. Acetone works just fine on PRINTS and POLYESTER based films, (Triacetate based films are vulnerable), and acetone is a hekkuva lot cheaper.

All aromatic solvents are only effective on gunk that is not water soluble (oils, fingerprints that have not been "embossed" into a soft/wet emulsion, non-mineral deposits, etc.).

-- Reinhold Schable (rschable@quik.com), May 29, 2002.

You can get it from Light Impressions but you can also use 91% Isopropyl that works great also.

-- Scott Walton (walton@ll.mit.edu), May 30, 2002.