Rubbing Compound Dried Out And Pasty

[Captain Obvious]

My old trusty bottle of 3M rubbing compound is almost too dried out to use. It's more like a thick paste now than a liquid. Think more like peanut butter than mustard. 

Anyone have any tips on what solvent to use to thin it back out again?

Old, dried out, and pasty. Happens to the best of us, right? 

[Mark Maras]

 This may be too obvious, but have you tried water? I think it's water soluble.

[Captain Obvious]

It's not water soluble. (see updated post below) Label says "Hydrotreated light petroleum distillates" and "Solvent-refined heavy paraffinic petroleum distillates".

So I don't know what "Hydrotreated" means, but despite the use of the reference to water, it's not water soluble. (see updated post below) I looked up the MSDS documents as best I could and they are as generic and ambiguous as what you usually find.

13 hours ago, Mark Maras said:

 This may be too obvious

I see what you did there.   

Edited June 5, 2023 by Captain Obvious

[bpilati]

Buy new.

[Mark Maras]

 A brief Google search for hydrotreated light petroleum distillate synonyms, I found dearomatized kerosene. Evidently they dearomatized many hydrocarbons. If one couldn't find dearomatized kerosene I wonder if odorless mineral spirits would work?

[Captain Obvious]

Well @Mark Maras, I have to retract my previous claim that water won't work.

I put a little blob of the dried out compound in a small cup and added a little bit of whatever I could find in the area. Naptha, WD-40, carb cleaner, mineral spirits, acetone. None of them did anything at all even with way more than enough mixing. Just did not want to combine at all.

So, since everything oil / petroleum based just ran away, I decided to retry the other (water) camp. And after starting over with a fresh blob, I added a some water and mixed. After a bunch of mixing, it started to loosen up and once it started to loosen, it went quicker. So in the end, water was the answer, but I had to add more than I expected.

It was kinda like adding corn starch wrong. You get lumps and if doesn't look like it's going to work. But if you add more water and mix enough, it eventually smooths out.

Thanks for the help!!  

[Mark Maras]

 I haven't used any 3M rubbing compound in a few years but I remember using it with a damp (water) rag. Now I wonder if it's a petroleum base why and how does water mix with it? My first thought is it has something like alcohol in it. The reasoning is, alcohol is one of the few solvents that will mix with oil and water.

[Captain Obvious]

The label clearly indicates it has some sort of petroleum in the mix, and water is not even mentioned. I'm assuming that the water isn't mentioned because it doesn't have to be. I'm thinking they only had to list the potentially dangerous stuff and water doesn't count.

So I'm wondering the same thing(s) as you about the mixing of water and petroleum bases, and my assumption goes like this... The base is mostly water, but it contains some petroleum compounds as well. I'm thinking they are emulsified together in the final product. The (small?) amount of petroleum compounds are held in suspension in a water base?

In any event, my bottle is liquid enough to use now and I guess I'll find out in a year if adding all that water was OK or a bad idea. 

[bluez]

In the past have used water for dried out compounds and waxes. Usually mix a few caps and mix, never had an issue.