Ronsonol Lighter Fluid as a Degreaser.

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I've never tried mineral spirits.

Ronsonol Lighter Fuel,
Naphtha, CAS #64742-89-8
Naphtha, CAS #142-82-5

Doesn't say if it's aliphatic or aromatic on the container. Maybe the CAS # will tell you something that I don't know.
 
MEK is super nasty stuff. Place I used to work, we used it to recondition plastic parts, make them look like new, just held the parts in the vapors coming off the heated vat of it. Had to wear a really good respirator, gloves, and have really good exhaust.
 
CAS #64742-89-8 appears to be the aliphatic naphtha, or at least it contains benzene (or C6H6), and CAS #142-82-5 appears to be heptane, or C7H16; one step below octane(gasoline), or C8H18.

I'm no chemist, but "naphtha" seems to cover a wide range of petroleum distillate compounds all hovering around hexane, C6H14.

I can tell you this: If you put too much in your Zippo, it'll irritate the bejesus out of your leg right where you keep it in a pocket.

Woody
 
I'm no chemist, but "naphtha" seems to cover a wide range of petroleum distillate compounds all hovering around hexane, C6H14

You are correct in that commercial production of the more common solvents are really just the fraction of petroleum that comes off the distillation column at a particular point. Naptha is pretty much just the range of hydrocarbons that have boiling points just over room temperature to several hundred degrees. It can be further divided into light, medium, and heavy naptha, with the most volatile being the lightest. Coleman camp fuel is a good example of light naptha, and it is a great solvent.

As far as the molecular composition, boiling point tends to increase with the number of carbon atoms in the molecule. For a given number of carbon atoms, the linear chain will have the greatest surface area and thus the highest boiling point, so branched chains or aliphatic (carbon atoms form 4 bonds) rings will have a lower boiling point than similar weighted straight chains. The addition of oxygen (as in ketones like acetone and MEK, ethers such as MTBE and diethyl ether, or alcohols methyl, ethyl, isopropyl, butyl, etc) typically increases the boiling point when compared to the hydrocarbon (hydrogen and carbon atoms only). Aromaticity is a bit more complex, but in general it refers to compounds with a ring that is planar rather than puckered, most commonly seen in benzene and its derivatives.

Mineral spirits are similar to a medium fraction of naptha. There is a lot of overlap when describing the various petroleum distillates.
 
Naptha is a great cleaner, the problem is that it cleans so well that it strips off all the protective oil. As long as you follow it with a coat of gun oil it does a great job. Using it by itself is an invitation to rust. I use it with a "chaser" of Breakfree all the time.
 
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