PSA: Stop storing paint thinner in mason jars, even for a day

I spent last Tuesday cleaning up a mess in my garage after a jar of mineral spirits tipped over and ate through the lid liner in about 4 hours. Lost a whole shelf of sandpaper and a bunch of rags to that spill. The hardware store guy on Route 9 told me those jars aren't made for solvents, and he was right. Anyone else learn this lesson the hard way or am I the only one who thought 'sealed is sealed'?

3 comments

3 Comments

eva_garcia561mo ago

My buddy Mark thought he was being clever keeping acetone in a pickle jar under his workbench. Three days later he went to grab it and the lid basically crumbled in his hand, dumped the whole thing onto a pile of old shop towels he had sitting there. The towels started smoking and he had to throw the whole mess into the driveway before it caught fire. He called me cussing up a storm about how he should've just kept it in the original can. The worst part is he had a proper metal container on the shelf above it the whole time, just didn't feel like transferring it.

the_julia1mo ago

Route 9 guy knows his stuff. I read a post on some DIY blog last year where a guy lost the finish on a whole dining table because he wiped it down with a rag that had been sitting in one of those jars. The liner basically dissolved and the thinner leaked all over the rag, then he used it and it left a weird sticky residue on everything. Seems like the rubber or plastic in those lids just isn't made for that chemical reaction. I still use glass jars for some stuff, but I always make sure the lid has a plastic or metal seal that's rated for solvents now. Better to just spend a few bucks on the proper metal cans, right?

fisher.mason1mo ago

What worked for me was just keeping the solvent in the original metal can but putting it inside a cheap plastic tote with a lid. That way if it does tip or leak, it's contained and you don't lose anything nearby. I also labeled a couple of proper metal safety cans from the hardware store for stuff I use a lot, like mineral spirits and lacquer thinner, and I stopped messing with glass entirely after a near miss. The whole 'sealed is sealed' trap got me too until I realized glass jar lids have that inner liner that just melts away. Saves a lot of headaches to just bite the bullet and get the right containers from the start.