Coleman camping fuel is the same thing if you can find that...thats what I used on my Pinbot restoration when the EPA wouldnt let naptha into California anymore...

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I dont do a bunch of playfield work but I used to use wax and grease remover on a car when doing bodywork to give the primer a shine in the sunlight to help see lowspots, it stays wet looking for about a minute before it starts to air dry, plus it keeps the wax of so paint or clear will stick, just wipe off with a dry rag or paper towel.

Haha, I was sorta thinking the same thing... I guess if you're into distilling spirits and things, it'd be easier to figure out.

Denatured Alcohol is good stuff though. I've always used that before I knew about Naphtha.

Alcohol probably isn't too good for the specific purpose you're using it for, but who knows, unless mbaumle is talking about color matching specifically

I honestly completely missed that part... When skimming through, I just assumed it was for playfield prepping. Apologies.

Alcohol probably wouldn't do what you want it to do in that scenario.

Will mineral spirits work instead?

Yes. Mineral spirits is the same stuff as naptha, just a little less refined/pure.

Been running into the same issue where I live. A lot of commonly used products that are mentioned on the forum just go by a different name but are the same thing. I've been searching high and low for the Dutch alternative of Naptha. Turns out it's the same thing as "wasbenzine", which you can even buy at the local grocery store.

Perhaps its a good idea to make a thread to summarize these alternative product names for commonly used products, and where you can get them, per country. You don't want people to ruin their playfield with some heavy solvent because they thought it was the same thing as naptha.

You said you can get turpentine - that is close enough to naptha for your purposes. Spray painters often use it to prep car bodywork before spraying.

When I was a kid in the 50's, camp fuel was called white gas.

Robert

By the way I feel your pain. In China I can pretty much get any chemicals we need in the factory BUT all names are in Chinese and it is often very difficult to translate exactly which one you want from English. It has caused a few problems until we were able to locate the "Chinese" versions and suppliers of what we use.

This is more a gut feeling from experience in other work with these, and please others share if Im wrong.

If it isnt Naptha, and its playfield prep, and any of the others are used...mineral spirits, turpentine, coleman oil, wouldnt one want to follow that with a denatured alcohol cleanup?

I find oil residue from all the others, depending on brand?

Is this possible/correct?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/country-specific-substitutes-for-commonly-used-products

Yes, Naptha for the final...a good quality leaves no residue.

My apologies, if I spoke wrong.

I meant if you use the others, and dont have Naptha, the others could leave a residue.
That residue may be removed by Alcohol?

Im usually working with old wood, but through the years, alot has depended on the quality of the product.

Are you planning to clear coat? I would guess the coating manufacturer would have their recommendations.
If just cleaning, start with the least affective and work down in a non seen area, as different playfields, years,
all have be created with different methods....

The title of the game, and what you wish to accomplish, would likely bring in smarter people than me!

I worked in an oil refinery for about 30 years and know a little about the subject. The first process in a refinery is crude oil distillation. The crude is separated into different streams based on boiling point. Naphtha is the stream that is produced that has a boiling range between 100 deg F. and 360 deg F. In most refineries all of this goes into gasoline. There is a reforming step specifically to increase octane. So gasoline is a naphtha product and could be used in place of naphtha with precautions. First, with great care as we all know gasoline is explosively flammable. Thus, it must be used with good ventilation and NO flame sources. Next, in the U. S., in many states at least about 10% ethanol is blended into gasoline. A sticker by the pump will indicate that. Ethanol is an alcohol, fairly similar to iso-propanol (rubbing alcohol). So if you want no alcohol you may want to avoid that. For awhile in the U.S. MTBE (an ether) was added to improve octane but it had environmental issues and is not used much anymore. Gasoline also has small amounts (usually less than 1% of additives such as detergents and anti-oxidents for engine performance. So, in short, gasoline may be the best naphtha substitute.

I know this thread is a bit old, but when I asked for Naphtha at the local home depot today, they pointed me to this.

Has anyone tried it as a substitute? Is it safe on playfield art?

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Not sure about that stuff but you can buy Naptha in CA via Amazon.