How to bleed brakes?

[Brendan W]

Have you found a local source of acetone in reasonable quantity?

I buy it from the pharmacy. Paid a fiver for 500ml must be a few years ago. Never asked about larger amounts.More than likely paid way over the odds. Gilsenans in Castleknock were the distributors 01 820 8842.
I have used nail polish remover as a substitute which is just a mixture of acetone and denat alcohol.

[Grimly]

Any store around here has it, hardwars store, auto parts store, paint store, even the evil Walmart. Bought a gallon last week for about ten bucks. Probably not available in Europe because it's a useful chemical.

You got that right - the EU hegemony is slowly crippling initiative by restricting the sale of such things. I've discovered that it's available as Panel Wipe, but not all Panel Wipe is acetone.

I buy it from the pharmacy. Paid a fiver for 500ml must be a few years ago. Never asked about larger amounts.More than likely paid way over the odds. Gilsenans in Castleknock were the distributors 01 820 8842.
I have used nail polish remover as a substitute which is just a mixture of acetone and denat alcohol.

I used to deal with S.E.Chemicals and had a useful relationship with them for a couple of years, but in recent times whenever I've phoned them to enquire about something, they've never got it - at least, that's what they tell me and it's very fishy indeed.
Bloody ridiculous - considering ten years ago I was getting 50 gallon drums of methanol routinely delivered from Dublin when I was making biodiesel. Lennox Labs and some other mob were willing to supply me anything back then, but that was before the EU bullshine really took effect.
I've no doubt I can get acetone from LL, but I certainly don't need lab grade anymore, and anyway, it's getting to the stage where, if you're not a known enterprise, buying chemicals gets people nosey about your business.

[Charlie G]

To make the bleeding easier, you could drop some bucks on a specialised vacuum workshop bleeder; or you could spend a single buck on a large plastic veterinary syringe and attach it to some plastic tubing which goes over the bleed nipple.
Suck the fluid down the way - bleed in two minutes, both sides, job done.

That's a useful comment. Thanks.

cg