god damn is there anything funnier than a beachnut post?
Here, at least, you are being unfair. He has this right: MEK actually is NOT good for you. Fairly bad, in fact. Not as bad as methyl ethyl ketone peroxide, which will do you serious harm, but bad. How the use of MEK, a common, but far from universal, solvent might prove the use of a thermite paint is nonsensical.
Beachnut done good here.
To answer
leftysergeant's question, I offer this: [quote="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butanone"[/quote]MEK dissolves many substances and is used as a solvent in processes involving gums, resins, cellulose acetate and nitrocellulose coatings and in vinyl films. For this reason it finds use in the manufacture of plastics, textiles, in the production of paraffin wax, and in household products such as lacquer, varnishes, paint remover, a denaturing agent for denatured alcohol, glues, and as a cleaning agent. MEK is also used in dry erase markers as the solvent of the erasable dye.[/quote]. I don't see latex paint, for instance, on that list, but that is a total red herring. The paint is largely irrelevant, as is a suggestion that, being insoluble, the paint was unusual. Thermite is a mixture of various inorganic substances. It's vehicle, the paint, is is only important in how it supports the flame. A nonflammable paint, UNLIKE one soluble in MEK, would not work well.
