Replacement for California Wash

I know many of us have been bummed that Varn discontinued producing California Wash. my 5-gallon pail is just about empty, so I’ve been thinking about what’s next. part of that has been to consider what the components are of CW. given the scent, it occurred to me that citrus oil may be part of it, and maybe naphtha as a relatively benign solvent. I posed the question to a LLM and it was confirmed:

If you want to replicate the Cal Wash profile reasonably closely:

∙ ~60–70% VM&P naphtha (the ink-cutting workhorse)

∙ ~20–25% d-limonene (orange oil) — adds solvency and slows flash-off slightly, helps with roller conditioning

∙ ~10–15% DPGME (dipropylene glycol methyl ether) — provides the mild coupling behavior and further slows evaporation.

knowing the question of an alternative was open, I phoned Fritz at NA but he said he’s disinclined to bother since buying the components in bulk is infeasible, as is the hassle of shipping the mix to customers.

but that doesn’t mean folks can’t “roll their own.”