moradic acid?

A friend that deals in old shoes has a small cement mixer adds sand and shoes, turns on and Clean Shiney Shoes. Noisy but safe volume solution!

Reply to
tbone
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D'OH! My bad... You're right. Sulfate it is. I was crossing up limestone (which you of course mention in a moment) with gypsum.

Reply to
Don Bruder

Well, Harold, I likewise guarantee you that it WAS at full strength. I poured it out of the brand new, still-sealed-from-the-source jugs myself, and aside from the filmstock, nothing got added until we hit the "process the sludge" stage. This does, of course, ignore condensation and or "grab water out of the surrounding air" type behavior by the acid once it's out of the jugs, but I don't expect that was enough to be significant. Yellow hide for a week or so after processing a batch was an acceptable tradeoff for both of us, considering the quantities of silver we were extracting, and the resulting cashflow for a couple of desperately poor college students. But gawd did the nitrates we were cooking up in the process cause some INCREDIBLE headaches while we were processing... KNowing what I know today, I'd probably never have gotten involved to begin with, but You're only young, dumb, and immortal once :)

Reply to
Don Bruder

On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 22:49:32 -0500, tbone vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

D'Oh! I just ruined 10 pairs of perfectly good joggers!

Reply to
OldNick

Shelf life is no problem in an ordinary plastic jug with a screw-on cap, so I guess that's airtight enough. I use it until it quits working, then neutralize it and dump it.

Reply to
Don Foreman

90 degree Baume nitric acid?
Reply to
Don Foreman

I don't know where Tim got this idea - likely from very low molar or week HCL. HCL will eat through your fingers or body if given a chance. It will dissolve copper without a thought. Al has not a chance.

HCL if in pool grade or lab grade will boil water if poured in. The water turns into steam and splats the acid back at you. Been there and it done to me.

You might have been using a cleaning solution of weak acid content.

Sulfuric is bad stuff also - and it will eat you alive as well. We were talking about pool acid which is non-pure grade HCL.

Martin

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

It really depends on the quantity and the mixing. If the quantity of water is low - e.g. test tube or small container - the heat produced is intense. If done on a mixing table or stirring propeller - then there isn't an issue.

Martin

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

All of my Fab line hasmat documents (for sources) is packed already. Rats.

Martin

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

I used reagent grade HCL when washing re-refined gold, which included pouring the acid directly in boiling water------and never had the slightest reaction, and that's something I did on a regular basis for over 20 years. I'm afraid I'd have to agree with Tim on this issue. I bought and used HCL by the drum and never had even one incident of steam evolution from mixing it in water, regardless of the volume or the method in which it was applied. The amount of heat generated is lower than the energy needed to flash water to steam. By shear volume, it can't work. Just not enough energy present, very unlike sulfuric. You sure that's not what you experienced? Been there, done that.

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

Dont forget ricin with an LD-50 of 3 micrograms...

Gunner

It's better to be a red person in a blue state than a blue person in a red state. As a red person, if your blue neighbors turn into a mob at least you have a gun to protect yourself. As a blue person, your only hope is to appease the red mob with herbal tea and marinated tofu.

(Phil Garding)

Reply to
Gunner

I had enough wisdom to work, at first, with a fan in a window, followed up almost immediately with a fume hood. I was always spared the fumes from all the acids I handled, including hydrofluoric on rare occasions. I still have a liter of it on hand for removing warts, which works great when applied properly. I hated the feel of being in a room of acid fumes, which manifested itself with sensitive teeth for me. No way I could ignore it.

Aren't you overlooking the fact that the acid had been used by the time you went diving? It's not like it doesn't lose it's properties. You know as well as I do that it loses it's ability to do work. As the hydrogen is consumed, it ceases being HNO3 and becomes something else. I'm not suggesting that your solution no longer contained some nitric, but how much?

Mind you, I'm not arguing the point that you may have done exactly as you say, but I'll say it again, right here, and offer to buy your airfare to my property so you can show me how you do it. I'll return your airfare immediately after you've submerged your arms in a tub of tech grade nitric acid, which I have on hand. I used to use it for refining gold and silver.

Nitric acid, from the container, is very hard on skin and causes damage, often serious damage. It can lead to death when severe enough. Had you gone diving immediately after pouring the acid, I think you'd have a different story to tell us now. I'm very familiar with the yellow skin of which you spoke, and of the potential peeling that can accompany it, even on toughened skin on my hands. But then, maybe I'm just a wuss.

I think you're instilling something in the minds of others that could get them in trouble. I would *not* recommend handling nitric acid with bare hands, full stop. I realize the surface of my eye is far more delicate than the skin on your hands, but 15 seconds after a drop entered my eye, the surface had peeled off. Ophthalmologist told me I was lucky, that the human body can neutralize acid, but can't neutralize bases well. I was lucky because had it been a drop of sodium hydroxide, I'd have been blinded in the eye, at least according to him. I experienced a complete recovery of the eye. Hard way to learn a lesson, especially considering the entire experience could have been avoided.

Harold

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Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

Well, the muriatic acid I have is kind of old, it might be a bit dried out, but it seems to work just fine to me. I've never had a problem when adding water. Or copper, for that matter.

Tim

-- "California is the breakfast state: fruits, nuts and flakes." Website:

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Reply to
Tim Williams

Pardon me for butting in, but since the subject is acids....

My vertical dry well has been getting slower and slower to drain over the last year or two. Its been suggested that I let the level go down as far as possible (30 odd feet) and pour in 5 gallons of sulfuric acid, to acid frac the debris that is blocking the bottom of the dry well. Organics, anything that slipped though the septic tanks baffles..the usual spooge. The dry well has been in operation for about 15 yrs now since I had it drilled. 4" PVX, perforated at the far end. I suppose I could try to bail it with a homemade bailer...but Id rather try something less.....messy.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Gunner

It's better to be a red person in a blue state than a blue person in a red state. As a red person, if your blue neighbors turn into a mob at least you have a gun to protect yourself. As a blue person, your only hope is to appease the red mob with herbal tea and marinated tofu.

(Phil Garding)

Reply to
Gunner

Right, but you were doing it the *right* way, acid into water.

The problem is magnified if you pour small amounts of water into the acid. You no longer have the voulume of water available to absorb the energy. Jim

Reply to
jim rozen

What about tri-methyl mercury? There was that lady from yale who got one drop on her latex glove and died.

Jim

Reply to
jim rozen

You may have trouble getting an answer to this question here, I think that the kind of dry well you are talking about (sounds like an injection well nearly) is pretty unusual in most places.

Most places use either leach pits or linear leach fields where the effluent is kept much nearer the surface to be acted upon by aerobic bacteria.

I have personally heard stories about using an acid to open up a leach *field* but I cannot recall if it was HCl or sulfuric. I also recall my dad putting tetra-chlorobenzene into our septic system when I was a kid, for the same purpose. It was sold commercially for that purpose at the time.

I would rely on *local* advice on this issue if I were you.

If you do go the sulfuric route, be sure to heed the comments here about the exothermic nature of the reaction and don't just pour it down the well from the carboy and then stare into it to see 'what's happening.' I'd put it remotely somehow and be sure to have the top vented and covered loosely so you don't get a geyser. But you also don't want to build up a lot of pressure in system, which could blow acid backwards into it or your house. :(

Jim

Reply to
jim rozen

I recently read something, perhaps here, about the danger of exposure to burning Viton. Anyone recall what the issue was with that?

Reply to
Rex B

Hear hear, I used it for passifying, and only OUTSIDE, in a small glass container, with big rubber gloves. A spot of acid splashed onto my arm and felt like a needle. The wind blew a wisp my way from 10 feet away and sent me coughing. Repeat: one cup total volume, 10 feet away. No way you are putting your head in a vat of this stuff. Must be idfferent stuff or, as mentioned, dilute from use.

Reply to
yourname

My limited experience here would suggest that trying an enzymatic method first would be the smartest way to go. You risk absolutely nothing in that if it doesn't happen to work, you've done no harm. I avoid drain cleaners of all types, choosing to use the enzymes instead. If you're successful, all you've done is increase the size of the colony that thrives on the spooge you're trying to eliminate. It's a win/win situation. I've had perfect results with pipes, even opening up nasty hair blockages. If you have trouble finding the cleaner, I recently found it at Home Depot, and have purchased it from Ace Hardware in the past.

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

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