I Need The Best Bargain For Sulfuric Acid

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Anonymous

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I'm in the process of purchasing some Sulfuric Acid, but I'd like to know if anyone knows where I could get some for a reasonable price. I'm in Nashville, TN USA. There is an eBay auction/ad selling 2 gallons for $99+ $45 for shipping. Is that a good deal?


Kevin
 
NOOOOO!!! :mrgreen:

Try Ace Hardware or some other hardware store. Liquid Fire works best for me; Rooto makes a lot of suds.

Take care!
Phil
 
philddreamer said:
NOOOOO!!! :mrgreen:

Try Ace Hardware or some other hardware store. Liquid Fire works best for me; Rooto makes a lot of suds.

Take care!
Phil
Click to expand...
Are you saying to buy Liquid Fire and NOT Rooto? What about Liquid Lightning I've read that it works good too, except that it's already a dark liquid, which means I wouldn't be able to tell when I've exhausted the acid. I'm needing the Sulfuric for my cell to strip gold pins.


Kevin
 
www.dudadiesel.com 4.25 gallons for $100 bucks but the shiping would be another $50 at least. Thats just where i get my SMB and Patassiun nitrate.
 
Ace hardware here sells 2 1/2 gals of Rooto for $38.00. Also comes in handy when making poorman's nitric as well. The other brands are about the same price.
 
5 gallons for $29.00 at my local auto parts warehouse. Battery electrolyte.

If you need it concentrated evaporate it down to approximately 1/3 of its original volume. I use a thermometer and stop heating when the temperature starts to rise significantly over 100 degrees Celsius. At that point nearly all of the water is out of it.
 
Are you saying to buy Liquid Fire and NOT Rooto?
Click to expand...
Preferably Liquid Fire, Rooto IF Liquid Fire is not available to you. My expirience is that LF is "cleaner" when running the cell, while Rooto creates too much foam. You MUST be careful when any foam is present, because if you disconnect any electrode, and you have a spark, bang! :shock: I know :roll: ; I never had the foam problem with LF.
One thing, though, I started checking the prices of sulphuric last night, and WOW, they have gone up since I last bought some 3 months ago! I have to visit my Ace hardware store and see how much they are selling it for.
The Liquid Lighting contains buffers, so you need to check the MSDS.
There's a post on the the difference between LF and Rooto; I think it was Geo who commented on the Rooto's foaming.

Take care!
Phil
 
Thanks for all the info guys, but one thing though, is the Rooto and battery electrolyte a dark liquid? I'm wanting a clear/light liquid so I can tell how my progress is going.

I'll check on the Liquid Lightning today.

Kevin
 
Kevin, from my expirience, the starting "liquid can be as clear as glass, but as soon as you start de-plating, is going to turn black because of the gold. De-plated gold is a black fine powder, so it doesn't matter if the the liquid is clear or dark. You just make sure your item has de-plated by the change of the items color; then when your acid is saturated, the gold starts to plate on the cathode, slowing down any de-plating. Then its time to "change" the acid.
Check Lazersteve's video and others that are posted on the forum.

Phil
 
The battery electrolyte is clear. I have had it turn a bit yellow when concentrating it but that has never seemed to have affected my processes in a negative way.
 
Thanks, I got it now. I just wanted to make sure to do it correct the first time.

Kevin
 
While I have not ran a cell or made nitirc with it yet , I got the Liquid Fire brand, was a red liquid, followed a youTube video that basically used one drop of 30% H2O2 per 10ml of drian cleaner, put it on the hotplate for a while on high and it cleared up , smoked a lot to and I am sure the fumes are bad. Made it look cleaner anyway, if it made it better I don't know.
 
gold4mike said:
5 gallons for $29.00 at my local auto parts warehouse. Battery electrolyte.

If you need it concentrated evaporate it down to approximately 1/3 of its original volume. I use a thermometer and stop heating when the temperature starts to rise significantly over 100 degrees Celsius. At that point nearly all of the water is out of it.
Click to expand...

According to the internet, Napa battery acid is about 34.6% with a specific gravity of 1.26. If you evaporated this to 1/3 (33.3%) of the original volume (e.g., 1000ml evaporated to 333ml), you would have about 77% sulfuric. For use in the sulfuric cell, I would want it at least 90%. To do that, you would evaporate to 26.7% of the original volume. Starting with 1000ml, you would evaporate to 267ml.

The boiling point of 77% H2SO4 is about 190C (374F) and that of 90% is about 260C (500F). I can't see how observing a rise above 100C (212F) as being any more than an iffy guide. What does significant mean to you, anyhow?
 
If your doing this for the concentrated sulfuric acid gold stripping cell, boiling down 32% H2SO4 battery acid about half way down would not give you the concentration of acid you need to run the cell properly, you would still have about 30% water, which would attack base metals in the cell, the battery acid will work better if boiled down until you see white fumes of SO2 gas evolving, but this can be extremely dangerous.

Boiling concentrated sulfuric acid is terribly dangerous, and if you splashed or spilled this acid on you or a boiling vessel broke which they often do, and this acid ran down into your boot or shoe it could cripple you as the acid ate your flesh to the bone, before doing this be sure you understand the dangers, and take all of the safety precautions, buying the cheap store bought drain cleaners, are a much safer way to get the acid, without the dangers of devastating acid burns when something went wrong, or Murphy’s law decided to poke its ugly head out.

Although recycling the acid you will have to re-concentrate it, if doing this be sure you research the dangers and wear the proper protective gear.
Click to expand...

This is a quote from Butcher on another thread that I thought was relevant to this thread.
 
If you need it really dirty cheap ask your local auto scrap yard. They do empty car batteries, to them it is just expensive waste, they have to pay for. You can test the acid with a cheap test device, filter it and then it should be good enough. I guess you can get a 100l for a sixpack of beer. :lol:
 
Thanks again for all the info. This is very interesting and enlightening. I'm going to take all the advise given and I'm going to talk to a local battery supply store here that's not far from me and they recycle car batteries, and they sell them too. I should get some good results from them.


Kevin
 
testerman said:
Thanks again for all the info. This is very interesting and enlightening. I'm going to take all the advise given and I'm going to talk to a local battery supply store here that's not far from me and they recycle car batteries, and they sell them too. I should get some good results from them.


Kevin
Click to expand...

The sulfuric from batteries is much too weak to be used in a sulfuric stripping cell. To be of use, the sulfuric should be at least 90% and, therefore, most of the water would have to be eliminated by evaporation on a hotplate. As the water evaporates off, the sulfuric gets stronger and the boiling point (B.P.) gets higher. As I mentioned before, the B.P. of 90% sulfuric is about 500F. Therefore, the sulfuric will get hotter and hotter as the water evaporates and the only limiting factor is the boiling point at whatever strength it happens to be at that particular time.

There are huge safety problems in doing this. They can be moderated somewhat by accurately measuring the temperature continuously and keeping it at some lower point. Firstly, the hotter the solution, the easier it is to break beakers. To evaporate safely, you definitely need a container under the beaker to catch the acid in case the beaker breaks. The most reliable catch container is a 5 liter Corning Ware Pyroceram dish, which costs $50-$60 new. Secondly, hot sulfuric is one of the most dangerous things on the planet. It will cause severe burns instantly. Thirdly, the more concentrated and hotter it gets, the more it will tend to splatter. Fourthly, if you over-evaporate the water and the sulfuric gets over-concentrated, you can get copious (a lot of!) white fumes of toxic SO3 gas.
http://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=503&q=sulfuric+acid+burns&oq=sulfuric+acid+burns&gs_l=img.3..0j0i24l3.1719.10828.0.11750.19.13.0.6.6.0.344.3609.2-10j3.13.0...0.0...1ac.1.PQHNcHwo6mE

I know that some people on the forum evaporate battery acid to make the sulfuric stripper. This has always seemed very stupid to me. Why put yourself in harm's way when you can buy readily available concentrated sulfuric acid, in the form of commercial drain cleaner, inexpensively? Concentrated sulfuric, at room temperature, is dangerous enough. Why magnify this danger, maybe 100 fold, by heating it up hundreds of degrees? Stupid!
 
I posted once a very graphic pic of a sulphuric acid burn. I deleted it because statements of been too gruesome. But later someone else posted the same pic. Maybe its time to be brought up so new members realize the true danger of mishandling sulphuric acid.

Take care and be safe!
Phil
 

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