Nitric make or buy?

[mjgraham]

It is not that I can't get any of the chemicals I can get nitric, I don't need gallons(so it is a little more expensive) and the cold method seems to be simple enough to make nitric, other than the effort involved is there a down side? I can get battery acid 6L for like $16 at NAPA and sodium nitrate is not to bad to get off ebay if I have to, haven't chekced any of the farm supply places yet. Most of the processes use 50% nitric or dilute it down to that. Just wondering.
Thanks
Jarrid

 

[MysticColby]

I started off assuming making it would be cheaper, and it looks that way at first. But then I looked into prices for nitric and found that it was cheaper, but only by like $10 per gallon, which was not worth the hassle, much less the failed attempts. I'm sure this varies by location, but it's something to look into.
another thing: I'm not familiar with the cold method (it sounds like you're doing sulfuric + sodium nitrate -> nitric), but I should bring up: what are you using it for? if you're not evaporating it and collecting the fumes to get the nitric, there would be some sodium sulfate mixed in, which could mess with whatever you're doing, depending on what that is. (one of the hassles for me I mentioned)
That all said, it was a fun experiment to try out.

 

[mjgraham]

That is what I was wondering, It looked cheaper on a small scale I am sure, if I needed 20 gallons I know it wouldn't be. I think the cold method is one I have seen on here by lazersteve I think, I see what your saying if you evap it and condense the fumes you know that is all there is, the other way just pouring it off could still get some small amounts of contaminates in there, humm like you said a lot of factors to depend on. I had planned to testing some silver recovery from capacitors..

 

[butcher]

We have a lot of information on making nitric acid and how to use it, written on the forum, the sodium or potassium nitrate salt is added to an acid sulfuric acid will form nitric acid and sodium or potassium sulfates in solution, so if using it the cold method most of these sulfate salts can be removed after chilling the solution, but not all of them, some metals like silver will form insoluble sulfate salts, so this method is not good to use for silver bearing materials, for base removal of gold items it works fine, for silver use or for a purer nitric acid free from the sulfate salts you should distill the homemade nitric acid to purify it, the sulfate salts stay behind in the boiling flask.

 

[mjgraham]

That was what I was thinking, I had read the methods but had a "to good to be true" moment so I was just checking.
Thanks.