Just arrived home from my OTC shopping ....

brixtonj · Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:57 pm

Incredible as it seems , certain well known hardware mega-store in some country of SouthWestern Europe has ,. IN THE SAME department ...

ETHANOL 96% 1 Euro/Liter
METHANOL 100% 1 Euro Liter
ACETONE 100% 0.8 Euro Liter
TOLUENE 3 Euro /Liter
XILENE 2.5 EURO /liter
Distilled H2O 1.2 Euro /5 Liter
Muriatic Acid 3 Euro /Quart
H2SO4 (20%) 1 Euro Liter (funnyly enough that was at the top of the shelf , and I nearly pour it over my face whilst triying to rreach for it . Safety first !!!
Methilene-clohride 3 Euro liter

and lots others compound I just bought for the sake of it . with really interesting names ( phenol , photasium permanganate , etc..) .

There were also some "aluminium amalgame" for -dont-know-what of the swimming pools which reminded me a lot that HgAl reactive (20 Euros/Liter)

Just filld up a shopping trolley with these , and no-one raised an eye 'cos of my grossly suspiccious shopping. Also.. good selection on general
chemistry protective suits/goggles/respirators , etc..

Oh , yep , on another -different- shop there were selling Sassi-oil .. but at a outrageous 10 Euros/15 ml. (80% Safrol) ,but interestingly , they were asking IDs for that. I gave it a miss.

Isnt this Country lovely ?

BrixtonJ

Darkblade48 · Fri Apr 01, 2005 4:40 am

Wow, the prices in Canada are a lot different.

1 Euro = 1.56 CAD

Methanol 99% - 3.99 for 1 L
Acetone 100% - 7.67 for 1 L
Toluene - 9.39 for 1 L
Muriatic Acid 20 baume - 1 L for 4.54
H2SO4 (I've heard it's > 90%) - 1 L for 5.29

I'm actually looking for some potassium permanganate, I haven't been able to find any =)

ApprenticeCook · DILLIGAF

Most of those are not really spectacular finds.... most countries have them OTC.

Although phenol is a nice one OTC, ive seen it in mixtures with products but not to any great %.
Also do you have any more info on the "aluminium amalgame" you saw? that sounds interesting....

-AC

IndoleAmine · Dreamreader Deluxe

strange -I was under the impression that MeOH wasn't sold in the EU anymore, due to it being rated as "toxic" and therefore not available to the broad public - but there are always exceptions, right? (->RC fuel)...

i_a

brixtonj · Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:18 am

MargaretThatcher · Sat Apr 02, 2005 6:07 am

Methanol isn't OTC everywhere in the EU. Partly this is toxicity, but generally, corparate bull means that outlets sell 'value added' products to consumers at extortionate prices. These may or may not contain usable quantities of methanol etc.

IndoleAmine · Dreamreader Deluxe

BrixtonJ: No, I meant MeOH, not MeNO2. Where I live, I can get MeOH only as OTC as MeNO2 - this is via RC racing shops...

(luckily there's your best friend - the CHEMICAL SUPPLLIER! Very Happy

)

i_a

brixtonj · Sat Apr 02, 2005 3:35 pm

... Its definitely for sale , not "OTC" , even better , available at the superstore , in plastics 1L bottle at the barbeque area. A 10 year old girl could buy 200 litres of methanol without anyone giving a sh&t.

Well , speaking on that .. do you know that Indy(anapolis)500 cars run on methanol ? Same as your Nascar series , -and most Formula-1 style cars. Old racing cars (buggatis, etc..) also used to run on Methanol.

Besides the barbeque .. Its also available here (and I am sure at the US also) at the race-tracks , for cars.
Quite pricey for fuel , but still cheap as a reagent.

PS. The RC fuel destilation was a full faliure.Shit.

IndoleAmine · Dreamreader Deluxe

Yah, but I neither live in spain, GB nor in the US of A.
If I did, I would of course send my little daughter to buy gallons of MeOH all the time... Laughing

i_a

DjTime · Chemical Dj

BrixtonJ,
Why do you say it was a complete failure? I buy my nitro via RC racing fuel also. I buy the stuff that is 70% MeOH and 30% MeNO2 plus it has a few additive oils like castor oil and the such. When you distill your Nitro from the fuel you can see the thermometer go from around 62 C and will slowly come up to about 102 C at around 90 C i change my flask to start reciving mostly nitro. However nitro and methanol form an azetrope and will come over simotaniuosly but at different %'s. You just have to keep a steady eye on it, you will not end up with much pure nitro but enough for the amnation. I keep the bulk of the stuff that came over first and throw it back in the jug and distill it again. Just be patient it's not fun watching that stuff distill. I also can tell when i hae mostly pure nitro because i can smell it, it smells kinda sweet as when MeOH has little smell to me. Peace Out.....

ApprenticeCook · DILLIGAF

Why is it such a concern???
I buy a custom blend from the RC shop, mac 35% nitro, they wont let you buy any stronger, but they make it up volumetrically (well close enough to) with methanol, so i distill the whole lot to remove the castor oil and stuff thats also in it and just directly measure the nitro/methanol into my al/hg..... methanol is the solvent for the reaction anyway remember....

So i just have a stock of 35% nitro 65% methanol and measure out how much nitro i need via the % v/v composition... works good enough and i still get great yields....

-AC

DjTime · Chemical Dj

SWID did he exact same thing today. He decided since he was low on MeOH he'd go ahead and just use the bit he needed from the nitro distillation. Well SWID put aprox 400 ml of the MeOH he distilled and 350 ml from the jug of 99.99% he had of pure MeOH together and used that in the reaction.

I WARN STRONGLY AGAINST THIS.

It's good if you can somehow measure the exact quantity of nitro that is in there after the distillationof your nitro. SWID can't, remember that there is that stupid ass azetrope that forms with this distillation where some nitro comes over with that MeOH like 96% MeOH and 4% Nitro.

Anyways put it in with 400mg of HgCL2 and in about 3 MIN ALLLLL of SWID's MeOH evaped and he had aluminum dust in his 5L flask. In short SWIM had a runaway reaction, my guess was WAY more nitro was in that MeOH than SWID thought there was.

Rule of thumb SWID found is use only what you know you have because that little bit you wont think matters may and it may be way too much. Peace Out........

ApprenticeCook · DILLIGAF

the RC people do make sure there is a relativly accurate amount of nitro in the mix.... so when you know the % nitro you do your calculations correctly to work out the volume of mix = volume of nitro you want....

As for your reaction... your probably right, way to much nitro caused way to much heat and your MeOH evapped.... your lucky the remainder of the nitro didnt ignite due to the heat of reaction....
Thats why i said to calculate the % nitro..... ie do your math right and you wont add to much.... so next time, use a calculator...

rule of thumb.... for those of you who know how to calculate dilutions and molar concentrations CORRECTLY its just as easy to do this instead of screwing round with 100% nitro i had an accident a while back with this ie my post at the hive about it.... so i use this method to avoid my mistake again....
Or
if your mathematically inept your better to distill to recover 100% nitro and measure that out....

-AC

Sektor · Mon May 23, 2005 1:10 pm

....lucky bastards........ in swims country just about EVERYTHING is under suspicion, and i really do mean everything. fucking all blacks, fucking kiwis.....

Star-light · Blacklight bulb