Where is the Red Devil?

[BritneySpears]

I am a newbie, ready to attempt my first synth but I cannot find one crucial thing: LYE! 

I never thought this would be hard to come by.  I live in a major city with major stores.  I admit, I'm lazy, therefore after a brief search here at Hiveville and through the yellow pages, now I've come to submitting this post.  I've been to TarXXX, K-MXXX, Wal-MXXX, but nobody carries it!? Please advise Masters.

I respect the "no-source" policy, so either give me simple non-incriminating direction, or send me a private message within hive encryption.

[karl]

It doesn't have to be brand specific. Look for a drain opener containing sodium hydroxide, if you can't find anything of that nature in the city then get it elsewhere. If you can't source something as simple as NaOH I doubt your capability at aquiring and synthesizing any relevant chems.

[ApprenticeCook]

NaOH are usually labeled as Caustic Soda on shelf products and some contain just NaOH some have other crap in it, if you dont want to fuck it up go find Caustic Soda and look on the label for the contents of it..
KOH is not readily available on shelf but if it is it may be labeled Caustic Potash.
So remember Caustic soda or Lye, any brand, just look at the contents and make sure it hasn’t got additives or you may (will) screw up your honey.

[EvilMadChemist]

wouldnt like Table Salt + Hydroxide --> NaOH ? im new to chemistry , so im just wondering...
Na + H2O ---> NaOH + H .. heh i wonder if thats possible.

[Saddam_Hussein]

Just to warn you: don't throw metallic sodium into water unprepared...

[ApprenticeCook]

EvilMadChemist, dont go near Na metal without knowing its nature first... especially around water.

Heh, swim remembers back in his days at school, chemistry pracs with a prac teacher, oh it was funny, convinced her to put a chunk (~10g) into a 4L beaker of boiling water to see what would happen, she had no clue.....  
Well needless to say when she dropped in the Na, it ignited as it does in water, but not only that it sank about 1cm into the water and then SHOT back out the top, like a rocket, flame trail flew up singing her eyebrows and lighting the roof on fire (the gay soundproofing spray on cork budget schools use) and aswell, the FULL beaker exploded, spilling the contents all over the floor, and knocking over the open container of Na (in parafin) onto the now wet bench.... we had to evacuate the entire building and call the fire dept.... shit it was funny but swim feels sorry for tricking her....      

[EvilMadChemist]

[GC_MS]

wait a minute , what is salt? isnt salt like NACl? Sodium Cloride?

Maybe consider to read a book on chemistry once in a while. And change your nick to EvilBadChemist for the time being.

[stratosphere]

i have seen some placesa which don't sell red devil, but sell cleaners which consist of KOH or NaOH pre dissolved in water, you could either use them direct, or if you need non-aqueous then evaporate them, (just don't use an aluminum pan, and be careful cuz wet salts will spatter if you dry them with too much heat).

there are other "magic crystral" drain cleaners which xconsist mostly of NaOH but have other crap mixed in with them.

if you don't need a super strong base, then you can always heat sodium bicarbonate to form sodium carbonate, i forget the temp this happens at, but its not real high, like 250C or so.

[Bond_DoubleBond]

you can get usp grade naoh from brewery supply stores.

[EvilMadChemist]

[livid]

this thread should bee locked or removed on grounds of ignorance.