Alot of this I found reading other peoples threads and some of these chemicals have to
be distilled out of what it is sold as.

NaOH.  Some people like myself can't find the ever so famous Red Devil Lye that be distilled out.
everyone rants and raves about.  Will drain opener work just as good-the Zep brand is the most commonly mentioned in threads.

H2SO4.  That can also be found as drain opener.  I don't know what brand, just look.
Also sold at auto parts stores as battery acid.    

KOH.  I don't have a clue, and I am not going to mail order it because that will sure as hell raise my roommates suspiscions of underground chemistry.

I can't find any photography hobby shops anywhere around here.  That's where I think alot of the good catalysts are.

H202.  Beauty shops.  I think it is 30% H2O2.

Formaldahyde can be found in septic tank cleaner and can also be made from I think it is called paraformdahyde found in Mildewacide.

I was reading the ingredients to DryGas for Marine use. It has "full strength isopropyl alcohol" whatever that means. I am assuming that means anhydrous.
 
Is Methylene Chloride the same as Dichloromethane[DCM].  It was posted recently that it can be found in varnish remover.

28% hydrochloric acid.  Pool supply stores also at home depot.

Sassafras oil can be found in some health food stores. 

I have also seen Mu Haung extract in health food stores.  Ingredients: dH20, Mu Haung, and ethanol. 

Non-iodonized salt can also be found in health food stores.

I have found that with the new SRV and other wacker reactions the amount of non-otc chems it DRASICALY reduced..
KOH is not even needed but i did find an aquaous form in Zep Drain cleaner..

Also Fuel Line Anti-Freeze (forget the company name) is 98% Methanol ( looked at the label after getting some for my car)
12oz was about $1

Does anyone else have the same obsession with ingrediant list as i do ?? i can't walk by ONE FRIGGIN house hold chem item with out stopping to read the label..

Jeez :-)
Orph

No Shit! Nobody will go anywhere with me anymore! ( Not exactly a bad thing...)  https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/hive/hiveboard/picproxie_docs/000086383-file_n5ac.gif" title="View this image">

    -Spitball
   - SpeedReader

 

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My License?

Hey, isn't back there on the bumper, man?

Spitball-that post back there sounded like one from the thread "You know youre thinking too muchabout drug synthesis when;"
that shit had me rollin.

That post back where?! huh? uhh. ok thanks. I think?

-Spitball

OTC rules.

Hexamine (fuel tablets), camping store, (HS)
MeOH (99.9%) Hardware store (HS)
DCM distil from furniture strip (HS)
Pet Ether (Colemansuel tablets), camping store
HCl (31.x%) cement cleanser (HS)             
Calcium HypoChlorsomething (pool supply)
CRACK (neighborhood crack house)
Ethyl ether (start fluid) (HS)
Urea 50lb bags too big (garden supply)
MgSO4 aka epson salts (pharmacy)
NaCl salt on my burger
NaSO4 wish I knew
IPA (99.9%,99%,91%,70%) pharmacy
EtOH (95%,?% other stuff) pharmacy as rubbing alcohol, only in my neck of the woods though. Also everclear, denatured stuff avail.
DCM (really concentrated maybe pure)
Industrial store as airplane paint remover.
NaOH as lye
H2O2 30% from hydroponics store
Formic (low %?) kettle cleaner
Paraformaldehyde as toilet chem
Sulfuric acid (concentrated?) as drainopener
DMSO (90%,10%H2O) health food store.

OTC rules as its inexpensiver and its best to keep relation w/ chem supply house to a min.

Max: Lye, just go to any grocery store and buy some. Be careful as its watched and make sure you distil it out. Just kidding as the stuff you want is a solid. The drain opener isn't avail. everywhere, try the hardcore hardwarestores. Alt Photo hobby stores, good luck finding one local as there isn't even one in my entire country. Try mail order if you're a stateser. The best otc stuff are the ones with purity and %age listed.
OTC rules.

"NaOH as lye"
"Sulfuric acid (concentrated?) as drainopener"
"NaSO4 wish I knew"

Uh, I bet you already know...

KOH hydroponics store

ChemHack: No really I don't know. I've looked in tons o pharmacies and examined too many bags of ice melt.

equarius: Sodium Sulfate ehh?  If Magnesium Sulfate from Epson Salts isn't good enuf and for some reason Calcium Sulfate from Drierite isn't good enuf then just make your own Sodium Sulfate from your OTC reagents!

Of course you'd want to be careful about it and use dilute solutions but, if you have a good scale, just react the sulfuric acid with the sodium hydroxide.

WARNING: This will be a violent reaction.  Strong Acid + Strong Base = !!!

Anyway, you definately want to use an accurate scale so you can get the right amount of each because an excess of either could be a problem.

You would also want to use dilute solutions in water to minimize the risks.  Becareful even making the solutions.  Both release heat when dissolved in water, the acid especially, so do it slowly.  Trust me, the last thing you want in your work area is hot acid!  Always add acid to water and not water to acid.  That is important!

But there better ways to get sodium sulfate.  A nice one would be to use NaOH and CuSO4.5H2O from root killer.  Two pounds of 99% CuSO4.5H20 cost $7 at Home Depot.  Look near the sulfuric drain opener.  Cu(OH)2 is pretty much insoluable in water so to do the rxn weigh out 25g of Root Killer and put it in 400ml of distilled water.  It won't dissolve very fast so let it sit while you measure out 4g of Lye and dissolve it in 100ml distilled water.  Remember that you wanna use a plastic or wooden (non metal) spoon for both the lye and the root killer.  And don't leave the lid off the lye for long because it soaks up water from the air throwing off all subsequent weight measurements, not to mention it gets clumpy...

Anyway, you'll probably have to stir the water/copperSulfate mix quite a bit to get it all dissolved.  Resist the urge to add more water and you'll have less water to get rid of later.  After a few minutes the pretty blue crystals will be totally dissolved and the water will look like Windex.  Now dump the NaOH solution in and stir.  Instantly the solution will change  from clear to opaque.  Stir it a little more and then set it aside.  After maybe 20 minutes or so the solids will begin to settle to the bottom.  Depending on the shape of your reaction vessel (jar) you probably have about an inch of clear liquid above the opaque suspension.  If the liquid is still blue then there is still some copper sulfate in the water.  Make some more lye solution and use an eyedropper to add a little bit at a time.  More cloudy precipitate will form so give it a few minutes to settle in between additions of lye.  All of the copper sulfate is out of the water when the overhead looses its blue color and looks like plain water.  You gotta be careful hear because it is easy to over-shoot and add too much NaOH.

Now all you have to do is break out the filter paper and remove the Copper Hydroxide.  Its a pain in the ass but you can handle it.  Once you get it clear, I suggest letting it sit for a day or so to see if anything else precipitates out...

Evaporate the water and you've got your Sodium Sulfate.  Each molecule of Na2SO4 can hold 10 molecules of water.  "Wet" sodium sulfate melts at around 33C but it looses water when it get to 100C and turns back into a solid...  Of course as before you evaporate it the first time it will be dissolved in water so you wont notice this effect...

Also, sodium sulfate can be formed by the reaction of sulfuric acid with table salt.  The bad thing about this route is that it release HCl gas which you really don't want to breath...  Incidentally, this is the common home method of producing HCl to bubble through certain freebase/solvent solutions to yield dry salt.  So I guess you could consider it a useful byproduct.  I bet that in most cases of home HCl gas generation that there is still a bunch of table salt mixed in, along with either aqueous HCl or sulfuric acid or both.  This is a pretty piss-poor way to do it if all you want is the NaSO4....

...err  Na2SO4

Sorry for that and all the misspellings and grammer mistakes in that last one...

I've found this list useful:

http://members.tripod.com/~flaskjockey/comchems.htm

ChemHack: Riddles I like, a little slow I was on that one.
   Thanks for the detailed writeup. And CuSO4.5H2O from root killer, that's a new source for me.

Ajare (not a valid username), SWIM was wondering...this KOH at the hydro store...what type of product is it?
and yea, most of the lye in the store is naoh not koh!

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Dreaming of the sweet honey  

It's usually called "ph up" for rasing nutrient soln. ph levels
Hydro store "ph up" is never NaOH as its toxic to plants.

Order KOH from Soap making stores online. It is somtimes called potash. It is used when one want a softer soap. NaOH can be obtained in bulk there also. They use it for hard bar soap. I cant find the demoninc brand of NaOH at any grocery stores, lowes, ect.....besides you need so much of it for the Al/hg synths you might just want to buy it in bulk from a soap maker whether you can get it in the store or not.

Also 30% H2O2 from either wood bleach kits at your local hardware store, or 40% (if you want that for some reason) can be found as a pool oxidider (blue jug) in some neghboorhood pool stores.

Hexamine from a camping product, really? cool.

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"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious"

nitroethane is available at racing supply stores as a fuel enhancer.

ethyl acetate, as well as a host of other goodies, are available at custom fiberglass stores.

I thought nitroMethane was available as opposed to nitroEthane. From what I've read nitromethane usually contains extremelly small amounts of nitroethane ( like 2% or 3%). Nitroethane is List I or II isn't it?

acid, yea, it's ph-up...but it's aqueous..is that okay?

1. does/should SWIM change it to the white crystals?

2. if so, what would bee the procedure to accomplish such task?

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Dreaming of the sweet honey