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Source for cheap acid?

what does battery acid cost? i bought 5gal years ago and i'm still not out. will clean it but i mostly use it mixed 3-5% and other shit added to make patinas.( coppersulfate plates quick to steel when mixed with battery acid) i mostly use muratic to clean up metal, allot of times it one mixed 1:20 or so to clean up dross from plasma cut parts. if you can submerge the part thats best. most the scid evaporate quick.

i've rarely used vinegar and when did it was the 30% stuff.

i dont have a clue about the costs, i just cost of any of it though. you got to have a few old batteries laying around, it doesn't take much, dilute it down a bunch with water and it''ll go a ways.
 
arse_sidewards said:
Looking for something with more punch per dollar than vinegar for use de-rusting parts. I don't wanna pay $5/gal for 10% vinegar that's unnecessarily food grade.

I'm not opposed to mixing shit to get a fairly concentrated acid if that's what I need to do.

Anyone got any ideas?
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I went back and re-read this ^. So much for $12/gal muriatic...

I dunno if you're gonna beat $2.50 a gallon for Costco 5% white vinegar. 3 days and a scrub did this:
vinegarrust-jpg.644123


Oh, and:
irate4x4.com

Rust removal by electrolysis

I’ve been playing with electrolysis for rust removal and have had some great results. Its pretty cheap and super easy which is nice. Trying to make it a little more efficient, maybe faster. I started with an old laptop power supply, putting out 3.5 Amps, and it did OK on a small tank. It...
irate4x4.com irate4x4.com
 
Last time we got acid, we had to drive down by you to get it :confused:

You must have an old school battery charger you hoarder, that, a rubbermaid tub, and a steel electrode. Electrolysis baby :smokin:
 
too cheap for borax....

dump out a small splash of battery into your electrolysis water, might work similar to up the conductivity
still deal with flash rust as it cools, and all manner of nasty fumes rusting your everything around, but w/e
 
I've got 2 ~30 gallon totes of 10% HCL solution in my lab for cleaning glassware. I buy a couple 2.5l jugs of HCL at least once a year, and occasionally a jug of Sulfuric. Sulfuric is for acidifying water samples. I call my VWR rep tell her what I need and give her a credit card number, the HCL is <$20 a jug, I think around $18 last time. VWR might need an account and validation, but I know I've bought similar stuff from Environmental Express and Cole-Palmer (same company) websites with nothing but a credit card.

YJBrian said:
just remember if you end up with a concentrated acid and need to dilute, add the acid to water, not the other way around.
Click to expand...

I made this mistake once, thought I killed my intern. I knew I'd screwed up, but didn't want to waste the DI water I'd just filled the tote with. I figured I could keep the lid partially on the tote and pour slowly. I got the whole 2.5l added to the DI water, and was choking myself from the fumes. I stepped back, to catch a breath, complained about how bad and stupid that was. Intern was on the other side of the room, said "I don't smell anything." He, marched over to where I was, and I assume to show what I pansy I was being, stuck his head over the tote and took a deep breath. At the time I thought I'd just watched him kill himself. It was bad, like those basic training CS gas training videos bad. I have no doubt that he did permanent damage to his lungs.

Another caution, I'm making around 20 gal of 10% HCL solution at a time, it takes about 1.5, 3.5 lb bags of baking soda to neutralize that much. You have to add it slowly too, remember the baking soda and vinegar volcanoes from when you were a kid. I keep a legit acid spill kit in the cabinet, but keep several bags of baking soda handy too. A few weeks ago, I removed a new metered dispenser from the concentrated Sulfuric bottle (it was too tall to put back in the acid safe storage while still on the bottle) and accidentally dribbled/slung acid off of its straw across the counter top, into the sink, and all over my nitrile gloves. I've got thick acid handling gloves but they really limit dexterity, at that concentration I could feel the heat through the nitrile in the first few seconds, and gave me just enough time to remove the gloves. I grabbed a bag of baking soda, and was reminded of how violent of a reaction that can be.

Even at 10% I've had plenty of colleagues and interns ruin their clothes, when they think, "oh I don't need the PPE, I'll be careful and it won't take long." Every little droplet that splashes on your clothes will be a hole by the next laundry day.

Just be careful.
 
Careful with the muriatic...under the right mix of materials/conditions it releases chlorine gas. Look for a funky yellowish plume...which then reacts with water in nose and mouth to reform the hydrated form of HCl, taking out ones nose and throat in the process.

I use nitric to make a " wood dye" for old school rifle stocks. Fun is taking a pea sized ball of steel wool and putting it in a 50% water-nitric outside and watching the fumes from that. Get a whiff of that and its a similar issue as with HCl with the fumes recombining to make nitrous acid in the nose and throat.

On a "you gotta be kidding" fun with acids note...being an ERT-Hazmat dude at work you get some weird situations like the guy on grave shift that did the coating drum cleanup. We used a dilute 1% Nitric solution to remove the "overspray" during post run reconfigurations. Reasoning being the coating buildup on the drum edge caused a lift of the plastic to heat crease. No real big deal until we found out the guy would sit under the rotating drum while slathering the solution onto the area and allow enough solution to fall into his open PPE and drip on his junk. Apparently he got off on the sensation...yes we took him off the task when we found out about his nighttime jollies.
 
Lee said:
I've got 2 ~30 gallon totes of 10% HCL solution in my lab for cleaning glassware. I buy a couple 2.5l jugs of HCL at least once a year, and occasionally a jug of Sulfuric. Sulfuric is for acidifying water samples. I call my VWR rep tell her what I need and give her a credit card number, the HCL is <$20 a jug, I think around $18 last time. VWR might need an account and validation, but I know I've bought similar stuff from Environmental Express and Cole-Palmer (same company) websites with nothing but a credit card.



I made this mistake once, thought I killed my intern. I knew I'd screwed up, but didn't want to waste the DI water I'd just filled the tote with. I figured I could keep the lid partially on the tote and pour slowly. I got the whole 2.5l added to the DI water, and was choking myself from the fumes. I stepped back, to catch a breath, complained about how bad and stupid that was. Intern was on the other side of the room, said "I don't smell anything." He, marched over to where I was, and I assume to show what I pansy I was being, stuck his head over the tote and took a deep breath. At the time I thought I'd just watched him kill himself. It was bad, like those basic training CS gas training videos bad. I have no doubt that he did permanent damage to his lungs.

Another caution, I'm making around 20 gal of 10% HCL solution at a time, it takes about 1.5, 3.5 lb bags of baking soda to neutralize that much. You have to add it slowly too, remember the baking soda and vinegar volcanoes from when you were a kid. I keep a legit acid spill kit in the cabinet, but keep several bags of baking soda handy too. A few weeks ago, I removed a new metered dispenser from the concentrated Sulfuric bottle (it was too tall to put back in the acid safe storage while still on the bottle) and accidentally dribbled/slung acid off of its straw across the counter top, into the sink, and all over my nitrile gloves. I've got thick acid handling gloves but they really limit dexterity, at that concentration I could feel the heat through the nitrile in the first few seconds, and gave me just enough time to remove the gloves. I grabbed a bag of baking soda, and was reminded of how violent of a reaction that can be.

Even at 10% I've had plenty of colleagues and interns ruin their clothes, when they think, "oh I don't need the PPE, I'll be careful and it won't take long." Every little droplet that splashes on your clothes will be a hole by the next laundry day.

Just be careful.
Click to expand...
'Acid to water, just like you oughta.'

In HS chemistry lab someone put a few drops of sulfuric acid on someone's stool. Kid sits down and in a few moments let out a scream. Dropped his drawers and put his ass right in the stone sink. His pants and jockey shorts had a huge hole in them. We all laughed (was the 60s).
 
I don't know what size parts you are looking to de-rust but if you get vinegar hot it works 100 times faster. Boiling vinegar works good, problem is finding a vessel that can hold up. The advantage over the muriatic acid would be that when it cools disposal is much easier.
 
subybaja said:
Wtf? :confused: How do chemical burns end up fun?
Click to expand...
yeah, acids just make my hands all dry and crackly, like cement or lime does

I don't think I want to understand their thought process though. One of them things where someone hates their dick and gets off on hurting it or whatever...
 
irate4x4.com

Rust removal by electrolysis

I’ve been playing with electrolysis for rust removal and have had some great results. Its pretty cheap and super easy which is nice. Trying to make it a little more efficient, maybe faster. I started with an old laptop power supply, putting out 3.5 Amps, and it did OK on a small tank. It...
irate4x4.com irate4x4.com
 
I'm probably gonna buy a gallon of muriatic acid to have on the shelf for the next project where I need to clean oxidation off of something.

For small parts I currently use my ultrasonic cleaner to heat the vinegar. For bigger parts I use a bucket and don't bother heating it.

I'm working with aluminum castings frequently enough that's why I haven't pursued a dedicated electrolysis setup. Vinegar eats the corrosion off ok but the oxidation seems to neutralize the vinegar faster than even heavy rust which is what prompted this thread
 
arse_sidewards said:
I'm probably gonna buy a gallon of muriatic acid to have on the shelf for the next project where I need to clean oxidation off of something.
Click to expand...
don't want it on the shelf, it offgasses through the plastic enough to rust everything around it, and it'll etch any concrete you set the bottle on for long enough
 
Aluminum brightener, removes rust fast and etches aluminum very well.
 
DVanVorous said:
Think of how many sexual kinks you know of off the cuff and add this one to that list...mild solutions just itch most times, maybe that's was the turn on.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I get the crosswiring that makes being whipped read as pleasure. It's a slightly further stretch for acid burns, is all.
:laughing: My vanilla is showing.
 
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