Jade (Hive Bee)
08-30-03 23:35
No 456561
      A Few Gassing No-No's!  Bookmark   

Although, I've found some humor in trying to express it, the purpose of what I'm about to post is to let any newbie that has never dealt with sulfuric acid know that it can be some wicked shit. Please, read on all the safety precautions listed here at the hive before messing with it.  I assure you, Swim may laugh now, but he wasn't laughing at the time (it's impossible to laugh when you can't fuckin' breathe).

I was reading back through some old posts and realized how far Swim has come since he first started.  You see, Swim started birching several years before he ever started reading about it.  He had no chemical knowledge and still doesn’t know much.  He has, however, learnt some from this site (thanks!), but most of his education has been from experience.  Swim can't give much advise a lot of times on "what to do" but he sure as hell can on "what not to do". Maybe he can help some newbie keep from making these same mistakes (although many of them were from plain stupidity).crazy Here is a list of things not to do when gassing:

1. Breathe.

2. Touch your face or rub your eyes (or anywhere else you might have an itch)

3. Wear your favorite brown leather boots(that you can't find any like anywhere). Just one tiny drop of sulfuric acid can dissolve a gigantic hole in a few hours time! (carpet only takes a matter of seconds)

4. Wear any good clothing that you might want to keep good. If any acid gets on them you might not notice at first, but when you take it out of the washing machine, you will. Swim has his own style of levis, one leg, right above the knee has 3-5 little holes eat out of them.

5. Do not gas around your tools, silverware, pots and pans, etc.! They will rust!

6. If using a jug with hose glued through the lid (ghetto style) and it starts leaking smoke, tape will NOT work (even duct tape)! However, if you get into trouble always have some chewing gum in your mouth cause it will work for a little while.

7. This one is so silly I shouldn't even tell it.blush When using a jug like above and your having to squeeze it to get some smoke out, don't use your lips to blow into the tubing to get the jug popped back out!
(Swim was in a hurry, okay?)crazy

8. Don't forget to turn the fan on before you start (especially in a small room such as the bathroom)!

9. When you do turn the fan on to blow out the window, it will eat the screen up and turn things green! (and I don't mean the grass either)

(This next one is not necessarily associated with gassing)

10. Last, but not least, if you see some white powder on your work area, don't take your finger and taste it to see if it is dope!


Okay, laugh all ya want (it is funny) but I’m willing to bet that ya’ll have done stupid shit too.  Admit it, guys!  We can’t all be perfect like the great Geezmeister.winksmile

Dwarfer is a troublemaker!
 
 
 
 
    unionpacific
(Hive Bee)
08-30-03 23:44
No 456562
      question about fan  Bookmark   

I have a small intake fan in my workplace the blades on the fan are really rusted, does anyone know if tiny rust-dust is being emitted in my lab?  My workplace isn't that big and I don't want to be inhaling rust molecules.

anyone??


p.s Jade I thought you were a chick? those wern't implants I hopetonguetongue

Laying down with your eyes closed is NOT a subsitute for sleeping.
 
 
 
 
    bigdumbnut
(Stranger)
08-31-03 00:46
No 456574
      Mistakes  Bookmark   

Jade
It's nice to hear someone admittihg their fuck ups. Seems to be SWIBs only method of a permanent memory. I thought he was very clever before he started these dreams.

Unionpacific
If your space is small enough to be concerned with whatever amount of Iron that might stay airbourne and land in your lungs, I think you might look into Titrating
 
 
 
 
    SHORTY
(Hive Bee)
08-31-03 11:28
No 456617
      Titrating won't make a difference....  Bookmark   

I have always titrated except for a few times i tried gassing but that was done outside.  Anyway about 1 week after i opened the first bottle of hcl acid, every damn thing in my workshop rusted.  I assumed that it was only on the surface and didn't think it would bee difficult to remove.  That was as far from the truth as could possibly bee.  Just about every thing metal in my shop is now useless.  My pliers, vise grips, channel locks, etc.. all were stuck and even oil wouldn't release some of them.  I have an old metal desk and file cabinet and they are barely standing.

It only takes a tiny bit to wreak havoc on any metal in the room.

It wasn't Me!
 
 
 
 
    Blind_Angel
(Newbee)
08-31-03 15:22
No 456649
      Also: Dont try to create a syphon with you...  Bookmark   

Also: Dont try to create a syphon with you mouth when using ammonia (household or pure) and i think this advice work also for acid or any fuming thing

/}/_//\//) /-|/\//¬/=/_
 
 
 
 
    geezmeister
(Of Counsel)
08-31-03 19:20
No 456680
      a few more 'do nots'  Bookmark   

Jade knows too well that Geez is really a trim carpenter by trade and this law business stuff is just a hobby. He admits he isn't perfect, but in his training as a trim carpenter he learned that the difference between a high dollar carpenter and any union journeyman is that the high dollar man knows how to hide his mistakes. Having adopted that as something of a philosohphy of life on Thursday and alternate weekends, he admits he is not perfect, but admits to concealing the evidence to the contrary. It is hidden, of course. In plain sight. laugh

I would add to Jade's list a few additional observation and geezarial comments, "thou shall not unless you want to look like a complete fool" observations, and bits of wisdom learned honestly (the hard way) by bad experience: 

a) Gas needs to be dry. If it has moisture in it, it needs an inline drier. Or you need to learn how to make dry gas.

b) The air that goes in the container to refill it has moisture in it. How much moisture it has CAN make a difference in results.

c) The better mousetrap, and gassing aparatus, has been invented and probably patented. Unless you actually know something about chemistry, leave designing the equipment to someone who knows enough about it to keep from spraying you with acid when you design does not work.

d) More is not better.

e) Enough is enough.

f) There is a "too much."

g) just because that pump sprayer held the last time you tossed aluminum foil in it does not mean it will this time.

h) Yes, that IS why they recommend a check valve of some sort. I lost most all of a cook that way too one time. Yes, I slapped myself on the head and said "You idiot!" when I did it. Yes, I was talking to myself.

j) Being able to stay in the room with  a gassing rig without proper ventilation is NOT a macho thing at all. 

k) It really is that simple if everything is dry.

l) Yes, you need to rinse your filters in alcohol for the meth that is trapped in the filter itself. Yes, this is another reason to titrate.

m) Yes, it certainly is light and fluffy, kind of like styrofoam, and if you get the air from the fan just it it
just sort of ... oh no, not another gram of it!

n) Do, by all means, wash your hands before you lift the lid and yank it out. You seldom forget to do this more than once. You never forget to do it again if you have foprgotten to wash your hands before handling it after having just handles some NaOH...acid is not as bad, but that skin is really, really sensitive. 

o) Yes, if everything else fails, you can add water, check the pH and salvage part of the mess after all. Shake it all up well, separate the water out, evaporate, flash with acetone.

p) It is much easier to do if you have seen someone do it than it is to do it based on how it is described here. This is because it is really that simple, as long a you don't breathe it. It just is hard to describe it in such a way that you don't have twenty three more questions.

q) There will never be an answer to the question of whether 'tis best to gas or titrate.

r) I don't care if you do it a different way. Its my dope, and I will fuck it up my own way. You want to show me "new, improved, and better" bring your own dope to show me how.

s) No good deed goes unpunished, including a successful gassing effort. There will be rust, and you had better believe it.

t) yes, it always does that if you wear a good shirt. You should see how bad it gets if you don't have a bucket of water handy and have a shower you can get into right away.

u) I always wear disposable rubber gloves when gassing. It is better than the beating your hands take around the gas.

v) Yes, IPA will store HCl gas for future use. No, I haven't done it either.

w) I prefer the damp rid with HCl in the alcohol bottle, myself, but I also think it helps to mix some filter sand with the damp rid so it doesn't become such a solid chunk of unbreakable stone. Filter sand. The CLEAN stuff. For pool filters. NO, not masonry sand.

w) Yes, I did the Damp Rid / HCl method in a pump sprayer and got to throw that sprayer away, too.

v) Never keep more than one pump sprayer laying around the garage.

w) Policemen always look around garages when they have a chance and notice how many pump sprayers you have, how much 1/4" vinyl tubing is around, how many bottle caps have a hole in them and black tape on them, and how rusted the garage door hardware and your tools are.

x) yes, that rust on the alternator in your car is in fact one of the things we were telling you about.

y) Never wear your gassing clothes to your preliminary hearing.

z) Never ask Geez for help on how to gas. He doesn't know. He has made all of the above mistakes often enough to realize he needs to stick with the other approach.

Cookie Monster
 
 
 
 
    slackdaddy
(Stranger)
09-02-03 07:44
No 456859
      Once spilled some sulfuric....  Bookmark   

I used to have a lovely table with a pretty, flowery cloth. Now it is a pile of crap.

I wasn't gassing on it, but rather gathering supplies for gassing there.  I had a little sulfuric spillage, and it was like that scene in "ALIEN" where the acid blood was eating it's way through the fucking hull.

- Through the table cloth, through the tabel padding, down the table leg (which was getting really messed up too) pooling to the floor, where it ate a nice pot hole in the linoleum.  And I am trying to clean it up with a rag that is turning into toxic soup.

OOPS!  What the hell was I thinking that day?

... and thank god for the music.
 
 
 
 
    FlyBoy
09-02-03 19:12
      Titrating
(Rated as: UTFSE!)
 Bookmark   
 
 
 
    SQUIDIPPY
(spineless pussy)
09-09-03 06:49
No 457902
      best advice  Bookmark   

Heres some of the best advice you've ever had.

1.) Go to Lowes (or wherever) buy a mask. They're about $25.00.
2.) Wear it.

S/D choked on that shit for years, he got tired of it a few years back and bought a mask. Best spent $25.00 he can remember in some time.

Best to always gass out side.
If S/D has time he will post his gassing methods.

                                 S/D

Spineless Pussy - Ancient Hebrew -meaning - One with great humility and fortitude.