Today, I walked over three miles, mostly uphill, in very hot weather because it was becoming clear that the cruddy sulfuric acid I had was interfering
with my ability to get a nice finish, among other things. And ACE Hardware has always had nice clear Rooto sulfuric acid for their drain opener. And
stump remover, how about that? And 10% sodium hypochlorite bleach for $3/gallon. Nice! I headed over to the solvents section and saw full gallon
cans of toluene for $20/gallon. Awesome! I bought one. My eyes scanned the other common solvents. Denatured alcohol... boiled linseed oil...
mineral spirits... acetone... MEK... oh wait, that was MEK substitute? Wasn't that the name of a product that was discontinued years ago? Well, now
that I think of it, the cans seem to have faded labels and a little rust on the edges... Could it really be!?
I frantically scanned the small print on the back of the can. Had to do it three times because I was reading too fast. Finally I read the magic
words: "contains ethyl acetate". Full stop.
There were only two cans left, and I bought both. The print on the bottom said they were manufactured in October of 2011:
Vosoryx - 20-5-2018 at 19:12
Nice find!TheNerdyFarmer - 20-5-2018 at 19:32
You know when you are a amateur chemist when you take selfies with hard-to-find OTC chemicals lol
But really, awesome find. I need to check my local hardware stores, occasionally I can find some interesting things in old gas stations or "quicke"
marts.
[Edited on 21-5-2018 by TheNerdyFarmer]violet sin - 20-5-2018 at 20:08
There are 4 gal or maybe 3.5gal in a small town I know of... All rusty b/c less than a mile from the ocean... ~25$ iirc . Cans specifically say not
for sale in California... LOL Velzee - 20-5-2018 at 20:10
Oof! Very nice to see a diamond find like this in the haystack! I should do some searching aga - 21-5-2018 at 01:09
Awesome !
You'll never be caught with scarlet varnished fingernails ever again ELRIC - 21-5-2018 at 02:35
They’ve got the same cans at our local Lowes. I was curious as to why it says “substitute” on the can, but never read the label. Melgar - 21-5-2018 at 09:07
They’ve got the same cans at our local Lowes. I was curious as to why it says “substitute” on the can, but never read the label.
It was my impression that ethyl acetate was released as a substitute for MEK when California started complaining about MEK being a health hazard.
Then for some reason, California came to the conclusion that ethyl acetate wasn't any safer, even though it's just an ester of two harmless, common
naturally-occurring organic substances. So then they discontinued it, apparently.PirateDocBrown - 21-5-2018 at 17:37
Yep, my local Ace also has the same stuff, in gallon cans. I got one. I get my Rooto there, too. Another Ace, further afield, had oxalic acid wood
bleach on the shelves.
And a Hardware Hank in the burbs will order sodium nitrate fertilizer, $8 for 4 pounds, ideal for nitric acid production.
[Edited on 5/22/18 by PirateDocBrown]Magpie - 21-5-2018 at 20:14
Don't forget copper sulfate and muriatic acid. One member said that Ace is a chemical supply store masquerading as a hardware store.
Also, in a small town hardware store I found a quart of ethyl acetate labeled as "ethyl acetate." I bought it for a friend who uses it as a butterfly
anesthetic. I have plenty of my own.
Now, if we could just convince Ace to carry nitric acid.
[Edited on 22-5-2018 by Magpie]
[Edited on 22-5-2018 by Magpie]JJay - 22-5-2018 at 18:57
I stopped by Ace today and saw Klean Strip Toluol sitting on shelves for the first time ever. They didn't have any MEK substitute, but they did have
MEK, not to mention the cheapest acetone I have ever seen, xylene, sodium hydroxide, several types of lime, boric acid, diatomaceous earth, and a
variety of sulfuric acid drain cleaners. I think True Value has a better selection, but I haven't found bulk calcium hydroxide anywhere else locally,
and Ace has really good prices on solvents.
ethyl acetate
meohmix - 22-5-2018 at 19:50
I contacted the Klean Strip company some time ago and they told me they discontinued the MEK substitute product...sad.
RogueRose inquired about a ethyl acetate group buy:
(he also mentioned in that thread he knew of a cheap formaldehyde by the gallon source (at Wallmart???), if you know what he is talking about/where to
source reasonably priced formalin, please let us know)VSEPR_VOID - 23-5-2018 at 09:10
I went there on the day last and requisitioned 8 feet of tubing (for my own condenser, 300mm long, and to hook up an aspirator), sulfuric acid, bleach
of a concentration of 10%, and hydrochloric acid. This all cost me 30 U.S. dollars. Online such a thing would have been much more because of hazard
shipping. ACE is the best friend of the amateur chemist. arkoma - 23-5-2018 at 09:31
Agreed! My local Ace in Stamps, Arkansas has all manner of goodies, including actual MEK.PirateDocBrown - 23-5-2018 at 13:17
One of the local ACE franchisees carries Fertilome garden chemicals (Hi-Yield). Iron, Magnesium, Aluminum, and Zinc Sulfates, Potassium Chloride,
Calcium Hydroxide, elemental Sulfur, and Sodium Nitrate (as I mentioned before). All readily purified, cheap, and useful.sodium_stearate - 23-5-2018 at 15:53
I too have always had good luck finding what I need
at Ace Hardware.
When I was a kid making hydrogen balloons, I'd walk down
2 blocks to my local Ace Hardware store to get hydrochloric
acid and a roll of sheet zinc.
Many years later when I first started investigating
making the brown wax to cast Edison cylinder recording
blanks, Ace Hardware was where I found my first 1 pound
bottle of "Insta-Flo" brand lye crystals. Turns out
all that's added to the sodium hydroxide in that drain
cleaner product is a small amount of carbon, just to give it
a greyish color. That easily filters out.
