David Newton

Oh boy! I love these threads.
When I was a teenager ( how many bad stories start like that? ) we did the Boy Scouts "Order of the Arrow" ceremony at camp by shooting a flaming arrow into the fire pile and it magically made a huge white cloud of smoke and erupted in flames.

What the baby scouts didn't know is that we had a little pile of granulated pool bleach on which we balanced a cup of "pine-o-pine" cleaning liquid. It spilled out onto the granules and did it's chemical thing. It also gassed lots of owls out in the trees.

I wonder which Boy Scout figured out that reaction?

Amesja

Powdered coffee creamer makes a nice effect in a fire.

frenchbikefan

one time I was using magic acid to clean rusted parts (its the same as oa right?) and when I was done I wanted to do a frame with it, so I poured it in the bath tub. Well long story short it ate the fiberglass tub.

jimmuller 

Auchencrow, I'm sure glad you came out of that episode unscathed.

Amesja

No way I'd use OA or any other acid in my tub. I don't even like to keep much of the stuff inside and I've got all ceramic tile floors. Hard to hurt that stuff.

There is always plenty of room outside, and plastic rubbermaid tubs can be dumpster-dived for free. I'm still hoping to find a small kiddie pool though. Some 5-gallon plastic jugs to hold the OA between dips would be cool too as well as a small transfer pump and hose. But I guess any 10-gallon or larger rubbermaid bin would do the trick as long as it had a fairly good snap-on top.

cudak888 

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir.../adblock-plus/

-Kurt

rootboy 

Ugh. I used to use that stuff once in a while. Looks like that guy is using a plastic kiddie pool for his experiments.

ftwelder

I worked at a place where everyone wahsed their hands in this stuff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,1,1-Trichloroethane

It's a bit odd that I am still alive.

Iowegian

I remember getting carbon tetrachloride at the drugstore to clean the rims of my U08 back in the day. I don't think you can even buy that stuff anymore.

noglider 

Auchencrow, I was going to say that what you did sounds unbelievably stupid, but then I remembered what I did with OA. I put about a teaspoon of it in a 4-ounce glass and scrubbed my bike parts that way. I didn't know how weak the solution could be.

And when I did so, it made me cough.

I understand that even though it's not terribly acidic, it is very toxic. My pharmacologist friend says your body never gets rid of it, so your exposure accumulates over your life. From now on, I'll be much more careful, or I won't use it at all. Vinegar is pretty safe.

cudak888 

Try titanium tetrachloride - they used that stuff on the set of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends to create adequate smoke from the Gauge 1 model railroad equipment. It is harmless enough as a liquid, but it put one or two of the crew in the hospital for a week or so after inadvertently sniffing it.

For the most part, they used ducts above the models to suck the smoke off the set.

-Kurt

1 Lugnut

A kid I went to grade/high school with, tried to do himself in by drinking bleach. He survived, but only to be crippled in his legs....

CV-6 

Nothing like a little chlorine gas to make one's day.

noglider 

How horrible!

Amesja

Man that is terrible about the kid who drank bleach. It's almost too much to think about. People make often bad decisions that they will come to regret later (if they are even that lucky.)

LgReno

I work with ARSENIC day in and day out.

my masters thesis is titled "investigation the role ferrous iron in the arsenic (V)-iron (II,III) coprecipitation process system"

when i got white powder on my lab coat, lots of questions run though my mind: "is it calcium hydroxide?? is it from my lightly powerdered labgloves? (which i dont use anymore). is it from Arsenic pentoxide??!?!"

The other day i accidentally poured Conc. HCl (68%) together with Conc. NaOH (50wt%) in a waste bucket. i wasnt really thinking. its blew up. thank god the funnel was directed away from me! the whole bottom of my fumehood had a nice etching now which could of been on me.

yikes.

Amesja

So what is your take on the cumulative toxicity of OA due to repetitive casual exposure using it in the way we do for C&V restorations, and kidney damage/kidney stones? Big deal? Hype?

rootboy 

Jeeze...this whole thread is starting to spook me.

Amesja

Be careful with Dihydrogen Monoxide or DHMO. A lot of C&V guys use this dangerous chemical when they work on bikes and never realize that DHMO is one of the most dangerous chemicals in the history of man. It has killed and injured more people than any other chemical substance but people use it in cleaning belieing it is safe!

auchencrow

+ 1. That's why I don't drink it any more - Imagine drinking the stuff you clean with. Beer is much tastier anyway.

DHMO

rootboy 

DHMO. Isn't that the stuff some quacks recommended years ago, to rub into your skin to relieve arthritis pain? Or something like that. Chemicals. I don't like 'em.

Amesja

Oddly enough you can mix DHMO with OA without much trouble...

noglider 

I dunno. Tastes good to me. My chem teacher called it hydrogen hydroxide (HOH).

Amesja

...because what he thought was H20 was H2S04!

frantik

dude.. glad you're ok, but seriously?! don't mix chlorine bleach with anything, especially not strong acids

sodium hypochlorite is chlorine bleach