Like my own

Well just like other household chemicals like bleach and poisons like bug spray. Its up to an adult to keep these away from children. . . . and jungleheart lol

When i was a child, i once watered the garden with lye dissolved in water wich my mother had used to clean the sink. The flowers wheren't too happy with it.

You can say it's a good thing i wasn't thirsty that day.

When it comes to childeren and dangerous substances (or hot coffee, tea, knifes, aspirin, etc.) there's this thing you should always remember: you only have to leave them out of sight for that one second and an accident may have happened.

Put all the nasty stuff away in a place where they can't possibly get with their little fingers.

I have to agree that there is sometimes an irrational fear to use certain chemicals - every chemical is hazardous in some way (even the well touted D-limonene, which is extremely hazardous to aquatic systems so don't be sticking that shit down a drain). If used with correct PPE (personal protection equipment) and using the correct method all chemicals can be used safely.

But its really up to personal preference.

SWIM's had two glass jugs, one 2gl and one 4gl shatter without warning. After the second one exploded, he swore off ever using lye again, it happened inside of his house. It's just not worth the risk. It really isn't, there is no warning, you could be transporting the jug to another area and it decides it's time to drop its bottom and splash all over yer nuts. Goodbye dreams of havin' children.

But really, it doesn't matter if you call it toxic or non-toxic, it's about how much danger it poses. If you have a non-toxic solvent that has a tendency to randomly combust, you'd probably not use it over something that was considered toxic that didn't have this property. If you have something like lye that can eat straight through a piece of metal (swim has seen this), you may use something alternative (calcium hydroxide/sodium carbonate) where not only the chemical, but the methods in which they are used (drytek vs wet-tek?) limit the dangers they pose to you and your environment ("Oh god! there goes my $10000 piece of __insert expensive equipment here__)

If Lye is well diluted: 1g/15ml, Lye is not overly dangerous. If you get some on your hand, you have plenty of time to wash/neutralize. However prolonged contact with lye solution will result in your skin beginning to be corroded quite badly. Also if lye gets in cuts/under nail beds it can corrode really quite badly unless neutralized quickly.

If you are going to use safety equipment (which I would recomend, eye protection has to be at the top of your list.

This is my thinking as well. Not only do food-safe teks seem safer, the materials are those you can have around the house for normal purposes. Lye just isn't something I want to have around my house or have to go out and purchase. Baking soda or Lime just seems less suspicious as something to purchase. I could be making pickles or cookies I'd rather keep the suspicion to a minimum as much as possible. These teks that use naphtha and lye always made me think twice about attempting them. Warming up lighter fluid? Containers filled with lye solution exploding? Too dangerous for my taste. Of course I would handle food-safe teks as respectfully and carefully as I would a lye/naphtha tek (goggles, gloves, etc.), it just seems that if there's an accident, it could be dealt with much easier if it's with something like vinegar, lime, d-limo, etc. For a beginner, it's simply peace of mind and less worry.

And yes, I absolutely love the smell of oranges too Definite plus. Again, draws much less attention than something like naphtha fumes. I'm sure lye, if handled correctly, can be perfectly safe to utilize. I just wish to have more experience before I even entertain the thought of attempting to use it.

Depends, i think its mostly a matter of emotion for most people. Maybe if someone is doing something others would consider questionable, he/she might feel suspicious.



Here goes the "depends" part. You could be freebasing cocaine with soda or lime, you know making the highly suspicious "somebody-please-think-of-the-children" CRACK COCAINE! On the other hand with lye you could be unblocking pipes.

Same about vapor smells, depends on how big one runs things. The smell of non-polar solvents can be the smell of paint thinner, someone is painting something

You're right, it all depends.

I just feel safer buying and using something like baking soda or lime. And I'd prefer people think to themselves, "Oh, his house smells so clean and fresh like oranges." rather than wondering why I paint so much

I have to say, I think these food-safe teks are great and I have to give great thanks to those who came up with them. I think as time goes on, people will probably shift more into using these types of teks rather than using toxic solvents and strong bases like lye. If methods are devised where you can achieve the exact same results with less harmful substances, it's a natural progression.

The smell of paint makes me sick.

And bleach... and lots of other chemical fumes...

What's an airy-fairy Nexian orange wizardess to do!

One neighbour to another:

- Dioxippus'es place reeks of paint thinner!
- Shhh! Dioxippus...well...word on the neighborhood is he suffers from "Obsessive Compulsive Painting Disorder".He thinks that if he stops painting the whole world will die a horrible death!
-Well fuck me! He'd better keep on painting or we are all doomed!

I use light deodorized naphta and it doesn't smell at all, even when re-xing...

When I smoked cigarettes, my parents bought me a Zippo lighter for Christmas one year. I used it once and gave it away. The smell of that naphtha lighter fluid is disgusting. I hate the smell of paint and bleach too. Even acetone isn't my favorite smell in the world, but I can sort of live with it. But that d-limo is just heavenly. I love citrus.

*paints pictures of hyperspace elves furiously*

sounds like the stuff i use. crown vm&p naptha.


not afraid of chems at all.
having worked with HF (hydrofluoric acid) tends to put things into perspective, even lye seems like nothing to be afraid of.

I am not a chemist by trade, but I have respect for their power. I take precautions to minimize getting chemical splashed on me like wearing a face shield, staying under a ventilation hood to minimize inhalation risk, wearing long pants, and shoes, and working over a sink while doing the extractions with solvent.

To me it seems that doing extractions with a a little thinking and some precision can minimize the amount of lye that one needs during an extraction.

For example:

My first extraction I used 1.5 liters of straight 8% vinegar (in three overnight simmers) for the aqueous phase of the extraction. The PH was 2 after I did three extractions and reduced the tea down to a manageable 350 ml. To get this basified to ph=12.8 it took ~100 grams of lye. That is a fair amount in my opinion.

A few months later (yesterday in fact) I did an extraction using high powered sonication. Starting with 400 ml of water and 12 ml of 8% vinegar I ended up with 250 ml of ph 3.5 after the aqueous phase reduction. To basify this required the use of ~10 grams of lye. Even without sonication, minimizing the amount of acid used can greatly reduce the amount of lye used.

Therefore I did not have to handle nearly as much lye, nor did I end up processing over double the volume of basified solutions in a separation device to extract 100 grams MHRB. I think that less is better for several reasons one of them being safety.

I keep my lye in crystals. I can even handle it with bare hands (provided they are dry). NOT RECOMMENDED.

GULP

Makes Lye sound like moisturizing lotion.

This. When I made Sulfanilamide we were using sulfonic acid and it was neat watching that react with the air to form hydrochloric acid. Powerful stuff.

Woah this thread has made me add 2 very necessary things to my extraction tek, goggles & gloves. This really should be emphasized more in the Teks.

i have no fear of lye, just a healthy respect.
I handle it with caution, but there is no fear to speak off. It's no more dangerous than any other chemical in untrained hands.

Speaking off, i do have a home-made eyewash station and a "vinegar shower" (holding 25 gallons of vinegar ) to neutralize lye in case i should ever dump an extraction over me. I also have a proper spill kit.

i frequently do extractions, and being safe is #1 priority. I sometimes work with other people, and as long as they are working in my lab (kitchen) they can enjoy the comfort of proper safety measures.

The only protective gear i wear are goggles, because one spill in the eye can lead to unforgiving burns and blindness. A spill on the hand or other part, however, i can take up to a minute to leisurely walk over to my vinegar station, and it doesn't even burn. The worst kind of lye burns are the ones you don't immediately notice, the ones where your sleeve soaks up a bit of lye and you find out 10 minutes later that it's eating away at your arm. Be cautious, but not afraid.