Has anyone used this stuff from Rona? I'm trying to locate the msds to confirm how pure the lye is.

The fact that it is labelled as septic tank cleaner seems like it may be an indicator.
I am not 100% certain it will not be pure lye, i do not know a whole lot about the product or septic tanks, however, i have seen it mentioned here before that it is not a good idea to put lye down the drain if you have a septic tank because it kills off certain bacteria in the tank that is important in breaking down sewage & keeping the tank from backing up.

Just knowing that leads me to believe what you have may not be pure lye or even lye at all.

it says sodium hydroxide in the description, but you make a fair point about it probably not being pure. Thanks

Just an fyi, I got my hands on the msds and it contains NaOH 60-100% and aluminum powder 1-5% by weight.

I wouldn't use that, you definitely do not want aluminum in your lye or extraction. I use this which can be ordered from amazon with great results:

2 pounds of lye for $15.99 or so



Source: http://www.inchem.org/do...s/sids/sids/NAHYDROX.pdf

The only downside to this is that it is online but 2 pounds of lye can last quite a while when doing small scale extractions. Hope this information helps a bit.



Edit: CAS: #1310-73-2

Thanks for the link, too bad I'm canadian

Don`t know if it is available in canada but it is worth looking. What i use is "roebic crystal drain opener" comes in a black bottle with a red cap. Label says in big letters 100% lye. MSDS checks out as well.

If you have Lowe's there, they usually have it listed on their website how much is in stock depending on which store you select by location & even tell you which aisle it is in.

can't find it on the canadian site, but i found drano and zep crystal heat drain opener and ro-tyme at home depot. need to find the msds for those

http://www.soap-making-e...om/sodium-hydroxide.html

I don't know how reliable any of these sites may be, but if you scroll down, you'll find a small list of suppliers in Canada. The shipping seems weird but again, I am not well versed in Canadian shipping laws and whatnot...

Alternatively, I suppose you could always go to your local hardware store and see if they could order some for you if they don't have any pure lye in stock.


Edit:

http://www.voyageursoapa...um_Hydroxide_p/62190.htm

Upon further investigation, this one seems to be the best of the list from the earlier link. It has the same CAS # as the lye I use and the reviews are all Canadian it seems...how trustworthy and reputable is the site? No idea so be cautious of course .

Good luck!

Thanks alot! I've been aware of a couple of those sites, but the shipping made it a lot more pricey ,so i was trying to find a source I could pick up instead. I decided to bite the bullet order from creationsfromeden, since it comes out as the cheapest, since it's local.Kind of silly that there is a 10 dollar "small order fee"

Hey dude, go to home hardware they got pure Lye crystals even says 100% pure lye right on the bottle, Don't go in there looking like an addict or something though my buddy got it for me and he said they didn't want to sell it to him at first which I think is wrong. Talk about stero typing.....

i get profiled pretty frequently. What i have resorted to is waiting until I have a drain that needs snaked & then just pick up lye when I rent a the snake. 32oz bottle lasts me forever & seems less suspicious when coupled with other items used to work on plumbing.

no homehardware near I live sadly. I'd have to make a day trip out of it.

A friend tells me that he can buy only one 10 kilogram bucket of lye at a time at the chinese foods supermarket. Presumably this is because of people using it to hydrolyze entire barrels of gamma-butyrlactone into GHB. Makes me wonder where they get those barrels, and if there is a "only one per customer" sale policy for those as well..

Never use any lye that has aluminium in it, because that will also have nitrate in it. It is not good for extraction purposes. Also avoid liquid drain cleaner, as it can contain all kinds of unwanted additives, like surfacants or even bleach. Liquid drain cleaner may even consist of concentrated sulphuric acid, the chemical opposite of lye, and an even more dangerous to handle chemical.

Instead of NaOH, soda lye, you can just as well use KOH, potassium hydroxide. It is commonly used to manufacture biodiesel and much less associated with drug cookery. If you want to order it online, simply also order some methanol and molecular sieves and it will look perfectly innocuous.

And check into smaller companies that sell Lye for making soap. It is pretty common. Worse comes to worse switch to Q21Q21 tek and order some mrs. wages lime.