Sourcing raw materials. A few of mine.

[Tinker]

I've noticed a fair number of posts asking about where to find various odds and ends, usually stuff that was very common during our period of study, but has become a lot harder to find.

Here's where I get some of the odds and ends I use in my shop.

Sulfuric acid, needed for various plating solutions, etching, coloring wood, etc.  I find this at automotive suppliers, as battery fluid.  About 12 dollars for a 2 gallon carboy.  It's not very concentrated, but one can heat it over a camp stove (outside) till it boils, and boil a lot of the water off of it.  Can't get it pure this way, as you'll quickly get to the point where you're boiling off your sulfur trioxide as fast as your water, but you can get it strong enough for a lot of the experiments in the old books.

Potassium Nitrate, needed for slow-match, smoke composition, and such:  Stump remover, from lawn and garden supplies.  It's a strong fertilizer, that one pours on a stump to encourage the bacteria to eat it away over a summer or three.  Some of the various brands have some sodium hydroxide added, to help it eat its way into the stump.  You can wash this away with methanol:  Hydroxides are soluble in methanol, but nitrates aren't.

Zinc sheet, used for battery electrodes, alloying brass, and as a soft metal for prototyping:  Builder's supply, as anti-mold and moss flashing for roofing.  Apparently the zinc sheet won't support the growth of moss, thus making it ideal for wooden-shingled roofs.  Can sometimes find copper sheet at the same place.

Selenium plating solution, used for plating metals a dark glossy black:  Kodak selenium toner, from a photographic supply or camera store.

Methanol, for biodiesel, solvent, or my super secret green fire recipe:  Automotive supply as gas line antifreeze.  Be sure and get the cheap stuff.  The good stuff is isopropanol.

Sodium hydroxide, for biodiesel, soap making, etching aluminum, frosting glass:  Supermarket, as red devil lye or red devil drain opener.  Be sure to get the stuff that's just a white powder.  Some of the higher priced ones have magnesium turnings, to make it fizz more.  Unless you NEED magnesium turnings...

Copper sulfate, used for etching, plating, batteries:  Plumbers supply as root killer.  Apparenty if you periodically flush some down the drain, it keeps tree roots from breaking into your drain tile.

Potassium Permanganate, for certain pyrotechnic formulae, batteries, dyebaths, and disinfectants:  Plumber's supply, as regeneration crystals for the sort of water softener that removes iron.

Bismuth, for low melting alloys, magnetic shielding, levitation tricks, etc:  Sporting goods supply, as lead free shotgun shot, or lead free fishing sinkers.  Be careful not to get the tungsten shot, or the tungsten sinkers, unless of course, you have a use for tungsten. (makes good electrodes for spark gaps, contactors, relays, by the way)

Lead, for alloys, battery electrodes, anodizing electrodes, weights:  Sporting goods supply, as decoy weights during duck season.  Out of duck season, shotgun shot or lead fishing sinkers.


There are a lot more various odds and ends in my shop that didn't start out intended for what they were used for.  I'll add them on as I think of them.

A.

[akumabito]

If you need larger quantities of lead, see if there is a SCUBA diving shop near you. They usually sell blocks ranging from 0.5 to 2.5kgs. Modern blocks are coated with a sort of plastic, but many shops still stock the old fashioned type of uncovered blocks. The better shops also sell the so-called 'soft-packs', basically these are neoprene (rubber-like material) bags filled with small lead balls.

[CapnHarlock]

Lead, for alloys, battery electrodes, anodizing electrodes, weights:  Sporting goods supply, as decoy weights during duck season.  Out of duck season, shotgun shot or lead fishing sinkers.

Usually a tin-lead alloy, but if you are mostly looking for weight, vs actual element composition, kick around  the parking lot behind anywhere that changes a lot of automobile tires. On a normal night, you can usualy find about a half-pound of discarded wheel-balancing weights. They DO contain lead, tin and often zinc, so please be very careful if you melt/use  them - heavy metal poisoning is NO fun and you cannot build new cool toys if you are deceased..

[Tinker]

Most often I use lead in my own alloys, or for electrodes, so composition matters, but for a while I was casting keels for some boat models someone else was putting together, and for that I was literally salvaging everything I could get my hands on.  Went out to a shooting range with a shovel and a sieve, raided the car dealership's throwout pile, basically anything meltable that I could beg, borrow, or steal.  There's always a way to get what you need.

A.