Where can you buy Hydrochloric acid in the UK?

[James1979]

I tend to have it dilute because it works for me - cut the bits one day, chuck them in the tank, go home and fish them out the next day at some point.

I think if I used it neat it would speed it up a bit

What’s it like on mill scale and plasma dross? That’s why I use hcl- it’s good on those.

I’ll stick some in the tank and take some photos.

 

[Kram]

Citric works well its just slow when cold - 24h will easily do it. Keep it hot and it will eat millscale in 10-30 minutes.
A tea spoon per litre makes quite a stong solution, 2kg of powder was about 8 quid.

 

[DAPPH]

Years ago a customer brought me the extruder from a secondhand plastic injection molding machine he had just bought. Boss was away on holiday, so I was in charge. Asked if I could get it apart as it was seized. Connected up the heaters etc and left it to warm up a couple of hours. Walked back in to find out it had been full of PVC. Acrid smoke everywhere
Came apart easy enough. Next day everything steel in the workshop was rusty. The workbenches looked like shadow boards as what ever had been on them had masked the steel from the rust. Boss wasn’t best impressed on his return

Similar happend when a B&Q orange plastic bucket ignited in my mancupboard almost and hour after I'd stopped welding . I'd checked every thing was safe , went indoors for teatime , came out the bathroom after washing up for the evening meal , looked out the bedroom window and saw it well alight , I hosepipe killed it , but every unpainted surface of metal in my mancupboard save for stainless steel from an old dead dish washer was attacked by the acidic fumes. Happily my antique lathe was sheeted over & well oiled up and not affected. Spent the next fortnight washing everything in hot soapy water with a cloth or green Scotchbrite pan scrubber then having washed things off in clean warm water & dried them off gave most things a spray & wipe over with of WD 40 to protect things .

 

[123hotchef]

Have you tried citric? If HCl is taking 24h, its quite dilute and may aswell be citric. It will not cause flash or even slow rust, my welding bench has been outside for nearly 2 years unpainted. Wont harm other items nearby and importantly, is more compatable with most plastic containers - big containers are hard to find in the right shape.

Maybe I'll try citric first as i have some here. It does flash rust after use well the stuff i derusted did. Do I need to.neutraliseit.after of just a rinse with water.

 

[Richiew]

I had an open container of brick acid I’d used to clean some horseshoe, the fumes ruined the chrome on my spanners and the rollers on my mitre saw stand.

I visited a fellow forum member's garage a few years ago. He had some acid (Reasonable volume) stored in some bottle against a garage wall. Everything within a two a foot radius was corroded. I wouldn't store it in my garage. Not saying I wouldn't use it, but I wouldn't keep it anywhere close or even within the same building of stuff I cared about.

 

[Kram]

Maybe I'll try citric first as i have some here. It does flash rust after use well the stuff i derusted did. Do I need to.neutraliseit.after of just a rinse with water.

I didnt, just wiped it dry. Residual citric doesnt seem to harm my parts.

For storage, I keep my chems in a large and medium outdoor storage box, b&q/wilko sell them for 15 quid. Lidded so they are rain proof.

 

[DickyDoDah]

Anyone know the difference between regulated and reportable? I have read it but it doesn't appear to explain that.

From what i've found you need a licence for regulated substances but not for reportable. You just have to report if there are any thefts etc.

Reportable products | Business Companion

Acid and corrosive substance products that must be reported

www.businesscompanion.info

 

[Jim2007]

I have managed to find some fairly pure Cupric Chloride on EBay, (I did look prior to starting this thread, could not find any), and so i have ordered some of that. I will try regenerating that, and even if for regeneration i have to use contaminated brick acid, i thought starting with something pure is going to be better than starting with impure Copper Chloride (Because it was made with impure acid)...

Failing this: Ferric Chloride

 

[123hotchef]

Trying the citric hot today as I have it to hand. It's very slow going though even at 90 deg C

 

[123hotchef]

Still de -scaling

 

[Kram]

How much did you put in? Cant see any bubbles in your pic, the steel should be bubbling a lot if the solutions been heated.
I said tea spoon, what I meant was table spoon or small handfull
Excuse the mess underneath. This is the welding bench. Lower half of the legs need redoing but the top is still pretty clean. It has been outside about 2 years.

 

[123hotchef]

I used 1kg mate

 

[123hotchef]

It was - is bubbling it took about 1.5 to 2 hours and some rubbing.