UK FASA supplies

[ohayoco]

Please help non-chemists like Foaf who wish to switch to FASA to get their supplies!

1. He hears he needs Calcium Hydroxide or Sodium Carbonate... what are these, do they have common names and what products should he buy?

2. He gets that he needs fumaric acid, either fcc (food grade) or usp (drug grade), and that it can be bought for winemaking or psoriasis supplements. Info on cheap sources would be appreciated.

3. He gets that he needs acetone, that's easy to get. Any suggestions of the best brand to buy would be appreciated.

4. Also, he thinks he needs Epson Salts (?) to make the acetone anhydrous. Can he use any old epson salts, or are there particular brands that are best?

(He's pulling jungle spice with Xylene out of a potion pretty much exhausted of DMT after 12 pulls with Bartoline [Low Odour White Spirit from B&Q] and Swan [lighter fuel from Sainsburys]. Foaf has Xylene labelled 'T10009 thinners' branded 'Flag', Flag Paints Ltd, which passed his evaporation test. Next time around, he'll switch to not using petrochemicals at all, but he'd already bought the xylene so it needs using.)

Muchos gratias, and thanks to all who've taught us so much on here

 

[geeg30]

1) Sodium carbonate can be made by heating Bicarbonate of Soda (from the supermarket) either in an oven for about an hour or in a pot on a ring for 5 - 10 mins. Calcium Hydroxide is pickling lime/slaked lime (food grade is a bit of a bugger to find).
2) Food grade Fumaric acid is near impossible to get in the UK cheaply unless your wanting 25kg. A FOAF is STILL waiting for a delivery of some that he will be selling via ebay at reasonable prices.
3) Acetone is very easy to get - just try an get as close to 100% pure as possible as there will be less water to remove.
4) Any Epsom salts will do - just heat in an oven or on a ring to remove the water unless it is already anhydrous.

Thats about it really.

 

[ohayoco]

Thanks
Foaf'll post if he finds any good suppliers etc.

 

[ohayoco]

THE QUEST FOR EPSOM SALTS

Well, in the supermarket they sell St.Andrews Salts / upset stomach salts.

The ingredients are:
sodium (hydrogen or hydroxide, can't remember which) carbonate.
citric acid
magnesium sulphate
I think at approximately 20% each, and I guess the rest is inert stuff

So, I know the magnesium sulphate is what SWIM wants.
Is the sodium h carbonate the stuff turns into what we want in the oven?
And will the citric acid interfere with the FASA, or is it fine?

 

[geeg30]

Check ebay, you can get nearly a kilo of pure Epsom for about £4.50 inc postage - much better than pissing about with Andrews salts plus its much cheaper.

Quest Complete

 

[ohayoco]

UK SUPPLIERS UPDATE

EPSON SALTS: thanks geeg, yeah, it turns out independent chemists sell it (Boots don't).

ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL: not for FASA but useful for other extractions... SWIM finally found an independent chemist willing to sell him this. Say you need it to clean the printheads on your printer. Just don't bother going to any white chemists because they won't sell you it and they'll sneer at you like you're an alkie and junkie combined (I'm white so I'm allowed make such a generalisation!). The immigrants are much less full of contempt, nice people

PICKING LIME: Indian supermarkets sell food-grade as 'chuna lime' or 'chuna' (we call it pickling lime, slaked lime, calcium hydroxide or E526). Score!

CITRIC ACID: again, Indian supermarkets sell it cheap in decent quantities
[EDIT: whereas, if you try to buy it from a brewing company, they say that they are aware of it's use for 'substance abuse' and may query your order, unbelievable!]

 

[ohayoco]

SWIM just bought some 'Jeyes Kleen Off Ammonia Multi Purpose Household Cleaner' [EDIT: from a cornershop]
He bought it because the lye he had been recommended in the past was of the same brand.
He though it was ammonia but the internet product details say ammonium hydroxide... does that mean it's no good for teks?
ukconsumerinfo.com/productdetails.aspx?prod=417

 

[Infundibulum]

SWIM just bought some 'Jeyes Kleen Off Ammonia Multi Purpose Household Cleaner'
He bought it because the lye he had been recommended in the past was of the same brand.
He though it was ammonia but the internet product details say ammonium hydroxide... does that mean it's no good for teks?
ukconsumerinfo.com/productdetails.aspx?prod=417

Ammonium hydroxide is fine. It is the same thing as ammonie. SWIY's fine you should tell him!

Ammonium hydroxide is equalent to ammonia. For practical reasons let's say that ammonium hydroxide is the "liquid" form of ammonia, or ammonia dissolved in water. Pure ammonia is a gas.

 

[ohayoco]

Awesome, thanks. If the manufacturer lists ammonium hydroxide as the only ingredient on that webpage I provided, does that mean it's pure? Can't find a certificate or what-have-you for the product.

 

[Infundibulum]

Yes. Basically it should contain only ammonia dissolved in water.
Good luck!

 

[ohayoco]

Thanks again... SWIM now only needs acetone, then he'll have a full chemistry cupboard for his next experiments
Suggestions on brands welcomed.
One acetone supplier says that their product is not reclaimed or reused unlike other brands that could contain carcinogens. As I hear acetone is used to make the dreaded carcinogen bisphenol-A (now banned in the west), is this an important point??

 

[T]

Thanks again... SWIM now only needs acetone, then he'll have a full chemistry cupboard for his next experiments
Suggestions on brands welcomed.
One acetone supplier says that their product is not reclaimed or reused unlike other brands that could contain carcinogens. As I hear acetone is used to make the dreaded carcinogen bisphenol-A (now banned in the west), is this an important point??

Colonel Walter E. Kurtz found 99.99% acetone here, plus they do many other hard to find chemicals. It's expensive, but the Colonel thought it should be dry enough to use it straight from the bottle.