Hi guys

Making my seasonal rounds, I started early this year.

First of all, I have another chlorate cell running. This is a piece of
stainless 4" square tubing a bit over a foot tall. I welded a mild steel
plate to the bottom (woohoo, only a few pinhole leaks after the first pass!)
and cut a bunch of short chunks of PVC pipe to lay on the bottom for
spacing. A 1.5" square, 18" long graphite bar sits in the middle, resting
on the PVC bits. Inbetween, obviously, the concentrated salt electrolyte
lies. The top annulus is packed with a bit of garbage bag, which seems to
do well enough at trapping vapors and salt spray while venting hydrogen.

After a week's run at some unknown voltage and current (yeah, I'll measure
it one of these days), I boil the solution in place, to decompose
hypochlorite, by applying a propane torch to the cell. Wonderful thing to
be made from steel! To prevent corrosion, the boiling is done under
voltage. After a few hours, apparently at 223°F (yes-- the salt elevates
the boiling point), I disconnect the anode and dump out the solution to
crystallize (so far, it looks like I have plenty potassium from the old salt
mixtures I've been reusing).

I already have roughly four pounds of KClO3 collected. About half was from
last year's run, which I hadn't realized actually had a substantial yield!
It pays to process everything, it seems.

I've also produced some fantastic crystals of the stuff. Two pounds, clean,
recrystallized, dried and tossed in a ziplock bag already, nice and coarse.
(Yeah, probably chock full of trapped moisture too!) I collected some more
from another batch and tossed it in a pill bottle for my chemical samples.

I don't think I'll be offering any magnalium this year, but it looks like
I'll have a couple pounds more KClO3 than I can use myself. What's the
market (and transportation) for this stuff like, and would anyone want some?
(Should I ask again in two months? ;o) )

Tim

--
"Librarians are hiding something." - Steven Colbert
Website @ http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms


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