My first FeCl spill after 15 years of using it!

[therecordingart]

Just a safety tip...keep your etchant in a spill proof container! I had some used etchant in a disposable container on an overhead shelf in my garage. Like this one:

https://www.glad.com/images/glamour/SoupSalad_Container_0051.png

I thought this container would be safe because I use them for my lunches and never had a leak. Welp..today was not my day. I reached for something on the shelf, the container tipped, and etchant proceed to spill down the wall, all over my bench which was covered in metal shavings, it continued down the wall behind the bench, and pooled on the floor in a pile of metal shavings. It was a sea of sizzling and panic while I ran into the house to get some baking soda, more paper towels, and water. It took an hour to clean up and could've been much worse. No more etching. I'm buying another CNC and a laser.

[bluesdevil]

When I moved, I had a plastic coffee jar filled with it stored inside a big road case. Opened the case a few days after the move and was greeted with some eaten away metal bracing..... must've leaked somehow. Man, that's some nasty stuff!
I don't use ferric chloride to etch boards now, but I still prefer to use it for etching enclosures. A CNC machine to do all this stuff would be a dream come true to me!

[R.G.]

Wimps.     

My *first* FeCl spill was in my dorm room, where I was etching a clone of the Univox SuperFuzz in an aluminum cake pan. I had it sitting on the steam radiator for heating the etchant.

Much hilarity ensued as my roommate noticed the column of steam that erupted just before the etchant ate through the aluminum pan and drenched the steam radiator.      Did I mention that I was clueless back in those days? It contributed to a lifelong attempt not to repeat some of my early mistakes. Fortunately, my first time making black powder (at age 12) was a rousing success and didn't even cost me my eyebrows. But that episode, not being a rousing failure, didn't teach me as much.

After that somewhat ugly introduction to FeCl, I got with the program and haven't had another spill. Since 1971.

I think it may be good to get your first FeCl spill over with so you gain the proper respect for the stuff.       

[Arcane Analog]

Wimps.     

My *first* FeCl spill was in my dorm room, where I was etching a clone of the Univox SuperFuzz in an aluminum cake pan. I had it sitting on the steam radiator for heating the etchant.

Amazing!

[samhay]

^I think it may be good to get your first FeCl spill over with so you gain the proper respect for the stuff.

I had a similar learning experience in an undergraduate chemistry lab. It involved setting a fume cupboard on fire rather than a spill (had those too), and the lesson went something like, 'you shouldn't really be allowed to graduate until you have had your first chemical fire and learnt how to deal with it'.

[CodeMonk]

This was a relatively new drill press, maybe 6 months old, and nice and shiny.
I left an open container of etchant (Muratic/Peroxide) sitting overnight on my work bench about 5 feet away.
This is what I was greeted with the next morning:

[italianguy63]

Crazy!

[R.G.]

Open containers of FeCl are sometimes used by gunsmiths to blue metal parts. Unprotected steel (obviously!) gets a thin coating of rust on even short exposure to FeCl fumes. Nitric and HCl fumes, too, and those are sometimes used. The steel part is then boiled in water, which converts some of the iron oxide from FeO3 to FeO2 IIRC, which is dark blue, not red.

There are other processes too, but FeCl is good for this. And bad for machine tools and things you don't want rusted.

[KazooMan]

R.G.  You have the method right, but not the chemical formula. 

Red iron oxide (a.k.a. Rust) is Fe2O3 (ferric oxide).  The process you described converts this to Fe3O4.  At first the latter formula doesn't seem possible, but it actually has two valence states of iron.  One Fe+2 (ferrous) and two Fe+3 (ferric). 

[italianguy63]

Is this "Parkerizing?"

[R.G.]

R.G.  You have the method right, but not the chemical formula. 

Red iron oxide (a.k.a. Rust) is Fe2O3 (ferric oxide).  The process you described converts this to Fe3O4.  At first the latter formula doesn't seem possible, but it actually has two valence states of iron.  One Fe+2 (ferrous) and two Fe+3 (ferric). 

Close, but no cigar!     What he said! I didn't recall correctly!

Is this "Parkerizing?"

Parkerizing is slightly different. I went off and looked it up and found that indeed, my memory was not correct. Parkerizing is an electrochemical zinc phospating process. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkerizing

I understand that most actual bluing is done today in baths of nitrate salts concentrated enough to raise the water boiling temperature to about 285F. But I have read that the early do-it-all-by-hand gunsmiths actually sprayed their steel with salt water, watched the amount of rusting done, brushed off any loose flakes, then boiled the red-rusted steel. There was an early "plum" process that got a brownish coat that protected the underlying steel from further red rust if it was protected and oiled often enough. Again, IIRC.

[Arcane Analog]

^I think it may be good to get your first FeCl spill over with so you gain the proper respect for the stuff.

Was this post directed at me?

[R.G.]

Not if you meant mine. I just wanted to note that I managed to get the use of FeCl wrong on my *first* attempt, causing a massive spill in someone else's property.

Took a long time to get that cleaned up and ...er, hidden.   

One definition of experience is it's what you have left when you've forgotten how you got that scar on your knuckles.   

[Mark Hammer]

Do not, under any circumstance, wash an item of clothing that has an FeCl stain with any other item of clothing...especially a treasured item of your partner's clothing.  In fact, don't stick it in any washing machine.  FeCl doesn't seem to dissolve.  It just relocates, like one of those aliens that takes over the body of another human before moving to a different one.

[R.G.]

Right. Burning it seems to work and prevent further infestations. Thermite is about right, as there is a rust component there, too. 

[Tony Forestiere]

I usually use a name brand container for etchants (Muriatic, Ferric, etc.) Easy to agitate and very unlikely to leak. You just gotta "burp" them.  

[Arcane Analog]

Not if you meant mine.

Nope - sorry - thought the other fellow was aiming that one at me. Looks like he was quoting you without the quotes.

I have had only relatively minor ferric incidents - small spills - nothing as spectacular as your story. That must have been a sight and a profound realization when the ferric hit the fan.

[PRR]

> Was this post directed at me?

I'm sure it was the vague universal "all", what some folks call "you-all", "everybody", NOT a personal poke.

As I have not yet done a good FeCl spill, _I_ took it personally as a Good Idea.

[Arcane Analog]

> Was this post directed at me?

I'm sure it was the vague universal "all", what some folks call "you-all", "everybody", NOT a personal poke.

As I have not yet done a good FeCl spill, _I_ took it personally as a Good Idea.

We have already established what happened - keep up. 

[deadastronaut]

i treat ferric as if it were ebola.....keeps me on my toes with it.