P4D 

I did read every thread on here about use of OA, and I have 2 frames that could really use an OA bath. I have an old kiddie pool that needs to be dumped (used as a sandbox, time for a new sandbox). So, please help me out

How many frames can I run through the OA bath on one mixture of the stuff?

What do I do with it when I am done, because I have no where to store it?

How do you get it out of the kiddie pool?

The gutters on my street dump to drains that end up in the ocean, and I don't want to be killing all the fishies.....

Thanks!

sonatageek

Well it should be neutralized with baking soda or something similar. I have never done more than a 5 gallon bucket, but have dumped it into an unused part of my back yard once it was neutralized.

EjustE

Oxalic Acid is a naturally occurring compound, but it is fairly poisonous in its acid form. The best way to deal with it after you are done using it, is to add baking soda to the kiddy pool and stir. Check the pH of the solution with a pool testing strip and if it is higher than 7, all the acid would have converted to its Nitrous salt form that is safe and harmless. Feel free to dump it on your lawn at this point, or if it is winter (and I just noticed that you are in SoCal) on your driveway as a safer ice melting alternative (better life through chemistry...)

Here is some (probably more that you want to know) info:

https://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Oxalic_Acid

P4D 

It won't kill the grass with all the rust particles and baking soda and neutralized OA in it?

EjustE

No... All you get is salt: Ferrous (from Iron oxide - rust) and mostly Nitrous (from Baking soda). Unlike Sodium and Potassium-based salts, Nitrous salts are excellent lawn food. So is the carbon from the oxalic acid. So you are basically feeding your lawn if you do that...

P4D 

That is sweet, thanks!

Sorry to be a pest, but I want to make sure I do this properly....can I use the same mixture for more than one frame? I'm only intending to run the frames through, and cleaning the rest of the parts by hand (I think headsets are aluminum and best not to go into the bath).

USAZorro

I have a container I've been doing small parts in for over a year. I'm up to about 30 uses, and though I've had to add water, I haven't had to change it yet. I don't think the solution was all that strong to begin with.

EjustE

"Shinny" headsets are most likely chromed steel. Like wheels. Bathe them

P4D 

When I am done with the OA bath....frame saver, car wax, both? I'm going to try and touch up some parts, if I can, but want no more rust.

EjustE

Frame saver goes on the inside, wax on the outside (after touch ups and clear coating). As far as touch ups go, you really got about 3 options (and a couple are fairly heretic, but very functional - and might make you look pretty strange, but here they go from pricier to least expensive) :

1: take your bike to an auto parts store that sells auto touch up paint. Try to match the color. Buy the matched color and a clear coat touch up. Apply
2: Straddle your frame on your shoulder and take it to Micheal's or any other hobby store. Walk in the paint isle (not the art paint, the hobby train/car paint) and match the color with their paints. Buy a clear coat paint. Apply
3. Straddle your frame on your shoulder and take it to Target (or any other discount store) and walk down the cosmetics isle. Look for matching fingernail polish and grab it (if your bike is reddish, that is the way to go, and there are about a million of different fingernail paint colors these days and pretty cheap). Grab a fingernail polish clear coat thing (Nails so strong or whatever). Apply it.

P4D 

E-

Wow, thanks again. Learning all the time....another of the many who have helped me out so much. Can't express my appreciation enough.

Do you just spray the frame saver inside and shake the frame around a bit?

OLDYELLR

It's not like you were going to dispose of a gallon of concentrated nitric acid. Spilling dilute oxalic acid is no different than spilling a can of pop. You've all been brainwashed by would-be environmentalists. I remember playing with mercury as a kid. Today that would bring out a SWAT team.

Panthers007

If you neutralize the OA with sodium bicarbonate to form sodium oxalate, this is still poisonous. Where you dump it should be considered with care in case a cat or a dog or a squirrel, etc, might walk through it and lick their paws. The reason that this is toxic is that most mammals use HCl (hydrochloric acid) to help break down and digest food. This is secreted in the stomach to a concentration of about 3% HCl and 97% H2O. That's a respectable concentration of acid. The sodium oxalate will react with the HCl forming oxalic acid and sodium chloride (salt). So you're back where you started with a solution of oxalic acid in the stomach of the critter.

So do be careful in your choice for your future Superfund Site.

NOTE: "You've all been brainwashed by would-be environmentalists." For your information, I am not primarily an "envirionmentalist." I am a highly trained organic chemist with a heavy dose of toxicology and proper disposal of chemicals. How long were you playing with the Hg (mercury)?

P4D 

So, what do I do with it if not dump right where I use it? And, how do I get it out of the kiddie pool?

I'm a practical guy, I can appreciate trying to be careful, but I still have to do something with the stuff when I'm done, no?

DavidW56

I'd like to see the answer to this, too. The first kiddie pool I salvaged from the trash for use as an acid bath had a drainhole with a cork plug, so draining was easy. On the other hand, it was in the trash, so it leaked. It eventually fell apart, so I found another kiddie pool in the trash, and while it holds water without leaking, it also has no drainhole. Emptying it by bailing with a five-gallon bucket takes a LONG time.

I suspect the answer is to drill/cut your own drainhole.

P4D 

Not a bad idea, and perhaps do it where you can create a siphon so the drain occurs naturally. Those kiddie pools don't have much clearance on the sides otherwise.

I don't want to bailing out a kidding pool, that sound just awful. But, if I could find a way to get the pool drained I could/would preserve the solution and/or take it to the local hazmat center for processing. I need to find myself a big container to hold the solution...

onfloat

What about just pouring it down the drain? It can't be any worse than Liquid Plumber or other caustic drain cleaner.

Panthers007

If all got is a yard and no proper liquid-transfer device around - go ahead and neutralize the OA (It stops fizzing as you hit the "Fully-Neutralized State). If you have done this much so far - and truly have no other method - pour it slowly on the ground next to/into a hole you dug already. As it transfers in the into the acid-hole - wait until done and rinse it twice (the kiddie-pool) with clean tap-water. Place a garden-hose upstream to the hole and let a small trickle of water come to the top of the hole you dug. Flip the kiddie-pool over and put your name on it. Place this over the active OA and top with a brick or similar.

Allow to soak and disappear all such with this method. The next day - hose the area down with lots of water. As is said with poisons 101 - Dilute! Dilute! Dilute!. Do this several times over the day. Then certainly overhaul etc. Colour v. Color next next time will be obvious - you can in a talk with. This makes El Presidente good to go again.

bbattle

Nitrous?

I'd neutralize oxalic acid/ferrous oxalate with ammonia then spray it on my yard as fertilizer after further dilution. Alternatively, you could just allow the water to evaporate and leave the residue behind. It won't bother your next project. Or remove the sludge and burn it. You'll create iron oxide and carbon dioxide.

P4D 

Hmm, I've got two curious little toddlers running around....chances are pretty good they'll want to get into this stuff to "check it out". Going to have to find myself a very good way to drain that pool, its the only reasonable thing I can do...

OLDYELLR

I'm 69 years old, so mercury was not flagged as a toxic substance when I was a kid. We would rub it on pennies, "silver" plating them to look like dimes. Chasing little beads of mercury across the floor was a lot of fun. Frankly, it still don't believe pure mercury is really toxic, just its compounds. Today hazmat disposal is an extremely lucrative industry and therefore take the scare tactics with a grain of salt, considering the profit motive.

OLDYELLR

That's a very good point. However, I'd do it very slowly while running a lot of water.

"Dilution is the solution to pollution"