Easy - whatever you use store and use it inside a large deep plastic tray
of sorts.
You might use something like a cat litter box (lion size would be
preferred ;-)),.
You might also find such a tray at a large butcher, they are used to move
meat and other disgusting stuff around. Your question has promptet me to
google for the brand name on my tray and it is from a large supplier of
spices mainly to butchers. They might be unwilling to give the trays up
though.
I keep inside this tray my etching tank, and also all the bottles of
refill chemicals. I had the tank leak once (it is homemade from glass
glued with silicone and the etchant leaked along a edge i hadn't glued all
around) but the tray caught all the etchant no problem.
The tray has a fixed place on a sturdy table, but it has handles and
careful moving around is possible.
For bottles i have PE chemicals bottles from my chemicals store - when i
get something new i buy the bottle and from then on they will refill it. I
do not think they would be happy to refill drinks bottles, since they must
have a special lid with a mechanism where you need to press down to take
it off - you need a child to help you figure it out if you are unfamiliar
with it ;-).
HCL will go "through" any plastic bottle after a few years - you'll find a
salt of sorts on the outside and metallic things closeby corrode. This is
the same or even stronger with PET drinks bottles (the thickwalled variety
you are supposed to return). Glass bottles seem to be better, but as you
say could break. Anyway, HCL is always sold in this style of PE bottle
even pre-bottled from the manufacturer so i suppose it is OK that a small
amount seems to get through the walls after a long time.
Don't use these PE bottles for white spirit / solvent naphta! They sold me
the stuff in such a bottle (they use them for everything), but after a few
weeks i discovered a substantial amount missing and the side of the bottle
dented in. It evaporated right through the bottle! So i put it in a glass
bottle, swapped the label, and after a long time of venting the PE bottle
i could still re-use it to replace the HCL bottle that looked a bit bad
already. Strange thing is, Acetone is perfectly fine in these bottles, and
petrol canisters are also plastic (not sure if pp or pe).
Anyway, short story, ideally buy the proper bottles you will usually get
with the products, and always store them inside a larger container to
catch spills. If you only want to store them a bucket would be sufficient
i guess, but a tray is neat to work over.
ST
On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 19:17:41 +0100, wbblair3 <wbblair3@...> wrote:
> I realize that a glass container would be safe for the storage of CuCl
>
> etchant with respect to acid resistance, but breakage would be the
>
> obvious problem there. What sort of commonly available containers
>
> normally intended for other uses would be safe to store this type of
>
> etchant (I've always used FeCl3 etchant in the past).
>
>
> From what I can find about polypropylene's (PP) resistance to HCl:
>
>
> http://www.lamtec.com/chemical-resist2.htm
>
>
> it appears that containers marked PP (like the common plastic food
>
> storage containers one can find anywhere) might be OK for use as
>
> etchant tanks/baths, but I wonder about the suitability of PP for
>
> storage. The sealing methods used on the PP food-related containers
>
> I've seen that were designed for the storage of liquids don't look
>
> adequate for the storage of an acid (dropping a container full of
>
> orange juice and making a mess because a spout pops open is one thing,
>
> having HCl spray all over your floor is an entirely different sort of
>
> thing).
>
>
> Of course, it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that the
>
> use of food containers for storage would require that they be clearly
>
> marked with the words "POISON" and "ACID" in large, bold letters (in
>
> addition to the words "CuCl Etchant" which wouldn't mean anything to
>
> most people) and kept out of the reach of children. And, for that
>
> matter, any container used should be marked as such.
>
>
> Anyway, what are those of you who are using this etchant using for the
>
> safe storage of it?