General Chemical Storage

[ewest]

Ok, I did a little searching on the web when I first starting buying pyro chemicals and I wanting to know how to store these safely. Because the info I was finding is a little lacking I thought I would make a post here and ask you guys what you do.

 

The first thing I do is keep a binder with the MSDS sheets on each different chemical I have and so far I have it divided into 3 categories, Fuels, Oxidizers, and General. Then I went out and purchased 3 ice chests that I labeled the same as the 3 categories. For each new chem, I read the MSDS sheet for incompatibles and put them into the appropriate ice chest, you know, like Aluminum, Iron, Antinomy in the Fuels and Pot. Nit. and Pot. Perch. in the Oxidizers

 

When I order my chemicals they almost always come in a plastic bag inside of a plastic tub or box and I put each of these into the appropriate ice chest.

 

I'm going to make shelves for the ice chests but just haven't yet. I'm fairly confident that this method is overkill, but can you really be too safe? Plus it's just cleaner looking in my shed that way (and the neighbors can't see there are chemicals in them)

 

Now I guess my question is (because in the thread about labs I see chems just on shelves next to each other) is my method really overkill, or does it sound prudent? and so far I only have 3 categories I'm keeping separate, should I assume I'll have more? I'm not into anything exotic, just BP rockets, whistling rockets, Aerial shells with organic stars maybe some Parlon stars soon, that sort of thing.

 

Also, I'd like to know how some of you go about storing chems and keeping the incompatibles separate.

 

BTW, after all this research I now realize it's "apparently" not a good idea to store the Muriatic Acid and Chlorine for my pool next to each other in a plastic box in direct sunlight.

[[w00t]]

The icechests is overkilling it a bit.

I dont think your suppose to put acid in sunlight, specially HCl

 

It's better for the Oxidizers to be in boxes instead of plastic and then in to the icechests, or better yet, in pastic and then in a box and then in the icechest for each chemical.

 

 

I have my oxidizers in airtight (protect from moisture) plastic containers, and i place them next to each other, on the other side of the room i have plastic containers with fuels..

[murderskill]

I will put mine in plastic bags with plasitc airtight containers seperating them just like the above mentioned.

Sounds the smartest way.

[Mumbles]

I'm not all that concerned with this. Still, I have my fuels seperated from my oxidisers. Most of my general stuff is in with the fuels. I just keep them stored on opposite sides of a set of shelves, nothing to fancy. The bulk chems I don't care about. The Perchlorate is right next to the Indian blackhead, and the Magnesium. Those things have like 4 separate ways they are closed, so I am not worried about spilling and mixing. Only one container is open at a time, and I clean between uses.

[ewest]

So, I guess that really the idea is, don't store your pyro chemicals in little open piles next to each other and they'll be fine. If I have them in plastic Tupperware type tubs and keep the shelves clean of any lingering dust and spilled chems I should be pretty safe?

 

Reading the MSDS sheets on some of the chems, I tend to freak out a little, I sit there and start thinking weird things like, if I get these 2 within 20 feet of each other the upper atmosphere might instantaneously ignite and that might be bad. So I tend to overdo it.

Like I said, I've stored my Chlorine and Muriatic Acid right next to each other for years and never had a problem.

 

I knew the ice chests were overkill but I mainly did that so that if my neighbor’s kids looked in my garage they wouldn't see shelves of chemicals sitting there like a lab and run home and tell my nosey neighbors I'm building bombs in the garage. They just look neat and organized stacked on the shelves like they are.

 

And why is it when I tell friends I do pyro, they always say "Oh, you make bombs" It just pisses me off, how can they look at a rocket or aerial shell and think "bomb".

[[w00t]]

And why is it when I tell friends I do pyro, they always say "Oh, you make bombs" It just pisses me off, how can they look at a rocket or aerial shell and think "bomb".

lol, they think the same here, and they think of people who make actual HE's are terrorists and people who do pyro make bombs, weird

[Douchermann]

For my storage I have a bit white cabinet I keep everything in. I keep the fuels and oxidisers on seperate shelves though. Recently bolted a gate lock clasp and now i have a padlock with a 3/8" bar on it to keep the neighboor kids out.

 

As for the thing about people thinking you make bombs, its the same way here. Its pretty much the same way everywhere; the damn media brainwashed everyone. A while ago I read an article and the headline was "Chemical explosion in laboratory" The article was about methane gas lighting on fire and making a big fireball. Big difference from the headline.

[kwstag]

As Mumbles said.. One container open at a time, for many safety reasons. Same with cleaning up after a spill, or any mess in general.. For example, I have a bunch of Boric acid all over my lab floor I need to mop up, because it's extremely slippery on tile. Very stupid. I also have a little bit of NaNO3 that needs to be wiped up as well.. I've been doing so much lab work lately I have no time to clean up these minor things that could in return, become major problems.

[Von Bass`]

Well I keep everything in a big wooden chest Oxidisers arent kept away from fuels, but are kept tightly sealed in plastic boxes. Also I only have a tiny amount of pot perc by a lot of your standards! (below 50g)

[whitefox77]

I keep having nightmares involving my 10yo step-son sneaking off with a bunch of my chems, and bring them to his friends saying "Hey, my dad uses these to make rockets and smoke bombs, lets make some!"

 

As a result, two large lockable tool boxes are on this weeks shopping list.

 

I do not separate my fuels and oxidizers into separate areas, but I do keep all my oxidizers and mixed material (bp, fountain composition, star composition...) in screw-top containers with child-resistant lids.

[Pyro55]

I store my oxidizers, fuels and Visco, seperate in military surplus ammo boxes with desiccant.

 

I have perchlorate and German black that I bought from Square Lake Enterprises, several years ago. It is still as good as new.

[h0lx]

I personally don't care about storage that much, I only make sure that they won't mix. I only take special care with stuff, that is afraid of UV(stored in boxes for darkness, H2O2 on the floor, covered with cloth) and keep the larger amounts of the corrosive stuff on a special place on the floor, where spills cannot do any harm. Everything else is on shelves sorted by container size.

[Bonny]

My chems are stored in a lockable cabinet. The oxidizers are on one shelf with misc chems (carbonates,oxides etc...) placed in between them and the fuels. All metal powders are on another shelf. Every item is sealed in its own container. All mixed compositions,stars etc... are stored seperately.

[Apollofrost]

I rent and the landlord left a nine foot tall fifteen feet wide shelving unit with doors in the garage. I've just recently claimed it as my own and have been using it to store my chems and equipment. I like it because it keeps the chems out of the sun and out of sight.

 

The chems themselves are stored in tupperware. I'll probably put my new chems in paper bags first so there's no chance of any reactions with the plastic, but it'll be a while until I get them.