Chem Suppliers

[budullewraagh]

mods, dont hate me if this wasnt a good idea to post, but i thought it would be good to post a bunch of good sites to buy chems from.

 

i've found that hobbyist sites are good, but some reagents of equal quality you can buy for much less at photography stores. pottery and ceramic sites aren't too bad either, but generally you can get similar items at photography stores

 

if you happen to know of any other sites, list them below with some information about them if you wish.

 

Pyro/Hobbyist Sites:

http://www.unitednuclear.com

^high quality acs grade chems. rapidly growing so check every few weeks as they will probably have more chems. best thing about this site is they sell some uncommon catalysts and you can buy 2oz of a wide variety of chems for not too much. $7.50 flat shipping rate with no extra charges for hazmat. ideal for smaller orders.

 

http://www.skylighter.com

^pyrotechnics supplier. really low prices on powdered metals and oxidizers. they sell in "bulk" (usually by the pound or more). compared to unitednuclear, their prices on aluminum powders and dust as well as magnesium and such oxidizers as potassium nitrate and barium chlorate are incredibly low.

 

http://www.kno3.com

^good shipping policies. they sell some uncommon items, such as potassium persulfate, calcium, sodium and potassium metal, but in addition they sell red phosphorus. yes, high quality pure red phosphorus, and it's not too expensive either (100g for £19.50). their potassium perchlorate is absurdly expensive, but their potassium permanganate, potassium chlorate, iodine, and aluminum powder are quite reasonable.

 

http://www.al-chymist.com

^they have some really nice discounts (i got 25g of sodium peroxide for $5), but they charge $25 for hazmat and then shipping, which tends to be expensive as well.

 

Photography Sites:

http://www.artcraftchemicals.com/

^they sell some abstract chems like chloroauric acid, cesium chloride and palladium chloride.

 

http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/main/index.htm

 

http://www.silverprint.co.uk/

 

http://www.raycochemicals.f9.co.uk/

^cheap iodine...altho the place looks like it will be sold very soon so i'd be careful with orders if i were you

 

Other Sites

http://www.uspigment.com/

^cheap oxides and salts by the pound

[Gilded]

http://www.svenskakemi.nu

 

A good source of nice pyrotechnics chemicals and supplies (and an expensive element collection that looks very much, almost disturbingly same as the RGB-one ) for Europeans (especially us Scandinavians). They're making a totally English version of the page it seems, but right now it's probably still under construction (but "kemikalier" should be easy to recognize as chemicals and for example "ammoniumdikromat" as ammonium dichromate ) ).

 

Edit: Oh, and they got the formulas too. So if you don't recognize KNO3 as potassium nitrate, you should probably stay away from pyro-chemicals.

[budullewraagh]

thats great altho i have no idea how expensive the chems are.

 

the "pris" is in "i SEK" units. do you know the conversion factor?

[Gilded]

Swedish crowns (or whatever it's in English) have always been of low value. Damn Swedes should've changed to Euro, after all they're in EU. ) Currently, 1 US dollar gives you approximately 6.73 SEK.

[budullewraagh]

ah i see. prices are ok then i suppose, altho some are really bad.

it's a shame the dollar is so weak now

[Gilded]

Oh, I forgot to mention they have a ridiculous 3000 SEK minimum order (excluding shipping!), that's over goddamn 420$. So unless you're really going to buy in bulk or lots of different stuff, svenskakemi.nu seems to be of no use. :/

[budullewraagh]

man that's awful. they sell to the hobbyist? i can see some lunatic ordering a few tons of KNO3 and heading towards junk yards to find old car batteries...

[ed84c]

http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=6758&highlight=buy+chemicals

 

http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=6782&highlight=chemical+swap

[Gilded]

Hey bud, you know what's even better? They sell aluminum powder and KNO3 (for example) to under 18-year olds. Responsibility to the max. )

[ed84c]

I bought some of ebay and im only 15............

[Gilded]

Hmmh? How did you pay for it if you're 15? I have no means of paying on eBay until I'm 18 (Visa), except for cash but a) it's an unsafe method of money transaction b) most auctions don't even have the option.

[ed84c]

Cheque obtained from the bank

[Gilded]

Checks eh?

 

...

 

Now I can only wonder why my room isn't filled with uranium ore as I could've paid with a goddamn check for most auctions. Although, some auctions don't have the money check-option and all fun chemicals are in United States.

[ed84c]

no, not checks, cheques

 

so how much does uranium ore cost? I could do with some for my element collection

[budullewraagh]

Hey bud, you know what's even better? They sell aluminum powder and KNO3 (for example) to under 18-year olds. Responsibility to the max. )

pssh, what are parents for? i tell mine what the chems are that i'm buying, what i'll do with them, how i'll store them and they're ok with it

[Gilded]

David Hahn's parents were OK with stuff too... until he endangered the health of about 30 000 people. ) Anyway, I have very limited access to chemicals but if I was going to buy some I'd probably tell about it. Luckily, even though they both work/worked at the university, they have very limited knowledge about chemicals. )

 

"Hi mom, today I'm going to make RDX!"

"*silence, weird look* Uh-huh, that's great honey!"

[budullewraagh]

yeah but i don't do nuclear...and i'm sane! and i actually speak to my parents.

 

eek, rdx is crazy stuff man

[jdurg]

Yeah, my parents aren't too happy with all the elements I have, but I told them that once they get a degree in chemistry and known what the hell they're talking about, then I'll pay attention to them. Sadly, it's because of my degree in chemistry that I'm still at home at the age of 24. The cost of living around here has truly skyrocketed, but I'm saving up and hopefully by this time next year I'll have the down payment ready for my own place. But anway, I'm just happy to be getting that small bit of Uranium and have placed an order at United Nuclear for their 1' x 1' lead sheet to line a small wooden box I have. This weekend I'll sand the box and give it a nice staining and then a glossy polyurethane coating so that it will look really sharp. I may even gold plate the hinges and latching mechanism on it so it will really stand out.

[Gilded]

The United Nuclear lead sheet seems nice. However, it's the only place I've seen that sells it and I can't be arsed to order just some lead sheet from U.S. due to phenomenal posting costs. My ore sample gives about 0.21mSv through the thin-walled steel safe-thingie I keep it in at close range, so it's not too much trouble but if I'm going to have radium/promethium watch dials, pure forms of both uranium and thorium, perhaps even technetium or polonium (those are nasty buggers to acquire), I'm really, really going to need some lead sheet or plating. )

[budullewraagh]

Update

[ed84c]

what is RDX?

[budullewraagh]

1,3,5-triaza-1,3,5-trinitrocyclohexane

[ed84c]

and why is it dangerous?

[jdurg]

It decomposes in a fast chain reaction fashion resulting in the production of numerous gas molecules from the solitary solid molecule. I.E. it goes KABOOM!

[budullewraagh]

and why is it dangerous?

it is quite an energetic compound in that it has in three places N-NO2 groups.