Oxalic acid question

For cleaning you can make it saturated and thicken it with wallpaper paste but it depends how mucky the topsides are.

Cillit Bang Lime and Grime is also effective and not so toxic.

Wiki gives the solubility as 14.3 g per 100cm³ at 25C but if you are buying it as the dihydrate 14.3 g of the anhydrous material becomes 20g as the dihydrate. 20g per 100cm³ is the same as your 4 ozs per pint.

Conclusion 4 ozs per pint is saturated at 25C.
 
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Neat Y10 did a bluddy good job of the bit I tested ... bit expensive to do the whole topsides like it though!!

Excellent on the waterline mind ... :)
 
Fergus said:
says 4oz per 1 pint of water - is this the right concentration for topsides cleaning please?!
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Peeps on here usually say to dissolve as much as you can in the water, ie it wont dissolve any more in the given amount, which means it is "saturated"
Vics chemistry lesson supports that theory!
Stu
 
Oxalic acid and wallpaper paste is the DIY version of Y10.

Sugar soap is fairly strongly alkaline (exact composition varies) so will be better than oxalic for oily deposits.

Completely mystified as to why oxalic acid has emerged as the wonder cleaning chemical of the age. Very good for brown stains that are caused by rust and other iron compounds. I guess many other "stains " are bound by limescale deposits so any acid cleaner (eg Cillit Bang Lime and Grime) will be effective.

Buςςer, that Talisker ad has opened itself over what i am trying to do!

Wouldn't buy it after this advertising campaign even if it were the only Scotch on the planet.
 
VicS said:
Oxalic acid and wallpaper paste is the DIY version of Y10.

Sugar soap is fairly strongly alkaline (exact composition varies) so will be better than oxalic for oily deposits.

Completely mystified as to why oxalic acid has emerged as the wonder cleaning chemical of the age. Very good for brown stains that are caused by rust and other iron compounds. I guess many other "stains " are bound by limescale deposits so any acid cleaner (eg Cillit Bang Lime and Grime) will be effective.

Buςςer, that Talisker ad has opened itself over what i am trying to do!

Wouldn't buy it after this advertising campaign even if it were the only Scotch on the planet.
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Vic
First used it last year, it demolished the brown scottish water stains on the bow (peat stains?) It certainly cleaned the top sides to a startling white ready for waxing, it cleans the teak wonderfully, and considering that my defintive cleaner was the american one at £14 a bottle a lot cheaper!
By the way Merry Christmas.
Daughter is coming to the end of her 4 years in Uni, Masters in Drug discovery Chemistry, v proud
Stu
 
Hull and topside cleaning

I dont know if you saw my post recently. My club collegue was showing off his Y10 cleaner and did a circle 12"dia on my white boat. Now you will have to get the rest the same he said with a laugh. I called him 10mins later to show him another circle the same size just as clean , but I had done mine with Harpic toilet cleaner. Just as good but my! what a differance in price, all our members with white GRP now use it.
Abdiel
 
Harpic Toilet cleaner!! Hmm - at least it will smell as fresh as a daisy!! ... well worth a try though thanks! :)
 
Some years ago I called into Car Dealers Mercs?BMW's and other expensive cars. Where is all this leading to? Well they cleaned every car with BRASSO. So I have tried it on the gelcoat and it comes up sparkling clean and bright white. Now a question for Vics will I be OK to continue to use this or am I causing any permanant damage to my gelcoat????????

Peter
 
alahol2 said:
VicS

The only problem I find with wallpaper paste is if it's left to dry (eg overnight). It's then a real pain in the a*** to get it off. As a chemist, what is it that the Y10 people use and is it available to the consumer?
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On a Dutch site I found a Y10 data sheet which showed it to be 18% w/v Oxalic acid, plus assorted surfactants.

So you could probably fake up a substitute with washing up liquid and Oxalic acid. Salt (NaCl) acts as a thickening agent on most surfactants (up to a certain concentration when it starts to thin, empirical experiment will determine amount), or you could use wall paper paste.

Will try the Harpic method when I come out for the hull spring clean. Got to be easier than making a home-brew, and save my oxalic for the teak.
 
rivonia said:
Some years ago I called into Car Dealers Mercs?BMW's and other expensive cars. Where is all this leading to? Well they cleaned every car with BRASSO. So I have tried it on the gelcoat and it comes up sparkling clean and bright white. Now a question for Vics will I be OK to continue to use this or am I causing any permanant damage to my gelcoat????????

Peter
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If you are a product sniffer you might have noticed that "Tcut" and brasso have a very similar smell. AFAIK Brasso is just a runny fine cutting compound.

Tcut will be cheaper.
 
rivonia said:
Some years ago I called into Car Dealers Mercs?BMW's and other expensive cars. Where is all this leading to? Well they cleaned every car with BRASSO. So I have tried it on the gelcoat and it comes up sparkling clean and bright white. Now a question for Vics will I be OK to continue to use this or am I causing any permanant damage to my gelcoat????????

Peter
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I wouldn't use any abbraisive on my gelcoat. It is a last resort once the surface is very bad. Continued use of it will mean the surface will absorb any dirt going. I know, the stern of my boat was cleaned regularly by the last owner with CIFF which is an abrasive, and now catches any dirt going....
 
I was told many many years ago after i used Farecla for cars to clean my faded gell coat that you should not as it and T-Cut has amonia in it which is bad for Gelcoat which is why Farecla bought out a marine cutting compound for boats.

Y 10 works well on stainless though especially satin finish when it starts to rust.
 
Wall paper paste ! I have the same problem with it going off and being a complete B****r to get off. My next door neighbour being a chemical supplier mixed up an inert thickener for me to which I add the oxalic acid and it stays jelly like the same way as y10

If enough are formites are interested I will ask him if he is interested in supplying it to fellow members - I think he can supply it as a powder for you to mix up ( he did mine with water and washing up liquid to act as a cleaner).

PM me if you are interested and I will let you know.
 
I just chucked a bit of oxalic in a spare bucket and put some water on it, there may have been ¼" of water but not all the oxalic dissolved. Had a cup of coffee while it sorted it's self out/saturated the solution, and then painted it on the brown bits with a brush. There may have been an old tooth brush involved too, for the twiddly bits.

There was some left so I painted the grab rails along the cabin top too. There was still some left so I painted some more wood bits untill I ran out.

I had another cuppa or two untill it dried, the oxalic crystals sparkled nicely in the sun.

Then I scrubbed off the muck/green/brown bits and sluced it down well with water. Robert's your dad's brother, done untill next time.
 
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