Acetic Acid - Update

[Robert Goodale]

Hi all...

Thanks for the input on the Acetic Acid issue. There were a lot of
explainations about it's use in pianos, most of which seemed to focus on
old hide glue. I am a big fan of hide glue, but I don't feel that
keeping a caustic, pungent, corrosive, toxic, flamable, accident prone
glass bottle of acid around is worth the risk for experimenting on the
one or two opportunities that might come my way to make use of it.
Particularly when there are alternative methods available today.
Besides, according to the label, the contents is rated at 99.5% pure -
very powerful.

I have elected to dispose of it, however this isn't one of those things
you can just poor down the drain, lest it eat the plumbing. I called the
university chem. department, and to my suprise they wern't the least bit
interested in helping me. They suggested I call "Risk Management", a
university burocracy equivelant to OSHA in the real world only worse.
Not wanting to start up a huge mess with a bunch of people who have way
too much time on their hands, I consulted the department vice pres. who
agreed that calling Risk Management would probably be a bad idea, (we
have had problems with these jerks before). Someone else has now been
assigned to get rid of this stuff for me but has yet to show up. Due to
a building remodeling project I must temporarily relocate my facilities
for the summer, and I really didn't wan't to have to walk down the hall
with this big glass jar. Hopefully someone will come and collect it
soon. Otherwise I might be forced to dump it into the Vose & Sons down
the hall and call it an accident ;-}

Thanks agian for the input.

Rob Goodale, RPT
Northern Arizona U.