Actually you can purchase Sodium Silicate solution a.k.a. waterglass in most
drugstores.
As for Lye, FoodWorld carries Red Devil Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) NaOH.
I buy it frequently for many purposes other than as a drain-opener.
Color developing works just fine with NaOH in place of KOH (Potassium
Hydroxide)

----- From: "William Chops Westfield" <westfw@

> On Aug 13, 2004, at 11:39 AM, Anthony Van Herrewege wrote:
>
> > info about silicate developer.
>
> [how to make sodium metasilicate from waterglass and lye]
>
> You know, you can just BUY sodium metasilicate.  It may not be easy to
> find, but then neither are waterglass and lye (in the US.  YMMV.  If
> you can get lye from your pharmacist, you may be able to get the sodium
> metasilicate there as well.)
> Many dishwashing detergents (for automatic dishwashers) are mostly
> sodium metasilicate as well, and might work off-the-shelf.
>
> BillW

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu