Ferric Chloride Freezing Point?

K

kdnolin

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Jan 16, 2017
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I don’t have constant heat in my workshop and temps here will reach -30 C in winter and 2 winters ago hit -40. I have an ABS container and am concerned about it freezing and breaking.
 
Rough guess ... it is a water based solution. Count on it freezing at zero Celsius, or a few degrees below. But not much below.
 
The MDSD says a 40% solution freezes at -10°C/14°F and another site says 40% freezes at -58°C/-50°F??? A third site says it ranges between -10 and -50°. A freezing curve chart shows 38% as being -58°?

A 3:1 or 5:1 etching solution would be much higher, so I agree with Cushing that around -5°C/23°F is a good guess. My tank stays outside year round and I have never had any issues. However, I can't recall opening the tube to etch a blade at below freezing temps.
 
I found similar info as you did Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith very conflicting temps. So far it hasn’t frozen on me and my windex has. It has also been -20 C this October and several nights at -15.
I think I’ll keep an eye on it and move it inside when if/when it starts to freeze.
 
So it’s -22 C (-8 F) this morning and my ferric chloride is slushy. If I remember correctly, I mixed it a little stronger than what was recommended, ran out of room in my container when adding water.
I would expect it to freeze solid at -30C. I hope to be putting heat in soon.
 
Mine has frozen here in Washington state. I just keep it in a 5gal bucket and it has never frozen solid enough to bust the bucket. But once I did have to bust up the frozen top to etch something. Funny thing is that it being slushy did not affect the etching intact I think it came out better. Probably because of the much slower etching process.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
It would keep it quite a bit warmer than no heater at all.
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That’s true, I am definitely putting constant heat in this winter, just keep it above freezing when I’m not using it.
When I turn the propane heater on now, everything frosts before thawing, making the carbon steels rust.
 
I’m just north of Edmonton. That was record breaking cold. Winnipeg is know for nasty wind chill days. -40 and the air is too cold to move :D
 
Grew up in Winnipeg and lived there for decades. Yeah the winters there might as well have you on Mars.

For a relatively small workshop a 40w incandescent light bulb will work wonders for pumping relative warmth into the room.
 
It’s hardly worth heating my shop as it all goes away when I have to vent the plasma table.
 
Now I understand why Canadians are so polite. Everything hurts so much worse when it's cold, and since everyone is walking around half froze to death, fighting is mutually avoided. :)
 
Lived in Fairbanks for four years, so I feel your pain ;)

Fortunately my shop shared space with my furnace, so I never had a freezing issue, but the idea of having to thaw your ferric before you etch is deeply amusing to me :D
 
All I can say is if ya'll are worried about FeCl freezing, ya'll live waaay too far north. Here in the South I don't worry about my FeCl freezing :):)
 
Ken H> said:
All I can say is if ya'll are worried about FeCl freezing, ya'll live waaay too far north. Here in the South I don't worry about my FeCl freezing :):)
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I hate the extreme cold, but the summer heat you get in the South would kill me! I am looking for shade when it gets above 25C (77F) :)
 
I live in way south west texas...
It was 86f here two days ago. And 28f last night. Weird weather.
While we really don't have to work about freezing we do have to worry about my acid getting too strong if I leave it uncovered!!
 
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