Just looking for some to throw in some ammo cans. Will it work?

There is no reason to use it. You can get REAL dessicant for FREE in huge quantities if you know where to look.

I believe it is.

Use two coffee filters and a stapler to make your own mess free packs.

Which is where?

 

Exactly what I was thinking.

Over the years I have posted it probably a half a dozen times but we have no real FAQ here so we talk about the same crap over and over again.......It gets OLD.

Here's the deal- most motorcycles are made in Japan, Yes? They are shipped to the U.S. in crates packed in "containers". These containers are of course exposed to saltwater air during transit as they simply sit stacked on a deck.

In order to ensure that they arrive without rust- these are new bikes- each one is "crated" with a dessicant bag about the size of a large tube sock. These are tossed at the dealership when the bikes are uncrated. A case of beer will get you in a month all the freaking dessicant- REAL dessicant you could ever use.

I purchased flower drying material from the local craft store for this use.  Inexpensive.

See.  That's more like it. And, BTW, I didn't know that so it seems to be new, useful, and worth repeating.

 

This.  Cheap, easy to find, fresh.  One small box will handle most guys entire collection without wondering if your dessicant is already saturated or not.

Yep, This is the way to go.....



I bought some of those little Organza Wedding Favor bags, and filled them with the Flower Drying material. The end then gets tied shut with the attached string/ribbon. I throw one in each ammo can. Works great and is very cost effective. You can get the bags online pretty cheap. They have a lot of sizes available. Gotta search around. Get the flower Drying material from Michaels Crafts or AC Moore type store.

Please define "REAL dessicant"?  As opposed to fake?

Many of the large desiccant bags like you describe are one-time use clay desiccant (because it's cheap).

Silica gel is the most effective desiccant material, and that is what crystal cat litter is, is just pure silica gel crystals.  The flower drying stuff is exactly the same.

As an aside, microwave oven is a convenient and fast way to recharge silica gel.  Silica is transparent to microwaves,  but the water trapped in the silica is not so the water heats extremely rapidly and is driven from the silica.  Use a very low power setting, if you use continuous full power the crystals of silica will actually burst from the steam pressure.  I put a glass of water in the microwave as an extra absorber also.

I hope the internets are still working when shtf.



You guys are some crafty dudes.  


 

A product designed for a specific function, serving in that function is a REAL product to me. Cat litter may serve the save purpose, it may be essentially the same thing- or it may not there is a wide variance in products and most of us are not chemical engineers, the German word Ersatz comes to mind. Why would you mess with something that MAY, PROBABLY is BUT may NOT (or may have other additives that are problematic) be what you need when you KNOW that another product IS designed to do EXACTLY what you want it to do. That seems silly to me.

The dessicant I have found from the bikes has always been Silica- you're talking about a $10,000 or plus cost bike-hell, even a fricking scooter is $3k, they don't exactly worry about a $1 bag of silica gel when they know it's going to be exposed for weeks to salt water vapor etc....while in transit and while sitting in customs etc...Further, I find it curious that anyone would advocate paying for something that can be had for free but to each his own.

The last case of cheap beer I bought was $22 .  



If you search Wally/Target or similar stores you can find (as I did) a biggo tub of cat litter with 100% silca gel.  MAKE SURE it does not have clay and is unscented.  Most times they will call it Blue Crystal or something to that affect.



The last tub I purchased was around $8.



I used some cheap landscape cloth and a stapler to make pouches to hold the desired amount of silca.  Placed them in ammo cans, safes, etc.






 

You can always simply dumpster dive! In truth I've never paid for it but merely inquired politely of the mechanics. A box of donuts, a case of beer etc... is a symbolic "payment" much appreciated but probably not absolutely necessary. I've done this same thing many times in many different areas.

For example, the "tarps" that cover my woodpile are actually highway billboard mylar "signs".They are periodically changed out of course as advertisers change. The old ones have no value and are simply tossed...... Go by the sign place and you can usually have them for taking them away. These will shed rain wonderfully and I've had some in service two years or more. They are the perfect size as well. There are many, many ways that people who use their head can get by but you can't be locked into "I have to buy something at a store"...... As Cody Lundeen says- "The more you know the less you need".

If you have ready availability of large bags of silica gel, then by all means pick them up, if you're willing to spend the time to reactivate them from an unknown state.

The crystal cat litter (100% silica gel) is so cheap that it's hardly worth putting in the time or effort to scrounge around for free silica gel that you then have to reactivate. "Go find a Japanese motorcycle dealership and look in their dumpster for desiccant packages" is not an effective or efficient acquisition strategy for the vast majority of people, when the equivalent product is available new/fresh for a few dollars at wal mart or a grocery store.


Good grief

Simple chemical substances have a variety of uses.  Silica gel absorbs a radical amount of moisture/water;  it will soak up that water from the air in a motorcycle crate, an ammo box, or will soak up your cat pee just as efficiently, which is why the exact same chemical is used for all those purposes.

Being that this is the survival forum, I would think it would be an imperative to learn about the versatility of things like this.

By the way... wonder what other chemicals/gasses that used silica gel may have sucked up, which will be released when you reactivate it in your oven?

Never mind, this will be the last time that I bring any such thing up. Not GD? Yea, I can tell, better to let the ignorant wallow in their ignorance- over and over and over.

You certainty seem like most lifelong Texans I have known

No loss.

Put the kitty litter in a sock, change it out every now and then, you've saved yourself hundreds of dollars over a decade.  It's all either clay or silica dioxide, both of which are easily accessible and cheap.

Also, a box of tea bags is dirt cheap.  Snip off the top of the tea bag, dump out the tea, put a spoonful of flower drying crystals in each side, close it up with a staple.  No need to order/buy/etc. little bags, keep it cheap and effective.