[Ander08]

Hey, does anyone have any suggestions for some relatively easy, non hazardous home chemistry experiments? any ideas would be great, thanks guys.

[408]

Make chloroform from bleach and acetone.  Well ventilated it is a very simple and safe experiment. 

[Ander08]

Yeah i know of that one, but i also have no means of purifying the chloroform and getting rid of the NaOH and Sodium acetate produced. Any other experiment suggestions?

[408]

Chloroform is insoluble in water.  Acetate and NaOH are water soluble.  You simple need a sep funnel and to wash the chloroform with water.

[Ander08]

Oh ok thats good to know, thanks. But do you have any more interesting experiments in mind?

[408]

You could make nitrocellulose, if you do not consider working with concentrated acids too dangerous.  Makes a great demonstration.

Make salicylic acid from aspirin, then make wintergreen from it. 

chlorate cell.

lots of stuff...gotta know what you are interested in first. 

[Ander08]

Ok well i can easily obtain methyl salicylate, which is the "wintergreen" ester. And I was asking for easy experiments with easily obtainable chemicals, I do not have any powerful acids lying around the house, unless i try to extract sulfuric acid from batteries, but then that would be dangerous. And even if i were to try and make methyl salicylate, how would i obtain methanol? I do not hae the instruments required to perform an esterification either. Can somebody with realistic suggestions please provide me with a reasonable answer?

[sophotect]

Plenty of ideas here http://www.mspong.org/cyclopedia/. I would question, if not ridicule, most medical advice herein, but otherwise there are a lot of interesting ideas for projects.