Sounds good, I think I will. I need to get some lye though. I know you can buy it rather easily, but are there any interesting ways to produce/extract it at home?

throw sodium into water:\

You may look for various drain cleaners. Some of cheapest are just solution of NaOH. Soap-making kits are also good source of lye.

 

It can be made at home by boiling soda and lime. For this you need some vessel that will not break by uneven heating. You need something that protects eyes and hands in case things go wrong. Also you need pretty good filtering equipment. So i think better idea is do go to supermarket and look around.

best way really is just electrolyzing aqueous sodium chloride

refering to the origional question - do different areas + water springs have different ion content? could that be a cause that it wasnt working origionally, then the dissolved sodium ions helped it along?

If he lives in America and has water from a plant, it is likely just the same as anyway else's. I think it is simply that he didn't have enough juice. Two 9 volters barely do anything for me, so only one will not get you much at all (well if you leave copper wires in for a few hours the water will turn green).

strange really, for me i can get quite alot done with 1 9v and 2 graphite electrodes.

I couldn't make bubbles fast enough to fill up balloons.

 

The device is basically a big PVC "U." One inch to like .5 inch bushings go on the top to hold the balloons. They aren't cemented on to allow for expansion, but they are on nice and tight with that sealing pink tape you use on pipes, so I don't think any gas is escaping.

if you want hydrogen in bulk, make a little jackson generator, alu foil in NaOH soln, but only 1/3`rd full and DON`T let it overheat!

I was after the hydrogen and oxygen, but I think you are referring to the original question. That would of course me much more effective than electrolysis. You could also just through any various metals into hydrochloric acid.