Lye/cornstartch paint stripper question

Zane's recipe for lye stripper (in the archives) suggests making a gallon batch. The recipe says add cornstartch until obtaining the color of whole milk and then lye to get the consistancy of thick gravy. About how much cornstartch and lye will this require? I'd like to have the correct amounts on hand before beginning. Should a one pound box of cornstartch and a one pound container of lye be enough?

Thanks, Paul

Don't get it in your eyes.

Vinagar will neutralize it if it does get somewhere you don't want it.

Wear safety glasses is the best way to go.

Thanks!

Paul

PS: A number of e-mails arrived from others (Thanks!) who mention the use of hot water in the concoction of this stuff. I'd advise against that since some heat will be liberated when the lye is added to the water. Sure, it will work faster hot, but heating it after making it (if at all) would be safer than adding lye to already hot water.

By the way, we used to make engine cleaning bath of just lye and water. This was before so many aluminum parts were around. I suspect this is still the principal ingredient of the hot tank bath at the local automotive machine shop (still smells the same), even though my machinist buys a proprietary product and does not know its content.

We used to save all our bacon drippings for Aunt Leona, who made soap out of it. As children we had to watch from a distance because some spattering always occurred when she added the lye to the hot fat.

Someone in the archives wondered about the environmental effects of using lye. Well, Lye and fat make soap. Lye is sodium hydroxide which is caustic, but its reaction products are as common as soap and salt. Sure, we don't want to increase the salt concentration of the soil, but as waste by-products go, this is about as safe and as water soluble as you are likely to get.