Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Tour My Lab

Tour My Lab

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Lambda-Eyde - 7-6-2009 at 06:10

Rich_Insane: Check out DP Glassblowing on eBay. I've seen them sell some gently used 19/22 organic chemistry sets for under 100$. Really nice sets with different sizes of flasks, condensers, adapters and such. I can't see any sets like those listed in their eBay shop right now, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

For heating, you should definitely get a hotplate stirrer, it's a must! Even I, who doesn't yet have one can testify to that! Try to acquire a nicely used one off of eBay.

To measure your joint size, take a metric caliper and measure the width of the opening and the depth of the joint. The first number (eg 24) is the top width of the joint in millimeters. The second number (eg 40) is the depth of the joint in millimeters. After a while you'll get good at doing visual estimates.

Are you good friends with your chemistry teacher? Try asking him if they have any surplus equipment they could spare. That's how I got my 250 ml Electromantle.

1281371269 - 7-6-2009 at 06:16

Does anyone know of some institutions in the UK that might give me equipment they no longer use (if I ask them very politely!)?
I'm in a similar situation to Risch_Insane...this stuff is not cheap! And if anyone could link me to a website that would sell a fully glass distillation setup...I can't find one anywhere in the country, and shipping from the USA is >£30

Lambda-Eyde - 7-6-2009 at 06:24

Mossydie: This seller is located in the UK, and carries a lot of Quickfit glassware. You could possibly ask him if he could acquire a complete setup?

Rich_Insane - 7-6-2009 at 09:30

Unfortunately I'm in a school where budget cut shave affected us pretty bad, so I don't think I could get to much from there.

For a hotplate, what would you recommend? I see quite a few auctions for ridiculously cheap mag stir/hot plates for auction. I see this one for $99 that is also a mag stirrer:

Hot Plate

It is a Chinese one though (I can't understand Chinese, and I'm not sure of the quality). it also comes with free shipping, so that's a plus. I'm worried that all this labware will be purchased, and I will have no money left for actual chemicals.

1281371269 - 7-6-2009 at 09:37

I saw that one on ebay.co.uk. I have had bad experiences with such cheap, chinese electronics - in general, I never go for something unless the english in the item description is fully comprehensible and in the case of that item it is not. As a general rule, spend more and you will save in the long term because you will have high quality long lasting kit.
There's an American site dedicated to labware auctions:
http://www.labx.com/
Also: www.unitednuclear.com
You probably knew about those, but if not check them out. United nucleaur always makes me envious when I waste some time browsing through it. If only they could ship to the UK...

woelen - 7-6-2009 at 10:57

Try looking at the German eBay. Most of my labware (heating mantles, part of my glassware) is from German sources (old GDR labs). Looking somewhat outdated, but very robust in general. I use these parts already for a long time and have good experiences with that.

I also have bad experience with chinese materials. I purchased HV-diodes and HV-capacitors from a chinese seller. The capacitors were rated at 6 kV, but they broke already at 2 kV

(giving a tingling noise and becoming conductive) and the diodes simply broke down erratically. Since then I say NO to chinese materials. In the contrary, I have good to very good experience with old equipment from the former soviet union and the eastern european countries. Many of these things were built ridiculously heavily and were ridiculously overrated. Not good at all from an economical point of view, but for home experimenting it is very good, some of my old Russian equipment hardly can be destroyed!

Rich_Insane - 7-6-2009 at 16:20

Well the language on the site itself is readable, and they offer a 7-day warranty. It's just that the hotplate/mag stir itself is in Chinese.

Unfortunately I cannot see any good deals on German Ebay (I can't read German either) or UK Ebay. I may order my glassware from Unitednuclear, if i cannot find any better deals.

How does this sound?

$130 for a hotplate/stirrer, $105 for glassware, and $110 for chemicals? Is it possible? I just found out I only have $310, so i need to beg $40 out of somewhere.

woelen - 7-6-2009 at 22:34

If you have such a limited budget, then I first would limit yourself to plain experimenting and leave out the hotplate/stirrer. Buy yourself some test tubes, simple glassware and a small propane torch. If you do that, then you can spend $200 or even more on chemicals.

I do not say that a hotplate is not important, but given the limited budget, to my opinion it is not the thing to start with. Who knows what money you can spend next year, I also have taken several years to build up what I have now.

This page may be helpful to you: http://woelen.homescience.net/science/chem/misc/homelab.html
This page describes the basic things, you need as a starter. In due time you can expand your lab.

pHzero - 8-6-2009 at 02:49

Quote: Originally posted by woelen

If you have such a limited budget, then I first would limit yourself to plain experimenting and leave out the hotplate/stirrer. Buy yourself some test tubes, simple glassware and a small propane torch.

What's wrong with a bunsen? You can get them for shade under 4 quid here in the UK (http://www.rapidonline.com/Educational-Products/Science/Labo...). You can then hook that up to a calor gas (LPG) bottle with an 8mm regulator, and it works a charm. Only annoying thing about it is if you use it outside (which I always do), the flame gets blown about quite a bit on windy days.

woelen - 8-6-2009 at 03:09

There's nothing wrong with a bunsen, but for most people, such a thing is not easy to obtain, or more expensive than a simple butane torch from a hardware store. For this reason I mentioned the propane torch. Buy whatever is cheapest, or easiest to obtain.

[Edited on 8-6-09 by woelen]

pHzero - 8-6-2009 at 03:13

Quote: Originally posted by woelen

There's nothing wrong with a bunsen, but for most people, such a thing is not easy to obtain, or more expensive than a simple butane torch from a hardware store. For this reason I mentioned the propane torch. Buy whatever is cheapest, or easiest to obtain.

[Edited on 8-6-09 by woelen]

Ah right, fair enough. Torches are pretty expensive here in the UK, so I think I'll stick with the bunsen

I might even order a few of them and sell them on ebay - I can probably post them to the US for about a tenner each.

Maja - 8-6-2009 at 03:24

Maybe someone knows good supplier of used hotplate/stirrers in eastern europe or just Europe ?

[Edited on 8-6-2009 by Maja]

1281371269 - 8-6-2009 at 09:00

Rich_Insane, take a look at this link:
It's a video I made of my spirit burner which took me a few minutes to make and can run on ethanol, methanol, iso-propyl, meths and more.
It works well for bending tubing or heating test tubes, for distillation and other long term heating an old butane gas stove does the job.

Edit: Forgot to actually include the link. Ooops. Here it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m80i-3iq508&feature=chann...

[Edited on 8-6-2009 by Mossydie]

[Edited on 8-6-2009 by Mossydie]

UnintentionalChaos - 8-6-2009 at 13:47

Mossydie - do you know if anywhere near you sells those stupid backyard tiki torches? If so, look around there for replacement wicks. These are bundled fiberglass with a woven fiberglass sheath over them. They are fireproof and have a high fuel draw rate that produces a large, hot flame. About 1000x better than toilet paper and they only cost a dollar or two.

Rich_Insane - 8-6-2009 at 18:44

Ok, thanks everyone.

I will most likely be buying my own bunsen burner. I have a test tube holder already, so pretty much all i need is expanded glassware, and a condenser.

1281371269 - 9-6-2009 at 03:34

I'll have a look for them - although using toilet paper really appeals to me because of the DIY / minimum requirements aspect. I'm bidding on an ebay item at the moment which is a double mini inorganic chemistry set (old style, glass, mercury thermometers, mini bunsens) and if I win it I'll see if anyone here who's into mini scale stuff might want to do a trade.

Oh and my spirit burner just melted a test tube along with the Zn inside it

[Edited on 9-6-2009 by Mossydie]

Rich_Insane - 9-6-2009 at 15:41

I was wondering i forgot something... I noticed I do not have a decent scale.

I see some for around $20 that are dental/jewelry/specimen scales, but are those worthy? I can see some 100 g - 0.1 g scales fro 19.99, for Dental Scrap or jewelry.

1281371269 - 9-6-2009 at 15:45

I bought a cheap one, about £5 and no issue with it yet. But I forsee I'll need a new one in time as it's hardly going to last long. $19.99 seems it should get a decent one.

Rich_Insane - 9-6-2009 at 16:54

Alright, that's fine. So a jewelry scale should be fine?

1281371269 - 9-6-2009 at 17:04

I think for $20 you can't go far wrong and it should at the very least last you until you can afford a better one. Was that lab auctions site of any use? Lots of glassware joblots go as well as more expensive stuff.

Rich_Insane - 9-6-2009 at 17:08

Lab Auctions site? Some of those are really good. I do not know which one you speak of, however.

I'll see what I can get, but i doubt I'll need a milligram scale or anything.

1281371269 - 15-6-2009 at 15:38

Just found this link:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/09/how_to_make_a_magne...
OK, not as good as a proper one because it wont have speed control. On the other hand, if you're like me and have a load of old computer bits lying around, it's at least £70 cheaper.
I'm making one atm

I also made a retort stand by screwing some Al pipe into a wooden base. Took me all of 5minutes. I don't understand how they can cost £16!

Lambda-Eyde - 8-7-2009 at 11:15

Look what came in the mail today:

Enjoy the nerd porn.

(Sorry, no ground glass)

UnintentionalChaos - 8-7-2009 at 11:51

Quote: Originally posted by Lambda-Eyde

(Sorry, no ground glass)

For shame! I have all of two erlenmeyers and my ground glass stuff gets far more use. I actually like my fairly limited equipment sometimes. It forces me to clean up after myself

I'm in the market for a 1L erlenmeyer with a 24/40 joint though. It'll go nicely with my new fritted buchner with hose barb.

1281371269 - 11-7-2009 at 07:12

By clearing out some of the clutter in my garage I have managed to win myself a very small lab area. It has a very long way to go, but it's better than my windowsill and bedroom cupboards for sure.
The whole area:

Organics:

Inorganics:

Lockable Cupboard:

Equipment:

Weird and Wonderful effects on a piece of copper that was electrolysed in conc. Sulphuric acid then left by a sink for a few weeks:

I have ordered a retort and will buy a condenser, I think if I can fit these two together they will serve as a decent full glass distillation setup for the time being.
What should be the next piece of equipment to get?

entropy51 - 11-7-2009 at 07:55

Good job! It's a humongous step up from the window sill. Makes you start to feel like a chemist, doesn't it?

I don't see a balance, which is a necessity. I'm assuming you have eye protection. Maybe a small hotplate? A sturdy and secure clamp for your retort stand? A little recirculating pump for your condenser? Is there an outside faucet you can attach an aspirator to for vacuum filtering?

Those little chemistry set vials look very familiar. I think some of mine from ages ago are still around somewhere.

Jor - 11-7-2009 at 08:03

Nice! A tidy place, good storage. Seems fine.

One question: do you have any ventilation in there?

If not, where do you perform experiments where noxious gasses are evolved?

Magpie - 11-7-2009 at 08:05

Nice work, Mossydie. I see you have some of the narrow little bottles from an old chemistry set?

I'm just in the process of winning some space in my garage myself (I have to compete with my wife). I just got rid of an old gun cabinet. This gave me space for a large cabinet with doors. This will give me much needed storage for my currently developing ceramics division.

Forget more equipment for awhile - build a hood.

Sedit - 11-7-2009 at 08:15

Must be a trend because I was out last night rearranging crap so that I could build a new bench and a hood to go along with it in the back side of my garage. I already had the storage shelfs setup so now its a matter of moving some large wooden pallets out of the way loaded with concrete. It will be nice when im done setting up and can wire it because it will allow me to hook my freezer up so I can store more sensitive items without the fear of evaporation and degradation.

1281371269 - 11-7-2009 at 09:36

I'm off to Israel for about 6 weeks tomorrow so that added to my motivation to get it done, especially the locked cupboard...
Yeah the bottles are from an old chemistry set, rescued from my grandparents' loft.

Anything with noxious gasses or flames is done outside - I also do woodwork in that garage and the floor is covered in woodchips so fire is a definite no. A hotplate would be a good investment. A hood would be nice but it seems a hell of a job... I do have an grate to the outside or failing that the front of the garage is wood so a hole could be drilled through it.

I have eye protection and a condenser pump run by a 125W PSU which will double as my power supply - is this guide still relevant or is it outdated?
http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-a-Computer-ATX-Power-Supply-t...

There is also a freezer in there, albeit that the prototype was probably chiselled out of rock. I don't think I have any chemicals that need it for the moment (apart from maybe H2O2?) but in the future it will be useful.

My balance died recently (acid attack :/ ) but I'm reluctant to get another rubbish cheap one and a proper lab balance is out of the question - is there any mid point?

setback - 11-7-2009 at 09:45

I couldn't help but notice the bottle with the air lock, are you into brewing?

1281371269 - 11-7-2009 at 09:58

Haven't tried it yet

For the moment it's just to make EtOH but if all goes well then I will try making some stuff to drink. I have 60g of yeast / nutrient mix, is all that remains to mash up some rotten fruit with water, shove it all in, and leave it for a few weeks?

[Edited on 21-7-2009 by Methyl.Magic]

[Edited on 21-7-2009 by Methyl.Magic]

[Edited on 21-7-2009 by Methyl.Magic]

Methyl.Magic - 21-7-2009 at 11:37

[Edited on 21-7-2009 by Methyl.Magic]

Klute - 21-7-2009 at 11:39

Great lab! Where did you get that bottle of N2? Did you pay alot for it?

Methyl.Magic - 21-7-2009 at 11:46

I've only paid 55€ for one year and I can fill the bottle with nitrogen when it's empty (nitrogen costs somthing like 20€ for my bottle, I've used nitrogen a lot of times and I've never filled it again !

Klute - 21-7-2009 at 11:47

Whoa! Is this in France? ANd what are your plans with oxalyl chloride and sulfuryl chloride?

[Edited on 21-7-2009 by Klute]

Magpie - 21-7-2009 at 14:48

Mon dieu! What an interesting lab. What are the two machines in the 5th picture? Also, what is in the bottles with the yellow caps, same picture?

Ozonelabs - 21-7-2009 at 15:32

entropy51 - 21-7-2009 at 15:36

methyl.magic,

I see a rotovap and other excellent equipment.
I see chems that must be handled in a fume hood.
I do not see a fume hood.

Priorities??

Magpie - 21-7-2009 at 16:11

Ozonelabs, you set the standard for compressed gases! Might I ask if you have a business license?

Ozonelabs - 21-7-2009 at 16:23

As it goes, we were given the cylinders for free as a sample from our supplier.

No, we don't have a business licence.

The_Davster - 21-7-2009 at 19:42

Nice ozonelabs, great to see there are still companies that have not given into fearmongering and will send a private citizen chlorine gas. For free nonetheless.

This warms my heart, it really does.

DJF90 - 22-7-2009 at 08:29

Haha its not the chlorine that caught my eye, but further to the right....

Ozonelabs, what is the cylinder at the back on the right? I can't see the label

Ozonelabs - 22-7-2009 at 08:46

Its a 99.95% CO2 cylinder.

chloric1 - 22-7-2009 at 14:59

The Helium cylinder is dated Oct 1972!

I was 2 months old then!

Rich_Insane - 22-7-2009 at 20:25

Quote:

Look what came in the mail today

Lambda-Eye.... I was wondering. how much is all of that? A box of 50 ml beakers would do me some good.

About the spirit burner: I tried it with nail-polish remover (nasty smell). It creates an invisible flame (this fuel contains acetone and glycols, along with some dye that may have decomposed into N2). It burned well, but wasn't hot enough to caramelize sugar in a glass jar. I had to shake the fuel a bit once in a while. I would think more because there should be a lot of evaporated acetone and fuel on there. I tried adding a bit of heptane from shoe-shiner (it's used as a solvent and a propellant I believe), obviously I knew it would form layers because of polarity. I shook it up, but it still did not do anything. Recently I was doing a test on a shipment of KNO3 I received by mixing a small amount with windshield washer fluid (methanol) and a bit of water. I put that into a container and attempted lighting it. It did not light well. So I added a bit of (around 10-20 mls) nail polish remover. Instant bright-orange/white flame (preceded by a lilac flame from the KNO3). It lasted a while too, and even when water was added it stayed alight, until I dumped around 250 mls of water on it to stop it. All in all, not very reliable I'd say. It's OK for simple heating, but I'd rather get a torch from Home Depot for around $10-20.

I'm just wondering how you might get chemicals for free, pointing at my terribly restricted budget. Are there any honest, generous companies left in this world, or have they all gone bad? I did email AAPERC once for some anhydrous EtOH, but never got a reply..... and I offered some money. I found a nice supplier called Daigger, but I am not sure how much they charge for shipping. They have amazing prices, but who knows. They may charge $100 in hazmat.

Methyl.Magic - 26-7-2009 at 02:57

Quote: Originally posted by Magpie

Mon dieu! What an interesting lab. What are the two machines in the 5th picture? Also, what is in the bottles with the yellow caps, same picture?

Hey !

The two machines are :
1. an old tautoli to test the melting points
2. a vacuum/temperature checker

The four bottles contain anhydrous methanol.

Quote:

methyl.magic, I see a rotovap and other excellent equipment. I see chems that must be handled in a fume hood. I do not see a fume hood.

Priorities??

Yes I know ! But last time I used these products I used the fume hood of the lab where I work every day. But now, I go out with the gas mask to fill the dropping funnel. Then I fit the reactor with this latter and I flush out with N2 to avoid breathing it. i've never had any problem but, of course I prefer working in a fume hood !

my lab

chemx01 - 13-6-2010 at 02:21

Hi everyone,
back in Czech republic i have my own little lab, we don't have so much sources like you in USA but i think i'ts pretty good for 16 years old boy

Hope you'll like it.
If you're interested in some of my videos you could watch them on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/chemx01

http://img683.imageshack.us/g/miniimg0003.jpg/

[Edited on 13-6-2010 by chemx01]

Mildronate - 18-6-2010 at 12:17

Where did you get that all soviet era labware?

Magpie - 18-6-2010 at 18:02

My aluminum fume hood has been in home chemistry service for 5 years now. I decided that it's time to take the two baffles out and inspect behind them and the mouth of the 8" diameter PVC outlet.

Everything was clean on the back of the hood (epoxy painted), and the PVC outlet was clear with no corrosion, particulates, or other debris. The only thing there was some soot from my attempts to make coke from coal. I had purposely left the two baffles as bare aluminum as an experiment. They did suffer some superficial damage from NaOH solutions and fumes. The baffles are now being painted with epoxy prior to reinstallation.

Below are pictures of the hood without the baffles and the baffles being epoxy coated.

hood outlet.jpg - 63kB

Mildronate - 16-8-2010 at 01:12

Here is glasware i had in my room. Soon i will make real lab with fume hood and more glasware :cool:

[Edited on 16-8-2010 by Mildronate]

new lab

Rogeryermaw - 18-8-2010 at 11:02

september is coming up and i have a few dollars to spend. i will be constructing my lab soon and i am curious as to advice or help that any of you may be able to offer. My list so far includes roughly $1500 to use for this purpose. i found a 8'x10' storage building for $250 and a glassware set for $300 that includes 2n3 neck boiling flasks, a vigreaux condenser, a liebig condenser, still head and several adaptors and keck clips, and a heating stirrer for $130 that gets to 320 Celsius. a will build my fume hood and have the price of it down to about $150. of course i will run power to the building but i already have the materials for that and more lighting than i know what to do with. running water is on the list but due to construction difficulties it will have to come later. any suggestions at this point will be greatly appreciated and well received. thank you all.

Gruson - 20-8-2010 at 10:20

I just bought two vacuum gas manifolds (schlenk lines) with intention of keeping one of them and selling the other, which would result in a free schlenk line.

But i am not setteled on which one I will keep. One is with all Normag teflon valves, and one is 50% normag valves and 50% glass valves. I like the glass valves for that you can see in which position the valve is, but I have heard that teflon valves seal off better. A person on a Dutch forum mentioned that you could open the teflon ones more graduately. What do you think?

[Edited on 8/20/2010 by Gruson]

[Edited on 8/20/2010 by Gruson]

peach - 20-8-2010 at 12:48

@magpie

Great to hear an update on a 5 year old hood. Do you work with corrosive gases very often in there? The rot brass / stainless kind. If you do, the epoxy seems to be doing a good job.

@gruson

That's a nice bit of glass, congradulations on the two!

Not got a schlenk myself, but I have read numerous posts and pages from people saying the glass stoppers used in these are usually precision ground, better than normal stoppers. The design is also laid out to feature a better cut off from the atmosphere than a simple through hole would. Instead, the stopper is hollow inside with one hole poking into the cavity; have a look and see if yours are like that (those green taps make me suspect it's Chemglass, and likely rather well made if so; though I don't see their snot green logo on there).

I can only speak from experience with PTFE and glass stoppers in sep funnels (the thru hole kind). The glass is easier to adjust the flow rates of. The PTFE has a tendency to jam because it doesn't expand and contract at the same rate as the glass around it, as others here have pointed out in other threads.

Those rotational stopcocks don't jam as easily (the PTFE is part of a plunger on the screw thread, not a friction fit element like the thru hole taps). If the others are the same, I expect they'll be okay. If they're the normal tap kind, I'd keep the glass.

Here's page with lots of pictures of the more specialized taps you can use as a reference on build quality (oblique stopcocks)

As he says, keep in mind that cocks like these are often ground to fit a specific female (awwww), so swapping them around won't help. I've seen people putting little blobs of coloured dye and such on these so they know which goes where if it needs taking apart.

I have two GL45 to B24 PTFE adaptors from NDS Technologies, who distribute solely (as far as I'm aware) through Sigma; they produce all that glass that screws together, with red screw elements (I think Klute may have a fair bit of that). The adapters cost a lot each, I seem to remember it coming out around a hundred for the pair by the time I got them. I still had a vigreux jam so tightly into it I had to bang the PTFE cone off with the screw cap, over a few weeks to avoid going overboard with the force.

Not only that, but the asshats didn't fit standard GL45 bottles (and they wouldn't refund them). I had to have the workshop at university spin them down on the lathe.

[Edited on 21-8-2010 by peach]

Magpie - 20-8-2010 at 16:00

Quote: Originally posted by peach

@magpie
Great to hear an update on a 5 year old hood. Do you work with corrosive gases very often in there? The rot brass / stainless kind. If you do, the epoxy seems to be doing a good job.

Yes, I have boiled off a fair amount of NOx/HNO3. I also have made bromine numerous times, which tends to initially overwhelm my condenser and shoot gaseous Br2 out at the vacuum adapter port. My catch pan is 304 ss and shows numerous splotches of discoloration. If they get too bad I remove them with kitchen scouring powder, sandpaper, or a 3M abrasive pad.

I haven't inspected the blower internals (epoxy coated steel) or the 304ss outlet plenum yet. That will take more effort.

[Edited on 21-8-2010 by Magpie]

Gruson - 21-8-2010 at 06:04

Thanks for the information and the link. I'll keep the one with all-teflon rotational valves.

peach - 21-8-2010 at 07:15

Quote:

My catch pan is 304 ss and shows numerous splotches of discoloration. If they get too bad I remove them with kitchen scouring powder, sandpaper, or a 3M abrasive pad.

I have a big (retired) kitchen stainless sink next to me that you may have seen in those pictures I posted in Sedit's thread. I suspect it's 304. Once a tiny amount of the HCl(g) starts making a break for it, it rots the jesus out of the 'stainless'. I'll take a photo of it's current state soon.

I guess you're probably far better off in those terms, because the airflow means the gas doesn't have time to hang around.

Have you got a carbon scubber on that hood?

Quote: Originally posted by pHzero

Just need some light (i was thinking of some low bay metal halides off ebay)
[Edited on 5-6-2009 by pHzero]

Arrrr don't buy them lar... kidda, fella, lad, mate... (can you guess where I live?)

If it already looks like a meth lab, adding halides will make it look like a stoned meth lab (the worst kind). Halides are the absolute tits for clear vision, but they'll ruin light sensitive work as well; labs (particularly silicon and biology ones) often have red / orange fluorescents they can switch on for that reason.

If you're a UK madhatter, I would strongly suggest you buy your lab hardware (fittings etc) from Toolstation.com. I will happily ramble on about them and provide them with free advertising. A third of the price of places like B&Q (cheaper than the other catalogs as well), next day free delivery on all orders over £10 before 6pm. They're open until 6. They're open on Sundays. To order in store, just go in, fill in the card (Argos style) and they'll get the parts together for you. There is a free vending machine in my local one as well. The place will be packed with all the trade guys, who you can get friendly with and ask for advice with weird things on. They also sell things like concentrated sulphuric, minus the detergents (which people like B&Q have stopped selling after some dumb woman burnt her face off with it, having not read the label).

I've seen those labels on your acetic before, I have one right here actually about two foot away. They feature some remarkably shit spelling, grammar and punctuation I think you'll agree on actually reading them. I was smiling like the Cheshire cat when I noticed it out of the corner of my eye on mine.

I have also ordered from Mistral (sp?), but only a 5kg tub of KOH I use for the washing up. I was going to pick something up soon to have a go at vanillin from eugenol using the #o1|) skoolZ# method, for the fun of it. As entropy says, I've had the 5kg tub for literally years, I just throw handfuls of it in as I clean the glass, which I do on a near daily basis. It's still the same tub. And it will most certainly begin sucking up atmosphere if I leave the lid off, I can see visible droplets forming on it within 10-30 minutes.

I'm all for a bit of mess (quite a lot of it actually), but you're going a touch overboard on it thar shipmate!

Actually;

Quote:

I might cycle down to homebase and get some £9.99 fluorescent tubes

The mention of cycling to Homebase to buy delicate, long, glass items makes me think you may live quite close by.

I'm 25, but I suspect you may be a bit younger still. Be careful with your friends at school around that kind of stuff. It'll look like a drug lab to them already (as per your mum's opinion), having stuff lying everywhere will make it worse. You's dern wanna have the boys in blue round for no reason, they hate having their time wasted. They've got a habit of damaging doors and harassing your furniture and fittings as well, which gets equally expensive. Teenagers love to chinese whisper 'the kewlz about drugs n'd bombz'. 'They'll' probably be wearing black, bulletproof vests and have guns if they visit. That's no fun at all, at 4am in the morning, whilst you're lying naked in bed. Better the nerd than the guy down £300 on a new PVC front door and with 'terrorism' on his CV.

If anyone is bothered about that, call up the local fire brigade and police and ask them to have a look round.

If you PM me with a rough idea of where you live, we might be able to meet up and you could make use of some of the things I have. But you're not borrowing them until you stop leaving stuff out on the grass.

Quote: Originally posted by pHzero

What's wrong with a bunsen?

It's an open ignition source, and a very good one at that too (better than the cigarettes I keep flicking around my garage as a I work. I'm not going to call it a lab, I've only seen one lab in this thread; I think we all know which one I'm referring to).

I had an arguement with entropy over acetone and fires. But a bunsen + solvent + heat requires a lot more care than a hotplate does.

Do a wiki / google all over the terms 'flashpoint' and 'autoignition'; they're two very different, very important things. Vapour pressure is another one to look at. And start using the NFPA 704 fire diamond (that colourful looking 'diamond' on the wikis) instead of the dimensionless hazard pictures.

I'm not having a go at you, they just do have issues when around solvents compared to a hotplate.

You can scavenge adjustable, fully functional, almost new surface top hotplates from the tip nowadays; everyone is throwing all their stuff away as fast as they can swipe the credit off the cards. The widescreen TV in the bedroom is from the tip. My gamecube was given to me. As was the £600 HiFi and the computer is the cheapest I could find.

Quote:

Oh and my spirit burner just melted a test tube along with the Zn inside it

Use glass next time.

I'm only teasing.

I've noticed numerous things in this thread that tell me at least a couple of you are in the UK. Glad to see some Tesco's shoppers (1 in every 8 pounds in the UK is spent as Tescos)! We should have a UK madness orgy at some point.

Quote: Originally posted by The_Davster

Nice ozonelabs, great to see there are still companies that have not given into fearmongering and will send a private citizen chlorine gas. For free nonetheless.

This warms my heart, it really does.

I'm not sure how much of a friendly present those are. These bottles are so badly corroded by the things in them, they're sold (even in the UK, were we rent most cylinders) with the bottle as well, and it goes in the bin when it's empty.

The age of them also suggests they're bin material they're trying to get rid of without paying the disposal charges on.

I was asking after a 220g lecture bottle of HCl last week. £140+, and they need a £500 Monel regulator, and a university VAT code, and a chat with the company's chemist usually (which can be very informative). So I expect those bottles are as much "deal with our hazardous commercial waste" as good will gifts.

Very nice to have them, but the motives are unlikely so good at heart.

Pictures of my garage will be on the way, lar..... kidda......

Personally, I want to see entropy and blogfasts workspace, arrrr yea!

Careful with those roto's guys, they're what the authorities term "ultra high tech advanced synthesis equipment".

John

[Edited on 21-8-2010 by peach]

entropy51 - 21-8-2010 at 08:07

Quote:

As entropy says, I've had the 5kg tub for literally years,

Actually my unit of time is decades, not years.

peach, it worries me that you use KOH for everyday cleaning. I use it when I need to, as a KOH/ethanol bath, but detergent works most of the time. KOH or NaOH in the eye can cause a devastating injury, much more quickly than can acid. Be careful!

Magpie - 21-8-2010 at 08:21

Quote: Originally posted by peach

I don't seem to have any trouble with con HCl. It's so obnoxious that I'm very careful with it and always have the hood fan on.

I have no scrubber. Dilution with air is my solution, ie, lots of cfm. I don't have anyone walking by my outlet as it is 15 feet in the air and on my property. Anything you put in your vent system causes pressure drop and must be considered in the design stage.

peach - 21-8-2010 at 08:24

Quote: Originally posted by Magpie

I don't seem to have any trouble with con HCl.

Not conc. HCl. The gas....

Quote: Originally posted by entropy51

peach, it worries me that you use KOH for everyday cleaning. I use it when I need to, as a KOH/ethanol bath, but detergent works most of the time. KOH or NaOH in the eye can cause a devastating injury, much more quickly than can acid. Be careful!

Quite, I am simply lazy and go straight to the KOH when I see the road tar appear.

Most of what I do is organic, and doesn't have a lot of references. Meaning I have to routinely deal with the brown / black mess that simply won't come off with normal cleaning. Particularly to an extent where I'd think "I'm happy to reuse that for experimental work".

Never had in my eyes, and I'm not wearing googles or taking what I would consider to be much care. The most depressing thing about KOH, in my experience, is that my hands look 60 years older if I don't put the gloves on.

I purposefully never use household detergents due to what they have the potential to do with regards to phase boundaries; coupled with their poor cleaning power. I'm measuring out milligrams of phase transfers to look at their properties, so having powerful surfactants and emulsifiers around is not good at all.

But yes, if you're not used to using it, getting it in the eyes is a possibility, and a very unpleasant one (that will likely require a hospital visit and result in permanent damage).

The worst I've had in my eyes was DCM.

To clean the glass, I start with KOH, rinse, go to conc. H2SO4, rinse, then Piranha.

[Edited on 21-8-2010 by peach]

Magpie - 21-8-2010 at 08:29

Quote: Originally posted by peach

Quite, I am simply lazy and go straight to the KOH when I see the road tar appear.

Lazy, or just the hubris of the young. Us old farts have lost that, mostly. And entropy, being an MD, has likely seen way too much pain and suffering already.

peach - 21-8-2010 at 08:32

Quote: Originally posted by Magpie

Lazy, or just the hubris of the young. Us old farts have lost that, mostly. And entropy, being an MD, has likely seen way too much pain and suffering already.

I've been doing it for years on a daily basis and never had a single problem, but for the ancient hands.

Not a single time have I had it in my eyes. I have more problems cutting up Chilli's for dinner and then wiping my eyes or touching my penis.

It's not the chemicals causing the problem, it's who's mixing them together. Now that I've been doing it for years, I handle it like it's washing up liquid. Piranha and HF is were I start thinking.... "uh oh....."

As I edited above, the HCl I'm working with is the gas, not hydrochloric. The gas is far worse in terms of corrosion; normal keck clips fall to bits in a minute or two (that's why Klute is using PTFE clips).

If you're not used to cleaning with at least weak KOH, there is a good chance (I'll admit) that you'll spray it in your eyes or otherwise burn yourself. What worries me are the videos on youtube suggesting Piranha and HF are in the same domain.

I've purposefully burnt myself with 35% H2O2 Piranha and inhaled HCl(g). I still hide when it comes to using it on a flask I've already KOH'd, rinsed, H2SO4, rinse'd etc, and HF is worse again. Those videos, trying to equate the two, are a joke. Going from a rinse with water or some dish soap to one of those two. Water is essential for life, a lot of soaps are safe for being in my eyes, dilute KOH stings a bit on open cuts, the others unexpectedly explode or kill you.

[Edited on 21-8-2010 by peach]

entropy51 - 21-8-2010 at 12:16

Quote: Originally posted by peach

I have more problems cutting up Chilli's for dinner and then wiping my eyes or touching my penis.

You might be a chemist if ... you wash your hands before using the bathroom.

peach - 21-8-2010 at 17:58

Quote: Originally posted by entropy51

You might be a chemist if ... you wash your hands before using the bathroom.

Piranha'ing my hands is about the only time they get a clean.

You've all been warned if you come round for dinner at any point...

psychokinetic - 21-8-2010 at 20:41

Thanks, peach. I really needed to think about

A: KOH + Penis
B: YOUR Penis.

peach - 21-8-2010 at 20:50

Quote: Originally posted by psychokinetic

Thanks, peach. I really needed to think about

A: KOH + Penis
B: YOUR Penis.

I'll send you a picture of both for £5...

I think I'd rather have the KOH on it over the Chilli's, I can wash the KOH off easily enough

cnidocyte - 22-8-2010 at 12:52

Very nice. I'm nearly embarrased to show my lab after seeing other peoples labs on sm. I don't have a garage or even a proper shed to build one unfortunately. I'll get pictures of my lab which is basically a fume hood and a few shelves when I figure out how to hook my phone up to the computer.

peach - 22-8-2010 at 13:20

Quote: Originally posted by cnidocyte

Very nice. I'm nearly embarrased to show my lab after seeing other peoples labs on sm. I don't have a garage or even a proper shed to build one unfortunately. I'll get pictures of my lab which is basically a fume hood and a few shelves when I figure out how to hook my phone up to the computer.

Having the computer sat right next to a big open surface with a sink where I'm working is the best.

I only just started doing it, and it makes it so much easier to get better results. Rather than walking away and coming back, I'll spend all day sat there, browsing the forum, the email, wikis and all that. And I can keep the reaction in sight out of the corner of my eye and stop anything unwanted as soon as it rears it's head.

I'm using a really old beaten up laptop.

Still works a dream for running the datalogger and checking numbers.

peach - 11-12-2010 at 03:20

I was searching around google and, again, SM shows up in the results.

But I was scrolling through, getting my gear porn fix for the day, and noticed something.

I have exactly the same Famous Scientists poster that's up on the wall.

DougTheMapper - 11-12-2010 at 13:13

I've been silent for too long. Here it goes:

This table sits in my parent's basement in the corner of the shop. The sink is very nice. I didn't have that three years ago.

Pretty standard reagents; nothing too nasty. This is about to change with the coming of my 19/22 distillation kit from DP. Elemental bromine is in the cards along with hydrazine sulphate, chloroform, conc. nitric acid, and glacial acetic. I have a fume hood but punching a hole in brick when it's two degrees outside is not fun... it's going to have to wait until spring. In the meantime, I can work in the garage where it's nice and cold.

I think we should all move into one apartment complex and make a SUPERLAB... we could make money synthesizing and shipping quality reagents online to amateur chemists everywhere.

Magpie - 12-12-2010 at 08:21

Very nice Doug. The A-1 steak sauce bottle is a nice touch. I also like the Tupperware lid catch pan. All you need now is your fume hood.

peach - 12-12-2010 at 12:16

I've also had exactly the same pair of scales before....

[Edited on 12-12-2010 by peach]

DougTheMapper - 12-12-2010 at 12:34

@magpie

Yep, I have a bunch of A1 bottles for storing photosensitive things like chloroform. I also love the sauce on just about everything edible.

Also, the catch pans aren't tupperware but borosilicate glass plates from the inside of microwave ovens I've taken apart for experiments. They're very sturdy and heat-resistant plates that are excellent for catching H2SO4 before it turns my tabletop to carbon. They'll also take a fair amount of fluid in the event of a spill and can handle anything my glassware can.

I'm currently getting to truly know the chem department at my school and they told me they'll contact me any time they're getting rid of equipment. I hope to acquire an analytical balance soon because my AWS scale can only measure up to 100g to .01g. I switched my major from mechanical engineering to chemistry last semester so I'm fairly sure my home lab is going to start getting awesome in the near future!

-DTM

peach - 13-12-2010 at 01:03

{edit}Like the vacuum pump posts, I am making this post as an attempt to highlight that not everything that glitters is gold. Laboratory balances that look scientific are good, but there are very good and usable things in your kitchen. You simply have to know what it can and can't do. In this investigation.... your wife / mums / gf's fat fighting kitchen scales and cheapo drug dealer pocket balances versus a 3k, calibrated, 40kg lab balance. Something important to note is that I have had the kitchen scales for over a decade. They've never been checked or calibrated, but they have had a serious battering - they were in a primary school at one point, enough said. The pocket scales, again, no checking, no calibration, years old, bits of agar stuck to them and so on. These are not special examples that I've cheated with, you can undoubtedly keep the scales in better condition than these have been kept as they were never intended for accurate work and have been used by countless people - some of them young enough they're still learning to write. To check them, all I did was pull them out of the cupboard, stick them on the surface beside the balance and start swapping masses between them.{/edit}

The red line is for this horrible looking cheapo thing.

The green line is for this Weight Watchers Calorie Counting digital kitchen scale. Not mine.... I swear...

The kitchen scales are on the left axis, the tiny pocket balance is on the right. The x-axis is random weights in grams. They're not entirely random, they're stacks of coins I put on the big balance, then took off and weighed on the other two.

The first thing that stunned me was how accurate the cheap, 0.01g scale was for that price! Less than 1% error at 0.01g for less than a tenner. The error is (for most practical intents) always positive as well, so you can predict that the error will give you slightly more material than less.

The next thing that's interesting is that the digital kitchen scale becomes far more accurate at about the end of the smaller one's range. So... the two together can produce good levels of accuracy when combined. A 100g pocket balance will be even more useful as it'll cover more of the range where the kitchen scale is off.

The kitchen scale error drops to 1% or less when the mass goes over 100g.

Answer.... use the drug dealer style pocket balance to 50 - 100g. Then switch to the kitchen scale. Don't use the kitchen scale for 3g, unless you're only after a rough guess. Those two will cost around a hundred times less than a new lab balance like this.

I have also weighed piles of change from a big jar and the accuracies of the coins is, again, remarkably good. It gets even better when multiple coins are used as one mass; as the errors are periodic, error canceling begins to function, and very well I would say as well.

I have graphs and tables for all these coins, and other methods like DIY balance beams made out rulers and splitting by eye, and will need to upload them when I get some time.

I'm checking these against this lump. That is the calibration sticker on the side and it's sitting on a granite platform with isolation feet under that.

You don't need that level of accuracy for most at home work. It only starts getting useful when dealing with micro chemistry. And most people don't seem too interested in that; e.g. working with 1ml of material. Balances like this are also trickier to use than a lot of people think. They won't display a stable reading (or any reading at all sometimes) if the balance is upset in anyway; e.g. if it's not been on for 24h, if the temperature in the room has changed too much, if the air pressure is changing (weather front coming over), if the sample is hydroscopic or the sample or container are electrostatically charged in anyway, or if there are any convection drafts and so on (it does it even with the door closed). They're also VERY easy to damage / knock off linear / calibration.

As with everything, the balance is only part of the picture. Trying to reflux / distill / transfer gram quantities or less is not as easy as it sounds. Transfer it badly, and the accuracy of the balance is essentially worthless. There is also the methodology used in an experiment. For example, it's not hard at all to change the yield of an experiment by more than a percent (it can go by tens of percentage) based purely on what you've chosen to use and how you've run it. Knowing the yield to 0.00000000000001% isn't much help if the tolerances on your hands and sense of judgment are off by 30%.

[Edited on 13-12-2010 by peach]

DougTheMapper - 13-12-2010 at 10:24

This is very interesting. I think one of these days I'll have to check the accuracy of my "drug dealer" 100g scale against an analytical balance in the lab at school and make a similar plot.

As for the cheap jewelery scale: buy the "Accurate Digital Jewellery Pocket Scale" next time

crazedguy - 13-12-2010 at 10:39

Peach I want your scale.

peach - 13-12-2010 at 12:17

If you post me YOUR scale, I could check it.

I doubt it's necessary though, they'll all be around that graph I expect. Most of the scales will be coming from one or two places in china making five billion different models, all with the same sensor in them. The sensors will certainly be coming from a small number of people.

The guy who sold me that thing worked in a cyrogenics lab for the air gas people, and now he's off messing around with 'nuclear liquor' as he put it; some stage of the processing at the local nuclear power plant (he was making some kind of racking system for the tanks to go on). I tried asking him for some of that too but, I couldn't have it.

But all those zeros are mainly wank fodder. They're not all that necessary for most work. If you don't get a boner looking at B14 glass and smaller, it's almost certainly too many zeros. B19 and 24, you'll be working with quantities that are a good percentage of that balance's limit. E.g. balances like these typically only read up to about 100g, or 200 on the dual mode models. And a typical B24 flask will be 250 to 2000ml.

Yarz need to appreciate the wonder of error canceling and significant figures. Doing multiples of something fairly inaccurate, but with a periodic error, can massively boost the overall accuracy.

Also, you can use dilution and other methods to get accuracies of that level. For example, if you want to very accurately measure out 0.1g of something, you can dissolve 1g of it in 10ml of solvent in a volumetric flask to make a stock solution, and then use a pipette to pick up the 1ml of solution. You can also check your stock solution with things like titration - using dilute solutions so the error of the burette makes less of a difference in the end result.

Apples and oranges, they're both fruit.

Going back to drug dealing scales...

The pharmaceutical companies do the same. They don't measure out the drugs per tablet, they measure a big bag (bin or truck) full of them, dump it in the mixer with the binders, spin it until it's very thoroughly mixed, press it into headache / flu / bum runs tablets, 5.) PROFIT! 6.) put in a placebo enhancing packet 7.) MEGA PROFIT!<---- the placebo effect, even for things as basic as paracetamol in a shiny wallet pack, is devastatingly powerful.***

And chemists do the same. The bench acid is a stock solution the technician has made from concentrated acid, then diluted down massively to give you an accurate standard to work from that's easy to measure.

***Read 'Bad Science' by Ben Goldacre, you will LOVE it.

[Edited on 13-12-2010 by peach]

crazedguy - 13-12-2010 at 20:57

http://www.americanpyrosupply.com/SCALES_AC_POWER_ADAPTERS-M...
That would be my scale, I just like yours because of all the zeros it would make me feel like a real scientist. That many zeros did almost give me a boner but after hearing it only goes to 100g kind of ruined it, I need a scale that measures more accurately my right now only does grams which is ok for now. I can't imagine any real uses for a microgram scale other then maybe making LSD or just showing off.

DougTheMapper - 14-12-2010 at 07:43

I have the American Weigh AMW-100 100x0.01g http://www.americanweigh.com/product_info.php?cPath=60&p...

The company actually puts up a tolerance of + or - 0.02g but I'm starting to find this hard to believe for a scale I bought for $17 on Amazon.com.

centigram balance

Steve_hi - 14-12-2010 at 15:37

I just received my centigram balance from homescience tools.
Looks nice and works great 200gm capacity 59$US.
comes with a 100gm weight batteries included.

Digital Scale, 200 g x 0.01 g
$79.95 $59.95
This digital scale provides 0.01g sensitivity! It is easier and faster to use than a mechanical bala

[img]//http://www.hometrainingtools.com/search.asp?ss=balance&x=26&y=23[/img]

ScienceSquirrel - 21-4-2011 at 12:55

Some time ago I promised that I would post a picture or two showing my brewing activities.
This picture shows the main area; on the bench from left to right is the 60 litre boiler, the 45 litre mash tun that will hold up to 15 kg of grain and a 23 litre barrel of beer.
Standing on the floor is a 40.5 litre barrel of beer that is waiting to go out for a party in early May.
There are more barrels under the bench and you can see the top of one of the 60 litre fermenters in the bottom left corner.

#maverick# - 21-4-2011 at 13:30

i wish you guys could see my mouth agape after looking at some of these labs, i will post my simple and kind of sad lab compared to you guys later

[Edited on 22-4-2011 by #maverick#]

bwpatton1 - 3-5-2011 at 19:08

I second maverick. These are amazing labs! When I finally get my lab hastily put together I will try to post a few pics.

Sedit - 3-5-2011 at 19:25

@DougTM.

I have to ask man, is that a torn apart MW under your workbench? I got two just like it

mashton - 4-5-2011 at 03:21

Wow, thanks to all who've posted pics here....I'd call this Lab Porn!!!

I need a lie down!!

benzylchloride1 - 7-12-2011 at 23:14

Here is a semi-complete tour of my lab, several new instruments are missing

My Perkin-Elmer 1310 dispersive infrared spectrophotometer and my Buchi RE, RE111 and vacuum box, quite recently added a recirculating chiller though, not in picture.

Some of my older chromatography equipment, recently upgraded
I dont have pictures of my Hewlett Packard GC, and Waters HPLC

A picture of me working in my hood.

My Perkin-Elmer Lambda 3B UV-Vis spectrophotometer

[Another view of my chromatography area

Leitz SM-LUX phase contrast microscope and UV-Vis spectrophotometers, Parr hydrogenator lurking below!

Dry box for air sensitive work

Distillation apparatus and Schlenk line

Balance area and flammable storage cabinet

[Edited on 8-12-2011 by benzylchloride1]

[Edited on 8-12-2011 by benzylchloride1]

benzylchloride1 - 7-12-2011 at 23:29

I ran out of space, here is my oldest gas chromatograph and the crown jewel, my Hitachi R 1200 60 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer

Way too much equipment, but so little time due to grad school

[Edited on 8-12-2011 by benzylchloride1]

[Edited on 8-12-2011 by benzylchloride1]

[Edited on 8-12-2011 by benzylchloride1]

Magpie - 8-12-2011 at 08:33

Very nice! It looks like you are ready to go into business for yourself once you finish grad school.

Is that a butcher's table you have for your balance? Where is your lab located - in your parents' house? If so, you have very supportive parents.

Arthur Dent - 8-12-2011 at 10:19

@BenzylChloride1:

Amazing list of equipment! Far beyond what the typical hobby chemistry setup that most of us have. I have a nice collection of glassware but no analytical tools, even in the used market, these pieces of gear are outrageously expensive for my modest means. The only electrical gear I have is an antique fischer hotplate and a balance with an accuracy of .1g

I particularly love your dry box module and rotovap, both of which I deam of owning one day.

Robert

benzylchloride1 - 8-12-2011 at 23:06

The balance table is a spare butchers block, it works pretty well. I am a big fan of the old Mettler single-pan balances, they can be obtained for a song and run circles around the newer electronic scales. I weigh chemicals much faster on my old Mettler then I can on the newer electronic balances in my research group. I will have to buy an electronic scale for my glove box though when I get it running, since a mechanical balance would be extremely hard to use in a glove box. I have most of the parts for the dry train, I just have to get a solenoid valve, and a photohelic gauge to control the nitrogen. I think a GC-MS will be the next major purchase after I get all of the other equipment running. Currently, my lab is located in my parents unfinished basement. I think that I have put approximately $8000 to $12000 into my lab, since I got into grad school, I have been able to spend about $300 per month on equipment, which goes a long ways. Ebay is not always the best source for equipment, It pays greatly to visit the surplus stores of major universities. I have a ton of other equipment that is not shown in the pictures such as glassware, furnaces, drying ovens, mantles, high vacuum equipment, an ion chromatograph, a complete Waters HPLC, large scale photochemical reactor, spinning band distillation equipment, recirculating chillers and water baths, A FTIR, and loads of useful chemicals. A rotovap is a must have if you have any major synthetic projects planned. The excessive amount of equipment is needed for some of the projects that I am working on such as the total synthesis of taxol, which I have been working on for about a year and a half.

[Edited on 9-12-2011 by benzylchloride1]

Maus - 22-12-2011 at 16:58

Nice collection.

Looks like you also have a Perkin Elmer 467 grating IR under that bench you have the 1310 on.

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/files.php?pid=229476&...

How much of the stuff actually works and is set to go? I bet you have some issues to sort out on a few. Could you describe some of the things on your to-do list?

[Edited on 23-12-2011 by Maus]

benzylchloride1 - 24-12-2011 at 22:51

Most of the equipment is in working order, the 1310 IR and both UV-Vis spectrophotometers run. The 467 IR is unrepairable, since the specialty thermocouple is unavailable, I tried for several years to find parts to get it to run, thats why I bought the 1310 IR which does not use a thermocouple, but a pyroelectric detector. The Gow Mac 150 gas chromatograph works quite nicely. The NMR spectrometer still needs to be moved somewhere where it will not be too cold to operate since it is in my garage. I still need to purchase several gas cylinders for one of my other gas chromatographs and also I have not determined the best way to run the dry box. I also have several HPLCs that I am in the process of obtaining parts to get them fully functional. The RE model rotovap is in good working condition and the RE 111 needs a teflon ring that goes inside of the condenser. I have found it cheapest to just buy equipment, rather then to build my own stuff and less time consuming, which allows me to spend more time working on chemistry. Often equipment is outrageously expensive on Ebay at first glance, but one has to look for the deals that appear from time to time.

smaerd - 29-12-2011 at 20:52

benzylchloride1 your lab is a jaw-dropper! Invite me over

.

This is why I love this forum. Reminds me I'm not the only student stacking equipment and glass in the basement

.

With all that analytical equipment you should run samples for fellow amateurs and makes some $ on the side!

Hexavalent - 1-1-2012 at 06:43

Quote: Originally posted by Magpie

I gave up on trying to store my strong HCL (36% muriatic) in my lab in the garage. It was corroding all my steel tools. So I placed it in my outside shed where I keep my solvents. This is not the perfect solution either as the HCl vapors are attacking my lawn mower and steel shelving somewhat.

Shouldn't you say 'I gave up on trying to store my concentrated HCl . . .'?

pKa and Ka doesn't change much even with the addition of water.

mr.crow - 1-1-2012 at 10:42

I haven't had any problem storing HCl. I keep it in a glass bottle with polycone cap, inside a bag, inside a cardboard box with a container of baking soda.

smaerd - 1-1-2012 at 12:48

This might sound ghetto but I do a wrap of duct tape around the lid, and haven't had any problems.

Mildronate - 1-1-2012 at 16:56

i also have some instrumental analysis aparatus:
polarograph,
flame photometer,
photometer,
potentiostat,
Culonometric integrator,
several pH meters, jonometers,
had one 12 chanel chart recorder and one x y recorder, i also had data logger, oscillocope, severall precision voltmeters, potentiometer. Last thing what i got is 50L. Several years i think about chemistry business, bu i have no ideas to my mind its not so easy, of course you had analytical equipment but its not sertificated, also in this moment i am undergraduate. I live in post soviet country i can get here equipment very easaly bunch of old unworking factorys, and i get many old aparatus from several months ago university. Of course its not easy to repair all

my lab 3 weeks in

Raptureisbliss - 24-1-2012 at 10:14

Wood frame.
Inlets air foils of PVC pipe on upper and lower interior.
baffle with 1 7/8" holes, with plugs to adjust air flow if necessary.
Epoxy coated wood. Tile floor with lip.

42" x 48" x 24"

8" 650 CFM centrifugal fan

Face velocity = flow rate / opening area at 18" height x 48" width
Face velocity = 650 Ft^3 / 6 Ft^2
Face velocity = 108.33 Ft/(min-thanks for correction) "ideal"
with drag, inefficiencies... face velocity is in acceptable range for fume clearance.. 80-100 Ft/min

[Edited on 25-1-2012 by Raptureisbliss]

Bot0nist - 24-1-2012 at 10:46

Very nice rapture! I'm jealous. Can't wait to see some of your work.

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