Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Elemental Scientific 20% Off!!!

*FWOOSH* - 11-4-2014 at 19:24

Got an email saying Elemental Scientific's been bought out and they're offering 20% off online with the discount code "Spring2014".

Thought I should share.

Edit: For those who are unaware Elemental Scientific sells Acetic Anhydride, among many other hard to obtain chemicals. ~$22 for 16 fl oz (~475 ml). So that's a quart (~950ml) of acetic anhydride for ~$36 after discount before shipping :D

[Edited on 12-4-2014 by *FWOOSH*]

elementcollector1 - 11-4-2014 at 21:07

Noooo!
If only I had money...

*FWOOSH* - 11-4-2014 at 23:06

The code's valid until May 1st, go mow a couple lawns :D

plante1999 - 12-4-2014 at 02:11

Sad that everything shipped with any of the private carrier from USA to Canada get atrocious "custom fee" that generally resemble at 20$+ 50% of the item value.

Zyklon-A - 12-4-2014 at 06:02

I'll definitely be buying from them soon.

The Volatile Chemist - 14-4-2014 at 08:24

I was thinking... (Not a good thing, but doesn't happen too often)

When I checked elemental scientific, they had a lot of nice things, but they were rather expensive (B/f this discount) If their prices are just for profit, and not b/c the products are high quality/High purity (I've heard otherwise, specifically regarding NaF), then we could organize a hold-back of purchasing, effectively lowering their prices :) (Supply and demand)

Yell if me if I'm being mean, wrong, silly, logic doesn't work, etc. but I'm just joking around on the subject, I've never ordered anything from them.

Etaoin Shrdlu - 14-4-2014 at 09:57

I was just about to remark on this myself. While I was looking through to make an order I noticed that some of the prices have jumped, and one can check out the beaker pages for a rather interesting example.

Here's just one in particular. They all work out the same.

Original price from the list in the description: $2.95
Current price: $3.54

$2.95 * 1.2 = $3.54

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

(I don't like it when people imply I can't do math.)

image.jpg - 101kB

EDIT: Okay, okay, in all fairness I have to admit it could be sheer coincidence that the price increase is exactly the same as the amount of the sale (That doesn't work out to identical profit, btw, sales department). But it's...really throwing me for a loop since I wanted glassware. Can anyone comment on what the chemical prices were before the buyout? Are they holding steady?

[Edited on 4-14-2014 by Etaoin Shrdlu]

*FWOOSH* - 14-4-2014 at 13:39

I think chem prices are holding fairly steady, I bought a couple things from them a while back and the prices seem about the same.

And as far as holding out goes, I think several reagents are synthesized on the spot as needed. Others they order as needed. Based on a couple conversations I had with them.

[Edited on 14-4-2014 by *FWOOSH*]

copperastic - 15-4-2014 at 05:29

When i went to my cart and entered the code it said 20 percent of o dollars and i had 40 dollars of stuff? Is the discount over?

sbbspartan - 15-4-2014 at 11:55

Quote: Originally posted by copperastic  
When i went to my cart and entered the code it said 20 percent of o dollars and i had 40 dollars of stuff? Is the discount over?


According to the email they sent me, the discount will last until May 1st.

Also, it looks like most of the chem prices are the same. However, a few have jumped up a bit. The 16 oz of nitric acid used to be $10 and now it is about $12.

Elemental's new owner looks like a con-man!

Artemus Gordon - 18-4-2014 at 15:51

Quote: Originally posted by sbbspartan  

Also, it looks like most of the chem prices are the same. However, a few have jumped up a bit. The 16 oz of nitric acid used to be $10 and now it is about $12.


Nope. I have a hard copy of ES's price list from July 2013, and I'm sorry to say EVERY price I have checked is exactly 20% higher.

First, this makes me question whether the new owners really will be committed to keeping prices down. I doubt that wholesale prices for EVERYTHING from Graham condensers to mossy zinc to KNO3 to reagent grade nitric acid to 3 inch medicine droppers ALL went up in that time.

Second, this 20% off "sale" is a big phony. They raised the prices 20% so they could advertise a big discount without actually cutting anything. (That's not precisely true, a 20% increase followed by a 20% decrease does actually reduce the original price by 4%, but it still looks like a deliberate act of deception to me.)

I am going to email them that I think they look pretty slimy at this stage, and I urge all of you to do it too.

Etaoin Shrdlu - 18-4-2014 at 17:53

I already have an e-mail open with them regarding the sale somehow only applying to one item in my order, so when they respond I'll bring this up as well.

tomholm - 18-4-2014 at 18:39

Quote: Originally posted by Artemus Gordon  
Quote: Originally posted by sbbspartan  

Also, it looks like most of the chem prices are the same. However, a few have jumped up a bit. The 16 oz of nitric acid used to be $10 and now it is about $12.


Nope. I have a hard copy of ES's price list from July 2013, and I'm sorry to say EVERY price I have checked is exactly 20% higher.

First, this makes me question whether the new owners really will be committed to keeping prices down. I doubt that wholesale prices for EVERYTHING from Graham condensers to mossy zinc to KNO3 to reagent grade nitric acid to 3 inch medicine droppers ALL went up in that time.

Second, this 20% off "sale" is a big phony. They raised the prices 20% so they could advertise a big discount without actually cutting anything. (That's not precisely true, a 20% increase followed by a 20% decrease does actually reduce the original price by 4%, but it still looks like a deliberate act of deception to me.)

I am going to email them that I think they look pretty slimy at this stage, and I urge all of you to do it too.


"No good deed goes unpunished."

Hi All,

Hope you don't mind if I chime in here. As new owners of Elemental Scientific, we raised prices on most products in February. The previous owners had not raised prices on many products for quite some time and were planning on raising prices prior to the sale of the company. Once we got ourselves organized to the point where we thought we could respond adequately to orders, we decided to have a site-wide sale to encourage previous and new customers to give us a try. Fortunately, that has worked pretty well and we've been able to serve many new customers.

I'd also like to comment on prices. As many of you know (you've done your research), that Elemental's prices are still generally much lower than the competition. Elemental's Nitric Acid (70%), a previously mentioned example, at $11.99, is considerably less expensive than Carolina Biological ($21.10 - $28.50) or Sigma-Aldrich ($64.60). I don't know that we offer the lowest price on everything, but we do our best and will price our products with an eye on staying in business.

Additionally, when selling chemicals in small quantities, the cost of the product itself is sometimes over-shadowed by the cost of the packaging and the cost of the labor. Unfortunately, the costs of packaging and labor have gone up.

One final point. Probably the biggest complaint that I've heard about Elemental Scientific is that they were slow in processing orders. We are working very hard to change that and reduce the processing time from weeks to days. These improvements do cost more by requiring additional inventory and labor.

I hope that all of you give Elemental a try and take advantage of the current, site-wide sale. Once this current sale is over, I expect that we will be offering more "item specific" sales focusing on overstock items, rather than site-wide sales. We are working hard to not only earn your business, but also earn your respect.

Happy Easter to All!

Tom
Elemental Scientific

Funkerman23 - 19-4-2014 at 11:04

Higher prices may suck a bit but having a place that WILL sell to us is a deal I can live with. I haven't forgotten that your company had the 400C thermometers in stock and shipped to me. No one else either would sell or ship to me as I am just a student. I look forward to buying from y'all. Only thing I do wonder though is if your company would ever sell the 2.4 liter amounts. But there are other sources if I need that much anyway.

Crowfjord - 19-4-2014 at 12:28

Question for tomholm/Elemental Scientific :

On the Elemental Scientific web page, all of the amounts are listed in ounces. Are we to assume that those are volumes for liquids and weights for solids, or is it just one or the other for all chemicals?

elementcollector1 - 19-4-2014 at 13:30

It would appear, judging from my previous orders, that items are either listed in fluid ounces (volume) or ounces (weight). Thus, 4 *fluid* ounces of CeO2, for example, would afford you roughly 864g of cerium dioxide, which is most certainly not what I received, whereas 4 ounces of cerium dioxide is roughly 113.4g, a much more reasonable estimate.

tomholm - 20-4-2014 at 08:44

Quote: Originally posted by Crowfjord  
Question for tomholm/Elemental Scientific :

On the Elemental Scientific web page, all of the amounts are listed in ounces. Are we to assume that those are volumes for liquids and weights for solids, or is it just one or the other for all chemicals?


Yes, most of the chemicals are currently sold in ounces where solids measured as weight and liquids measure as volume (US measurement where 16 oz = pint). That said, we are in the process of converting over to the metric system where the products will be sold by the gram or the milliliter or liter.

During the transition period, you may order 25 g of a chemical and we may ship the approximate equivalent in ounces ( 1 oz), or 500 ml is approximately equivalent to 16 oz.

Hope this addresses your question.


Hi Tom

Artemus Gordon - 23-4-2014 at 15:23

Sorry for the delay in posting this.

As a former owner of a small business myself, I fully appreciate how you are at the the mercy of price pressures that are beyond your control. However, I would like to point out that communication is a big part of good customer service. If you had stated on your sale email the facts you posted here, you could have avoided a lot of ill-feeling (and I could have avoided digging out my old price list to try to figure out what had happened).

Anyway, water under the bridge. Thanks for keeping Elemental as a going concern and thanks for your support of the amateur chemist community!

Still Learning...

tomholm - 24-4-2014 at 13:57

Thanks for the feedback. We're still learning, so hopefully we will communicate and proceed more effectively in the future.

One thing I've learned so far is that this seems to be a pretty active forum that offers good insight and advice. With that in mind, I've got some questions:

1. Are there items that you would like to see added to our website, www.elementalscientific.net?

2. The previous owners charged $2 for a printed catalog. Considering that it costs $1.61 in postage, plus printing and labor to assemble it, we're considering the following options:

a. Replace the printed version with an electronic, PDF version
b. Eliminate the catalog all-together and just rely on our web site
c. Just provide an electronic list of the chemicals available in a PDF format that customers could print.
d. Increase the price of the printed catalog to $3-$4.

Any preference?

3. I expect to begin a sale for selling some overstock items (glassware & chemicals) next month. Would it be helpful to post a list of those items on this discussion board or is the web site sufficient?

4. Are there other discussion boards/web sites that you think would benefit from knowing about the sales items?

Thanks for your input.


plante1999 - 24-4-2014 at 14:05

Canadian members would like to have easy transaction with your company.

PDF would be better, or only online based services would be prefered.

Artemus Gordon - 24-4-2014 at 15:02

I like the PDF (full catalog) idea. I asked for a printed version with my last order because it is hard to just browse the online store. Also, I'd like to see more pictures of apparatus.
Another thing that would be good, although it may take a lot of manpower to implement, is if we could search for chemicals by formula, in addition to name.

As for the overstock sale, I hope you will have a special page on your site that lists all the sale items. Adding the list here too would be nice, but not vital. If it's a big hassle to have a sale page on your site, then please do make a list here so I can browse all the items at one view.

[Edited on 24-4-2014 by Artemus Gordon]

Still Learning...

tomholm - 24-4-2014 at 20:22

Thanks for the feedback. We're still learning, so hopefully we will communicate and proceed more effectively in the future.

One thing I've learned so far is that this seems to be a pretty active forum that offers good insight and advice. With that in mind, I've got some questions:

1. Are there items that you would like to see added to our website, www.elementalscientific.net?

2. The previous owners charged $2 for a printed catalog. Considering that it costs $1.61 in postage, plus printing and labor to assemble it, we're considering the following options:

a. Replace the printed version with an electronic, PDF version
b. Eliminate the catalog all-together and just rely on our web site
c. Just provide an electronic list of the chemicals available in a PDF format that customers could print.
d. Increase the price of the printed catalog to $3-$4.

Any preference?

3. I expect to begin a sale for selling some overstock items (glassware & chemicals) next month. Would it be helpful to post a list of those items on this discussion board or is the web site sufficient?

4. Are there other discussion boards/web sites that you think would benefit from knowing about the sales items?

Thanks for your input.


Crowfjord - 24-4-2014 at 20:50

@ tomholm:

It would be nice if elemental scientific sold diglyme (diethylene glycol dimethyl ether). I have been having trouble finding a source for it. Also, I found it strange that elemental sells lithium aluminum hydride, but neither diethyl ether nor tetrahydrofuran with which to use it. I believe that it would make sense to do so.

Praxichys - 25-4-2014 at 04:59

Hi Tom,

Quick sugestion:

It would be nice if Elemental could act as a proxy through which we could buy chemicals from sites that do not sell to individuals, for a fee.

For instance, if you had an account with Sigma-Aldrich, we could fill out a form on Elemental's webpage requesting a purchase. They ship to you, you ship it to us, and we pay you whatever sigma charged you plus 5%, or something like that.

Sometimes, stuff is just too exotic for anyone but the big guys to supply... I have been looking for cyanuric chloride lately but my only option seems to buy a kilo from overseas since nobody else ships to individuals. Sigma has 500g for $20, and I would gladly pay someone 20% markup to ship it to me, for instance.

Zyklon-A - 25-4-2014 at 06:38

I second Praxichys' suggestion, ordering from Sigma-Aldrich indirectly would be very great!

Special Order on Chemicals

tomholm - 25-4-2014 at 06:58

Thanks to all for the suggestions. Keep them coming and I'll do my best to address them.

Elemental can and does order chemicals from Sigma-Aldrich, Fisher Scientific, and others for chemicals that we may not typically stock. Because these are custom, they may take a little longer and incur some additional shipping charges. At this time, you can call (651-646-5339) or email us (info@elementalscientific.net) to inquire about a custom order.

I'm hearing that there may be enough of a demand for this that we should try to develop an easier method for placing such an order on our web site. I will look into this.

tomholm - 25-4-2014 at 07:23

Quote: Originally posted by Funkerman23  
Higher prices may suck a bit but having a place that WILL sell to us is a deal I can live with. I haven't forgotten that your company had the 400C thermometers in stock and shipped to me. No one else either would sell or ship to me as I am just a student. I look forward to buying from y'all. Only thing I do wonder though is if your company would ever sell the 2.4 liter amounts. But there are other sources if I need that much anyway.


Thanks for being a customer. I believe we still have some of those mercury thermometers that we can still sell outside of MN. Also, we can sell larger quantities. Depending on what it is, it may require hazardous shipping charges or multiple packages.

MrHomeScientist - 25-4-2014 at 12:15

That's great to see a representative of the company posting here; good to see you are involved with your community of customers.

I wanted to say that, while I have heard good things about them, I never ordered from Elemental Scientific. This is because of the extremely long turn-around time for orders, often on the order of several months. I'd rather buy from other sources than have to wait that long in most cases. Good to see you mentioned it, and hopefully you'll address this in the near future!

Zyklon-A - 25-4-2014 at 12:42

They are shipping much faster now though, around a week or two tops, I believe.
Quote: Originally posted by tomholm  


Our move is nearly complete and we are now processing orders much more quickly. Our goal is to maintain a larger inventory of prepared chemicals and process orders within 1-3 days.


[Edited on 25-4-2014 by Zyklonb]

Pickardjr - 25-4-2014 at 17:11

Elemental scientific has been sold. Been good workin with ya Alan, thanks for all the years of service.

Rogeryermaw - 26-4-2014 at 10:07

tert butyl alcohol would be nice.

BobD1001 - 26-4-2014 at 10:39

Quote: Originally posted by Rogeryermaw  
tert butyl alcohol would be nice.


If you are referring to this for use in the elemental potassium preparation T-Amyl Alcohol is a much better choice. Having performed the reaction many times with both tertiary alcohols I can affirm that 2-Methy-Butanol (T-Amyl) works wonders for reaction time and consistency. T-Butyl would work sometimes, and other times produce nothing. These reactions were all done using ultra high purity, very low oxide magnesium turnings freshly prepared on my mill.

Rogeryermaw - 29-4-2014 at 09:54

Quote: Originally posted by BobD1001  
If you are referring to this for use in the elemental potassium preparation T-Amyl Alcohol is a much better choice. Having performed the reaction many times with both tertiary alcohols I can affirm that 2-Methy-Butanol (T-Amyl) works wonders for reaction time and consistency. T-Butyl would work sometimes, and other times produce nothing. These reactions were all done using ultra high purity, very low oxide magnesium turnings freshly prepared on my mill.


yes i was and thank you! elemental, however, does not carry it either. they have the primary amyl alcohol but do not list the tertiary. any other publicly available source for that?

[Edited on 29-4-2014 by Rogeryermaw]

Rogeryermaw - 2-5-2014 at 12:55

i just placed an order for sulfuric acid, lead oxide and resorcinol. don't know if tom is still reading this but my mouse finger was faster than my brain. i ordered lead dioxide by mistake and meant to order the mono. can this be corrected before shipping? i did submit an email on the site and tried to call but the store was closed by then.

need the lead oxide for a lead styphnate synthesis. trying to load my own rifle primers.

Your order

tomholm - 3-5-2014 at 06:32

Quote: Originally posted by Rogeryermaw  
i just placed an order for sulfuric acid, lead oxide and resorcinol. don't know if tom is still reading this but my mouse finger was faster than my brain. i ordered lead dioxide by mistake and meant to order the mono. can this be corrected before shipping? i did submit an email on the site and tried to call but the store was closed by then.

need the lead oxide for a lead styphnate synthesis. trying to load my own rifle primers.


Yes, got your email and will make the change to your order.
Thanks for ordering and good luck with the primers.

Rogeryermaw - 3-5-2014 at 07:53

thank you for your help. and thanks for keeping elemental alive. we have a hard enough time fueling our hobby. losing this valuable resource would hurt like a physical blow.

tomholm - 6-5-2014 at 14:19

Quote: Originally posted by Praxichys  
Hi Tom,

Quick sugestion:

It would be nice if Elemental could act as a proxy through which we could buy chemicals from sites that do not sell to individuals, for a fee.

For instance, if you had an account with Sigma-Aldrich, we could fill out a form on Elemental's webpage requesting a purchase. They ship to you, you ship it to us, and we pay you whatever sigma charged you plus 5%, or something like that.

Sometimes, stuff is just too exotic for anyone but the big guys to supply... I have been looking for cyanuric chloride lately but my only option seems to buy a kilo from overseas since nobody else ships to individuals. Sigma has 500g for $20, and I would gladly pay someone 20% markup to ship it to me, for instance.


I can special order cyanuric chloride in 250 g quantities. Probably cost around $23 - $25 plus shipping. Unfortunately, this product requires Hazardous Shipping charges which can easily add another $60 in shipping costs.

This illustrates the problem with many special orders. Many require hazardous shipping charges - both from my suppliers and when shipped out to the customer and they don't qualify for Limited Quantity exemptions. The costs quickly add up for small quantities.

Good news is you can get it. Bad news is it gets expensive.



Elemental Scientific

1 oz quantities

tomholm - 17-5-2014 at 07:56


You all have been giving me some pretty good insights, so I want to run another question by you. Elemental Scientific currently sells most of its chemicals in 1, 4 and 16 oz sizes. Many of these 1 oz quantities sell for less than $2-$3. As you might suspect, Elemental loses money on each of these sales when accounting for product, packaging, labor and storage costs.

Obvious options are to eliminate the 1 oz sizes entirely (except in special items that are very expensive), or significantly increase the cost of the 1 oz sizes to cover the costs. In many cases there would not be much difference in price between 1 oz and 4 oz sizes.

Question: Can you think of other reasons to keep the 1 oz and 4 oz sizes along with slight differences in prices?

Thanks for the input.

Etaoin Shrdlu - 17-5-2014 at 10:38

Don't bother keeping them for the cheaper chemicals. It already makes way more sense to buy the 4 oz sizes of most of those.

elementcollector1 - 17-5-2014 at 10:56

Yeah, I never buy 1oz.

Artemus Gordon - 19-5-2014 at 13:55

Quote: Originally posted by tomholm  

Question: Can you think of other reasons to keep the 1 oz and 4 oz sizes along with slight differences in prices?

Thanks for the input.


Are you planning on keeping the chemical sets? I bought the Standard set a while ago and the Advanced set is due to arrive tomorrow (Yay!). Being a noobie, I'm not sure which chems I need a lot of or just a little, so I really like the sets as a starting point. Going forward though, I expect to mostly order larger sizes.

Do the 1oz sizes allow you to avoid hazard shipping charges? That would be a good reason.

Another reason would be for chems that have a relatively short shelf life. Even if it cost the same for 4 oz as for 1 oz, I'd rather not have to dispose of spoiled chems if I couldn't use it all up in time.

Also, small bottles might help to mollify chem-phobic parents. Plus, they are safer and easier for small kids to handle (with adult supervision, of course).


[Edited on 19-5-2014 by Artemus Gordon]

The Volatile Chemist - 19-5-2014 at 16:18

Quote: Originally posted by Artemus Gordon  
Quote: Originally posted by tomholm  

Question: Can you think of other reasons to keep the 1 oz and 4 oz sizes along with slight differences in prices?

Thanks for the input.


Are you planning on keeping the chemical sets? I bought the Standard set a while ago and the Advanced set is due to arrive tomorrow (Yay!). Being a noobie, I'm not sure which chems I need a lot of or just a little, so I really like the sets as a starting point. Going forward though, I expect to mostly order larger sizes.

Do the 1oz sizes allow you to avoid hazard shipping charges? That would be a good reason.

Another reason would be for chems that have a relatively short shelf life. Even if it cost the same for 4 oz as for 1 oz, I'd rather not have to dispose of spoiled chems if I couldn't use it all up in time.

Also, small bottles might help to mollify chem-phobic parents. Plus, they are safer and easier for small kids to handle (with adult supervision, of course).


[Edited on 19-5-2014 by Artemus Gordon]


You really have some good points here. I have, when ordering chemicals, only bought the 1oz. size (In my case actually 30g.). Indeed it does help with parental problems, eg. when my parents saw that I had ordered 30g ea. of BaNO3 and NaHSO4 (Corrosive, poison, and ox. warnings) it helped that all compounds were in small amounts. I have found a supplier I trust, so the only time I'd go to Elemental is for specialty stuff, so I'd always want it in small amounts. But I am yet to be a customer, so you needn't worry meeting my needs.

My order arrived last night!

Artemus Gordon - 21-5-2014 at 10:05

It was well packed and everything arrived in good shape.

Calculating turn-around time is a bit difficult - I placed my order on May 1, but I was out of town for a few days so I asked them to not ship until after May 11. They shipped it on May 14, so if they just held my order until after the 11th, then they turned it around in 2 days. However there are about 40 bottles of chemicals, plus several pieces of glassware and equipment, so I suspect they had to take more than 2 days to assemble everything. So actual turn-around time is somewhere between 2 and 9 business days. No matter how you calculate it, this is way faster than the old Elemental. So, good job Tom Holm! And thanks!

[Edited on 21-5-2014 by Artemus Gordon]

Thanks!

tomholm - 22-5-2014 at 13:04

Thanks, Artemus! I know we are far from perfect, but I also know that we will improve as we make adjustments to the business. Positive feedback is always welcome and appreciated.


Elemental Scientific Memorial Day Sale!

tomholm - 24-5-2014 at 08:10

In case any of you are not on our mailing list (if not, you should be!), Elemental Scientific is having a Memorial Day Sale. Use code "memorial14" at bmelabandscience.com/store or elementalscientific.net/store until June 1st for $10 off any order of $50 or more.

Enjoy the Holiday!

The_Davster - 24-5-2014 at 08:58

Hi Tom,

Just wanting to thank you for being so supportive of the community. You were a major source of reagents to me many years ago, and instrumental in getting me where I am today professionally.

Customer Success Stories

tomholm - 27-5-2014 at 10:04

I always enjoy hearing about customer success stories (sometimes the unsuccessful ones are even more interesting). I believe there is still the next "sticky note glue" or "rust remover" out there waiting to be discovered by a home-based chemist/inventor. Glad to support those ventures and good to hear from long-time customers. Feel free to U2U me anytime - love to hear more about your work.

Overstock Sale!

tomholm - 4-6-2014 at 19:55

Just want to let you all know that Elemental Scientific is putting some of its overstock items on sale in its Overstock Category. This is a great opportunity to stock up on supplies for your lab.

We will continue to add items, glassware, clamps, pipettes, and chemicals, so keep checking to see what's new! Sale will continue while supplies last.

Order Time

PeterBunsen - 6-6-2014 at 19:56

Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb  
They are shipping much faster now though, around a week or two tops, I believe.
Quote: Originally posted by tomholm  


Our move is nearly complete and we are now processing orders much more quickly. Our goal is to maintain a larger inventory of prepared chemicals and process orders within 1-3 days.


[Edited on 25-4-2014 by Zyklonb]


My order payment cleared the bank on April24th. I am still waiting for the order six weeks later. I am a patient guy but what gives?:(

Acetic Anhydride

tomholm - 9-6-2014 at 05:33

Quote:


My order payment cleared the bank on April24th. I am still waiting for the order six weeks later. I am a patient guy but what gives?:(


Thanks for letting me know about your order. This also gives me a chance to let everyone know that Acetic Anhydride is extremely difficult to acquire at this time. I believe it may be tied to increased regulation due to its DEA listing as a chemical used to produce controlled substances. As a result, it has been on back order for some time and is currently scheduled to come in at the end of the month. Still, no excuse for not contacting you and letting you know the status of your order.

So, anyone else out there anticipating a need for acetic anhydride, you might want to get your order in soon. I'm just not sure what the availability will be in the future.

mr.crow - 10-6-2014 at 18:44

Thanks for running such a neat store. There used to be a local science store in Toronto that could order stuff from Fisher Sci for me, but they had to close unfortunately. Hard to make a living selling science toys :(

Can you do shipping to Canada? I'm also sad its such a pain in the ass to deal between these two countries.

tomholm - 10-6-2014 at 21:11

Quote: Originally posted by mr.crow  
Thanks for running such a neat store. There used to be a local science store in Toronto that could order stuff from Fisher Sci for me, but they had to close unfortunately. Hard to make a living selling science toys :(

Can you do shipping to Canada? I'm also sad its such a pain in the ass to deal between these two countries.


I will certainly concur that it is difficult to make a living selling science toys. (Not too many easy ways to make a living anymore...) While there are some very enthusiastic scientists out there, they tend to be relatively small numbers representing a broad number of niches, making it difficult to identify and market to them. So, anything we can do to get the word out to these hobbyists, inventors, industries, schools, and students is much appreciated.

That said, I really do appreciate our customers and I know that many are doing some very interesting research and doing what they love. With that in mind, it's easy to work hard to support them.

Below are a couple of pictures of our store front and inside our store. We also have a large warehouse supporting the store and our Internet business. We are continually adding new products.

We can ship to Canada - as well as to many other countries. Hazardous materials shipping to Canada is pretty much the same as it is shipping within the US. We currently use UPS for shipping in US and Canada. We use DHL for the other countries, which has different Hazardous Materials shipping regulations.


Storefront.jpg - 277kB StoreInside.jpg - 350kB

4th of July Sale

tomholm - 28-6-2014 at 19:29

4th of July Savings!
15% Off EVERYTHING!

We know most of you have plans for the upcoming holiday weekend so we'll keep this short and sweet; Use code independence14 at the www.bmelabandscience.com/store or www.elementalscientific.net/store until July 14th for 15% off everything!

Also, to receive email notices of upcoming sales and announcements, create a user account on www.elementalscientific.net/store or like us on Facebook!

From all of us at BME and Elemental have a happy and healthy 4th of July!