Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Bad Habits In The Lab

Too many to choose from........ probably the cider drinking while quietly doing things. I mean it's not like I get drunk and make explosives but yeah, even drinking any liquid in a lab setting feels kinda wrong.

But whatever, it is my own lab, i'm going to play loud music and be awesome.

Edit: why do I sound like a rebellious 13 year old? At what point does the 'Adult' upgrade package get delivered?

[Edited on 5-4-2015 by Tdep]

They stopped the free upgrade decades ago. I think our grandparents received the last versions...

I'm just starting out in my lab but I noticed something last night. One of the first items to find a home on my work bench was an ashtray.
It also turned into one of the first items to be removed.

[Edited on 4-5-2015 by Zombie]

smaerd - 5-4-2015 at 14:58

My worst habit is writing the tare weight of flasks on the flasks. Then accidently wiping it off

Amos - 5-4-2015 at 16:05

I just never put things back on shelves until I absolutely have to clear some space. I also often prepare and dry compounds before I have a place to store them.

Jylliana - 6-4-2015 at 00:50

Curiosity over safety sometimes...
'Nitric acid on my skin, I will wash that off LATER'
But, now I know that it makes skin yellow

And pretty much guilty of all of the above.

szuko03 - 8-4-2015 at 06:40

My only bad habit is smoking in the lab, obviously not while doing anything dangerous or around volatile solvents but smoking in the lab is a good way to start a fire. Aside from the sometimes eating a snack in between things I dont have many "bad habits"

I think we are all experienced in nitric acid staining skin at least a little bit!

DraconicAcid - 8-4-2015 at 12:40

I generally leave flasks on a stirring plate without bothering to clamp them to anything. I realized this was a bad habit yesterday, when I came back to find out that the vibrations had caused them to slide backwards off of the plates and break over the long weekend.

Chemosynthesis - 8-4-2015 at 13:28

My only bad habit is smoking in the lab, obviously not while doing anything dangerous or around volatile solvents but smoking in the lab is a good way to start a fire. Aside from the sometimes eating a snack in between things I dont have many "bad habits"

This actually used to be considered good lab practice for some when working for cyanides, if I recall correctly.

Atrum - 8-4-2015 at 14:27

My biggest bad habit would have to be that I don't wear gloves all the time, unless I am handling toxic or corrosive substances.

Pasrules - 8-4-2015 at 14:39

I paper towel dry my analytical glassware

, I know I'm supposed to use a cloth!

szuko03 - 9-4-2015 at 07:08

Quote: Originally posted by Chemosynthesis

This actually used to be considered good lab practice for some when working for cyanides, if I recall correctly.

That's why my mommy taught me to wash my hands before dinner! And eating cyanide is a great way to get a resistance

MrBlank1 - 10-4-2015 at 16:32

Quote: Originally posted by Deathunter88

Swinging around glassware to get rid of extra water on newly washed things.

By doing this at the basin I am washing up at, I have often smashed cheapo conical flasks on the faucet, so often that my significant other drilled into my head the following procedure - "After turning off the water, turn faucet 90 degrees so that it is parallel with, and pushed against, the wall said faucet is mounted on". In other words, it happened much too frequently.

Other bad habits include :
- Often using my face to move my nose to source of possible odor, rather than using my hands to move said odor to my nose.
- Opting to not use breathing apparatus for "odor-ific" procedures, in order to monitor and minimize possible impact to neighbors
- Not using gloves/glasses/coat/etc, with the rationalization being "It'll only be 30/60 seconds whilst I just 'have a look', nothing serious". Often followed by dozens of hand washings or clothing changes across a dozen or so hours, just to "be safe"
- Carrying a cigarette in my hand or behind my ear unlit (I never carry a lighter in-lab for safety reasons) for as long as it takes for me to accidentally snap/drop/wet it, usually resulting in two thirds of cigarettes in that lab session being wasted.
- Not shaving or wearing a hair net, resulting in a rare beard hair at the most inopportune moment.
- Failing to label non-volatile solids, or solutions of bicarb/vinegar/distilled water/brine/etc, resulting in wasted materials & time to replace them due to being not fully sure when I had a need to certain of their nature.
- When buying labware having the mindset "I don't have one of those" instead of "This is what I need". Resulting in a lot of ornamental glassware, reagents and equipment.

And finally, keeping any cracked/marred glassware, with the unrealistic belief of "I'll anneal/repair it one day". Pointless, due to the fact that I'd never be able to "trust" said pieces again for anything at all anyway, because I'm not an experienced glass-worker.

Quote: Originally posted by Chemosynthesis

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/fun-with-the-halogens/1/#mmGa...

This actually used to be considered good lab practice for some when working for cyanides, if I recall correctly.

That's why my mommy taught me to wash my hands before dinner! And eating cyanide is a great way to get a resistance

I once heard a saying - "Real chemists wash their hands BEFORE going to the toilet". I'm glad I learned this one in the kitchen at an early age, cooking up concentrated chilli sauce. I live by it in the lab, gloves worn or not.

[Edited on 11-4-2015 by MrBlank1]

Tdep - 10-4-2015 at 17:35

Reminds me of a story that happened to a good friend of mine a year or two ago...

He's into mountain biking and was cleaning/etching parts of his bike with concentrated sodium hydroxide solution. No gloves, but it wasn't burning the tough skin on his hands so he didn't really think about it. He went to the bathroom later on with that hydroxide solution still on his hands and, well, recieved some rather unpleasant chemical burns on an area with more sensitive skin...

Being teenage guys we gave him a lot of shit for it, insisting he never went to the bathroom and they were in fact friction burns, but deep down we all most certainly could sympathise with him and to this day I still definitely make sure I wash my hands before going to the bathroom

Zombie - 10-4-2015 at 18:20

If there is an award for the most bad habits, I'd have to say MrBlank 1 just took a commanding lead.

He'll have to fight a good fight to beat these guy tho...
Union Carbide India Limited’s 1984 Bhopal pesticide plant.
Nasa.

MrBlank1 - 10-4-2015 at 18:37

And yet, in the 30's to 50's, Hydrobromic Acid synthesis was done by teenagers in indoor labs whilst wearing the ol' tweed jacket and tie, with the only safeguard against HBr escape is some excess H2O. Back when you had to rely on your skill with calculations rather than operating inventions, if you will.

How the times have changed, eh?

Zombie - 10-4-2015 at 19:08

Laugh or cry.

Your choice.

The Volatile Chemist - 10-4-2015 at 19:22

Letting the wash pile up is a big un. Though I'm kinda glad I did, or I'd have nothing planned in the lab tomorrow!. I also shake glassware really hard to dry it. And I pick at stuck crystals with a glass rod, I've broken two stirring rods this way.
You can tell if you have been in the lab too long if you'd rather have a lab assistant than a girlfriend

szuko03 - 11-4-2015 at 11:59

Got to excited telling my story and realized this wasnt actual an "accidents thread" sorry

I have the best accident story. Its a few years back in my second semester of organic chemistry. I cant recall what we were doing or what strength we had but we had a test tube of some high molar NaOH solution. The lab called for putting something in the solution and shaking it to get agitation.

A few weeks prior to this I had gotten my first and only wart. It was directly on my thumb and it was very annoying and embarrassing, considering no one I knew ever had one. I'm not stupid I know its not from doing some gross thing or a toad, I probably got it from gardening without gloves.

So anyway, I put my thumb over this test tube and shake it for a while. My lab partner says "that is extremely caustic you should use parafin film as we were told" I stop clean off my hand and continue about the lab (acing it and winning the nobel prize of course) and in a few days the wart was completely gone and never came back. I should add that solution ate a nice circle in my thumb and really did a number on the wart but it didnt bother me.

Best outcome ever.

[Edited on 11-4-2015 by szuko03]

The Volatile Chemist - 14-4-2015 at 11:40

Haha, my teacher doesn't let us get near anything acidic over 3 molar.

Understandably, though; a few of the seniors in the class probably don't care enough to pay attention for the sake of their skin...

HgDinis25 - 14-4-2015 at 14:37

@The Volatile Chemist

Quote:

You can tell if you have been in the lab too long if you'd rather have a lab assistant than a girlfriend

And then there's that small percentage of us that have both (and they're the same person

)

I must say you guys could get a prize if a contest of bad habits got created.

My worst habit is definitely stirring things up with thermometers. Whenever I'm running a reaction that requires a thermometer and agitation, I never bother to get a stir rod. I just use the thermometer. I've broken two in the past few years with that habit

Also, I tend to only wear gloves on chemicals that are chronically toxic. That means no gloves when handling the common Triple Entente: Nitric, Hydrochloric and Sulfuric.

szuko03 - 14-4-2015 at 16:02

^dude your hardcore, I mean that. I'm not sure which is worse burning or dying skin yellow but both are too annoying for me not to wear gloves. You wear em for concentrated H2O2 right?

gdflp - 14-4-2015 at 16:19

Quote: Originally posted by HgDinis25

Also, I tend to only wear gloves on chemicals that are chronically toxic. That means no gloves when handling the common Triple Entente: Nitric, Hydrochloric and Sulfuric.

I used to not wear gloves when using hydrochloric(used them for sulfuric and nitric though). One day I had a cut on my finger and spilled conc. hydrochloric acid into it, damn does that hurt. :mad:

Now I wear gloves using conc. acids, though anything under 6M isn't worth it.

Molecular Manipulations - 14-4-2015 at 17:02

I don't wear gloves for common acids usually. I've had a couple burns, both nitric acid; sulfuric and hydrochloric I've spilled on my skin, but washing within ~30 seconds is enough to stop a burn.

Endo - 14-4-2015 at 19:02

Same here, I should wear gloves more, I just don't very often unless it is dangerous or has bitten me in the past. One memorable one was the Karl Fischer titrant under the wedding band. I think the chloroform was just enough to carry the free iodine into the tender skin under my ring.

The Volatile Chemist - 17-4-2015 at 08:08

I once was wearing tennis shoes with short socks in the lab, and let some sodium bisulfate fall into it. Ouch. I didn't notice it till later, because I can't feel much at my ankles, and there's still a little raised, different colored skin there... Lesson: No short socks, don't spill things into them.

Mesa - 17-4-2015 at 18:19

Going through 5+ pairs of gloves after spending less than an hour in the lab. I get this unreasonable paranoia about scenarios where residue on the gloves will screw something up/result in something bad happening.

Wolfgangg - 17-4-2015 at 20:08

Letting the glassware pile up is a big one. The other day I was carrying out a procedure and found I was in immediate need of a beaker, just to find that they were all used up. I had to frantically find and clean one.

Not always wearing gloves WAS one of mine. Until I spilled some H2O2 on my finger and it burned my cuticle off around my finger nail.

Probably my worst is using a cheap $25 rotary vane pump in completely inappropriate situations. Vacuuming off low boiling solvents, vacuum filtering, all without a trap. I was given it for free and figured I'd just run it into the ground since my aspirator (which I used to use for such things) was inoperable. The oil frequently changes between different colors, foggy to clear, dark to light, ect as the oil picks up whatever moisture/solvent then gets evaporated off after being ran for awhile. I figured if I got even a few uses out of the pump I'd be happy. I've been using it in these situations for 2 years now, have only changed the oil twice, and it still seems to pull down to ~1 mm Hg. I save all the TLC for my good pump.

Zombie - 17-4-2015 at 20:53

I have no bad habits so to speak because I don't have a lab set up yet.
BUT, I will be sure to avoid all the "habits" expressed here.

This thread has been more helpful than most of you may think.

karlos³ - 18-4-2015 at 09:04

I once pressed an alcoholic-wet filter paper full of lachrymatoric nitroalkene dry without gloves, washed my hands, but only with water, and many hours later I sat at work, resting my head in my hands, when i felt an unpleasant warming sensation, which gradually became more unpleasant...
I realised, i had probably some traces of the nitroalkene on my hands, when a co-worker said, "man, you have some very red cheeks, is anything wrong?".
I got home shortly after this, and washed my face with an alcohol-wet towel, not very surprising the burning sensation stopped directly after this...
Also the habit of not using gloves if "its done in a minute, no need for gloves" stopped directly after this

.

Oh, and another bad habit i´ve stopped in the meantime, was measuring concentrated sulfuric acid without my lab coat on, after like five shirts that came full of holes, literally penetrated, out of the washing machine, ive stopped this bad habit as well.

There also was one involving not wearing safety goggles, but thats too stupid to tell. I´ve stopped this bad habit as well after being left with only 60% due to corneal distortion after caustic materials spilled into one of my eyes.
If it wasnt treated for two days, every half hour, with diluted ascorbic acid solution in the hospital, i could have have been much worse, the treatment helped a lot, because it was an alkali burn.
(well, due to this accident i am now always wearing glasses, so, when i use safety goggles i am now figuratively six-eyed

)

Piling up of used Beakers and flasks is one of the bad habits i still do, i usually use at least as much as an half litre of acetone every time i am cleaning the pile up

.

[Edited on 18-4-2015 by karlos³]

aga - 18-4-2015 at 11:09

I use a couple of buckets to toss the used glassware into, and get around to cleaning it all when it's full.

Cleanup today was tedious in the extreme, as i tossed a beaker into the bucket with a few g of KMnO4 still in it and left the bucket for 4 days.

All of the other glassware had brown stains all over it, which took a lot of elbow grease to remove.

Gloves are cheap here, so i tend to wear them when doing any dirty work.

Loptr - 18-4-2015 at 12:09

Quote: Originally posted by aga

I use a couple of buckets to toss the used glassware into, and get around to cleaning it all when it's full.

Cleanup today was tedious in the extreme, as i tossed a beaker into the bucket with a few g of KMnO4 still in it and left the bucket for 4 days.

All of the other glassware had brown stains all over it, which took a lot of elbow grease to remove.

Gloves are cheap here, so i tend to wear them when doing any dirty work.

Those stains should come right off with a little dilute HCL.

So far I really haven't had to scrub anything, and have just used base/acid baths, a little detergent here and there, but no real scrubbing to be had.

Yet.... and of course, I haven't really had any tarry reactions up to this point.

[Edited on 18-4-2015 by Loptr]

[Edited on 18-4-2015 by Loptr]

karlos³ - 18-4-2015 at 13:33

Oh i forgot one important lesson i´ve learned in the lab!
Never throw a boiling stone in a boiling solution! That one time, also a lachrimatory compound, was refluxed in alcoholic solution with a 50cm liebig condenser on top, the flask was half full, but, after i throwed a couple of boiling stones into the mixture, it climbed the whole way out of the condenser, dripped on the stirplate and for three hours i wasnt able to enter the lab without tears in my eyes! Safety goggles, wtf, only a respirator would have done good for me!
That was a nasty and important lesson...

The Volatile Chemist - 19-4-2015 at 13:25

LOL, that's hilarious! Sad, of course, but funny. I broke a boiling 50mL beaker full of FeSO₄ solution on a flask because I tried to remove it by picking it up with a test tube grabber on the lip.... yeah, don't do that either...

learningChem - 19-4-2015 at 17:45

I've smashed a few test tubes when shaking them to get rid of the water (after cleaning them). But I finally came up with a technique. The trick is to hold them with both hands, one hand at each end.

MannyE - 19-4-2015 at 18:12

I'm new at this but when we were kids we had a HUGE jar of mercury (no idea where it came from) we used to play with. Like put a teaspoon of the stuff in our hands and roll it around in our palms.. because it looked cool.

Here's the thing however. Even though I know better now it would take a LOT of willpower no to do it again if someone left me alone in a room with a large quart jar of mercury.

Zombie - 19-4-2015 at 19:00

As kids we found a huge pool of mercury in the bottom of a construction site ditch in Yonkers NY. Maybe 1966ish...

I agree with you Manny... It would take an act of congress, and ten armed agents to stop me from playing with it again...

Just for further "grossness". We used to swim in the channel that led out of the Con Edison power station that led to the Bronx river, and eventually the Hudson. You didn't have to worry about mosquitoes because there was some sort of oil/jelly that coated your whole body.

Ahhh the good old days.

Praxichys - 20-4-2015 at 09:17

Laziness. I tend to use valuable reagents to clean gunk out of glass rather than a little elbow grease. I go through H2O2, permanganate, H2SO4, HCl, NaOH, and iPrOH and MeOH like crazy. It's so nice when it is getting late and the prep is finished and all that needs to happen is to remove some gnarly tar from a flask... chuck in the appropriate digesting agent and set it to stir overnight with a little warmth, everything rinses clean in the morning. I forgot about one once, discovering it more than 48h of heating later, boiled dry with worn-out stir bar and a ring scored into the glass where the stir bar spun, apparently abraded by residue formed by NaOH and flask gunk. Oops.

Fire! I go through lots of acetone drying glassware. I usually put glass straight into the cabinet after washing and let it air dry. If it is wet when I need it, I spray it down with acetone from a wash bottle and blast it with a heat gun. I have a bad habit of swirling acetone in a flask and then dumping it straight onto the concrete floor or bench to evaporate. The lab always has a lot of air movement with the hood on, so there really is no danger of explosion, and for fun sometimes I ignite the bench/floor with a torch when I'm done and flare it off. This is probably a bad habit.

Shopping. I also have the problem of buying glassware and reagents that I have no immediate need for. It is mostly justified like "When will I see XXXX at this price on eBay, when I eventually need it?" Some of these things have proven very useful in certain situations but for the most part are unnecessary. I have yet to use my trichloroethylene, HPLC-grade benzene, ethanolamine, naphthalene, stearic acid, and others, and they were purely opportunity purchases without planned use.

This might not be a bad habit but I tend to stock up on things that I think will be removed from OTC shelves soon. Consequently I have "reserves" of multiple gallons of toluene, MEK, and sulfuric acid.

Keeping Stock. I have an online sheet of my current chemical stock (in my signature!). I should really update it as I experiment, but I continually find myself poring through a month worth of lab notes to update my inventory sheet. Impatience causes me to add stuff to the sheet immediately after purchase, before it has even arrived.

Just doing it. I have a YouTube channel with hungry subscribers, and a lab I have spent something like $10,000 on in the last 10 years. One would think I would be eager to get to work down there, but sometimes it is hard to find motivation after appeasing the maintenance needs of my home, job, girlfriend, vehicle, etc. It comes in bursts - I get really excited about something, spend a week of nights until 2am down there, make a video, and then the lab collects dust for a couple of weeks until I can scrape together the motivation. I currently have a 120g acetamide prep half-done that has been sitting for 12 days now, video half-filmed, sabotaged by a 5-day visit from the girlfriend (who lives 300 miles away).

The Volatile Chemist - 20-4-2015 at 14:42

Ideas come in bursts for me, too. I've bought a good bit of reagents that I didn't have use for earlier, but have now used all of them, and have been glad I bought all of them... except boric acid. Why did I buy it? I don't know... I've yet to do anything successful with it...
Edit: Oh, if you have a reagent you aren't using, give it to someone! I'd experiment the hell out of whatever someone gave me out of pure gratitude and joy

[Edited on 4-20-2015 by The Volatile Chemist]

Texium - 20-4-2015 at 18:56

Boric acid will turn flames green, similar to barium ions but a bit less yellowish. Not super amazing, but it's something. I've used it a couple times as a catalyst, and have dehydrated some to make boric oxide that I had planned on thermiting with Mg powder to isolate boron. Never got around to it though. The boric oxide is still sitting on my shelf. Yeah, boric acid really doesn't have a ton of uses. Very minor things for the most part.

TVC, do you have any reagents that you don't use that you'd be willing to give away?

(other than boric acid...)

j_sum1 - 20-4-2015 at 20:45

Boric acid?
Well heating it makes an interesting glassy compound when the water is given off -- B2O3. An Al can may be used as a disposable beaker quite effectively. Just don't let it heat to the melting point of aluminium as I did. there is a bit of a mess.
I have done the boron reduction by thermite with Mg. (wear glasses when you grind the glassy B2O3 in your mortar and pestle.) It works well and I have a couple of nice ampoules of amorphous boron in the element collection. A future project is to try to obtain crystalline boron.
If you are just playing with thermites, then you can use Al powder. It is not really possible to extract the boron this way since Al2O3 cannot be digested with an acid in the same manner as MgO. But if you just want a nice hot flare in the back yard, then why not.
Boric acid dissolved in methanol does give a lovely flame. Ethanol is not quite so effective.

And of course, boric acid is a useful beginning point for other boron chemistry. I know few details but I am led to believe that it is a lot more interesting than it is often made out to be (puns on the name and whatever.) You might find an intriguing borate that you want to synthesise.

Tdep - 20-4-2015 at 22:18

Just a side point on boron chemistry, thermite between boron trioxide and aluminium doesn't really work. You need to heat boost it, even more than with TiO2, to get any sort of reaction i've found. I have kilos of boric acid and was trying to make some borane via aluminium boride. If anyone happens to know a way to make borane from boric acid (realistically, doesn't have to be easy but no fluorine or anything) that would be nice.

Oh and in terms of the thread, another bad habit is that I often light small fires on the concrete floor of my lab, to either test or destroy things. It makes sense to me, it's all contained but no way i'd get away with that in a professional lab.

j_sum1 - 21-4-2015 at 03:32

Oh and in terms of the thread, another bad habit is that I often light small fires on the concrete floor of my lab, to either test or destroy things. It makes sense to me, it's all contained but no way i'd get away with that in a professional lab.

Ha! I do that too. In my defence, my lab doesn't even have a level floor. It is a multi-purpose shed converted from a chicken coop that was built more than 60 years ago. They simply poured concrete directly on the dirt without even levelling it first. It is a pretty rough sort of a setting and only one step up from working outside.
Teflon tape and Al powder is a bit of a favourite and I have been experimenting with adding strontium compounds to get a coloured flame. It makes sense to do it on concrete and the floor below me is better than the concrete patch beside the house on the other side of the yard.

Deathunter88 - 21-4-2015 at 07:05

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1

Don't breath in any fumes from the Teflon burning, it may kill you

But hey, its fun so continue doing it.

The Volatile Chemist - 21-4-2015 at 12:26

Quote: Originally posted by zts16

Boric acid will turn flames green, similar to barium ions but a bit less yellowish. Not super amazing, but it's something. I've used it a couple times as a catalyst, and have dehydrated some to make boric oxide that I had planned on thermiting with Mg powder to isolate boron. Never got around to it though. The boric oxide is still sitting on my shelf. Yeah, boric acid really doesn't have a ton of uses. Very minor things for the most part.

TVC, do you have any reagents that you don't use that you'd be willing to give away?

(other than boric acid...)

Hey, be nice. I have like 20 chemicals of quantities over 10g. I have 10 more chemicals in quantities over 1g. I have ~10 chemicals in 10mL 0.1M dropper bottles. That's it. I use everything frequently. I use the metal ions a lot, and all f the acids. I own two bases, ammonia solution and bicarb. And I have to go out to buy some more. I can't afford to give away anything. I've managed to do something cool with everything...except boric acid.

SimpleChemist-238 - 21-4-2015 at 18:45

For me, all that is on this thread.

dermolotov - 21-4-2015 at 19:47

I'm probably going to be shamed to hell and back for this but... I smoke a cigar when I do refluxes/ distillations in the fume hood sometimes.

Especially if it's a 0.5-2h reflux or 500cc to distil, I just say "screw it" and light one up, while watching the thing bubble away.

j_sum1 - 21-4-2015 at 23:07

For me, all that is on this thread.

That means there are at least three of us who burn things on the floor.
(Indoor fire pits are trendy anyway. Everyone should have one.)

Deathunter88 - 22-4-2015 at 04:45

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1

For me, all that is on this thread.

That means there are at least three of us who burn things on the floor.
(Indoor fire pits are trendy anyway. Everyone should have one.)

I set fire on the floor too. lol

Jimmymajesty - 22-4-2015 at 04:46

I always wondered why smoking chemists (hobbyist or professional) need protective equipments like fume hoods, masks etc. If they are deliberately and persistently after some lung cancer why they bother to save themselves from some benzene vapor... heck it would even help them to reach their goals

Etaoin Shrdlu - 22-4-2015 at 11:09

Quote: Originally posted by Jimmymajesty

I always wondered why smoking chemists (hobbyist or professional) need protective equipments like fume hoods, masks etc. If they are deliberately and persistently after some lung cancer why they bother to save themselves from some benzene vapor... heck it would even help them to reach their goals

Well, there are other things to worry about besides the chance of cancer, like neurological damage, sensitization, or just acute toxicity from some reagents.

(Really, I'm surprised chemists didn't go en masse to e-cigarettes, though. Less expensive and there's the option to fully customize what you're inhaling.)

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

What sort of things are you interested in that your parents will allow?

aga - 22-4-2015 at 12:50

Quote: Originally posted by Jimmymajesty

I always wondered why smoking chemists (hobbyist or professional) need protective equipments like fume hoods, masks etc.

Quite often we don't bother - the gas mask makes it hard to smoke a cigarette and drink a beer, although it isn't impossible.

morganbw - 22-4-2015 at 17:36

Quote: Originally posted by Jimmymajesty

Jimmy, you seem so bright, why this sudden digress?
Smoking is an addiction, not a desire for lung cancer and death. We all have our demons, I am sure you do as well.

[Edited on 23-4-2015 by morganbw]

Texium - 22-4-2015 at 19:40

Quote: Originally posted by Deathunter88

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1

For me, all that is on this thread.

That means there are at least three of us who burn things on the floor.
(Indoor fire pits are trendy anyway. Everyone should have one.)

I set fire on the floor too. lol

Haha, you can add me to that list if you're keeping count. I've done that a coupe of times, though generally I'll take the stuff out on the driveway so as not to smoke up the garage. (pretty easy since my lab is just inside the garage door)

Jimmymajesty - 23-4-2015 at 05:07

I just find it odd or rather a paradox when I see a smoking chemist. All chemists especially we hobbyist who do experiments at our own expense -so we are more devoted to chemistry that most of the professionals- should know the most that this will surely reduce the expectable lifespan, even if it is an addiction. Also, I always attributed smoking to weak personalities and was always feeling strange when I saw person of high intellect smoking.

Anyway it is an interesting fact that here in our steam cracker always the smokers are sent to sample BTX and all the nasty smelly stuff. It is a common agreement within the unit.

aga: you do not need to struggle with makeshift solutions anymore, google up "gas mask bong"

The Volatile Chemist - 23-4-2015 at 08:22

Quote: Originally posted by Etaoin Shrdlu

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

What sort of things are you interested in that your parents will allow?

If you mean donations, they wouldn't like that. But I'll probably be raking in a nice order of 9 chemicals in various quantities from OnyxMet when the school year ends. I just like inorganic coordination chemistry at the moment, but most any chemistry that involves pigments is also of interest,
Haem. coordination, for example.

kecskesajt - 1-5-2015 at 00:10

My bad habitat is to eat into chemicals.Im not talking about heavy metals but food grade chemicals like erithrytol or citric acid and ascorbic acid.These are food grade but this isnt allowed to eat into chemicals in lab.

SimpleChemist-238 - 1-5-2015 at 15:32

For me testing tiny amounts of rocket propellents on the floor on a brick. Its a good thing I have a large fan and vent. I do wash my hands before and after going into the lab. Another bad habit brushing dust from a desk onto the floor and covering my desks with a sheet of paper towels for easy emergency clean up but it might catch fire. Good thing I keep all of water based extinguishers around when using my potassium chunks next to the cans of acetone and gunpowder.

Zombie - 1-5-2015 at 18:21

Good thing I keep all of water based extinguishers around when using my potassium chunks next to the cans of acetone and gunpowder.

There's a scene in a movie where the wife puts a metal pot in a microwave. The oven bursts into flames...

The husband says "I told you no metal. Why would you do that?"

She replies... "I read in Cosmo. that these science ovens take all the nutrients out of our food. Do you want me to serve non nutritional food to my family?"

He sighs, and says... "Well I guess you did the right thing"

She says... "You're darn right I did! Thank God for me!"

Hellafunt - 1-5-2015 at 19:27

from Praxichis' post above:

"This might not be a bad habit but I tend to stock up on things that I think will be removed from OTC shelves soon. Consequently I have "reserves" of multiple gallons of toluene, MEK, and sulfuric acid."

Generally speaking, when common OTC chemicals (in the USA) have had their availability restricted, has there been an announcement or grace period, or does it just occur overnight
? I seem to recall talk about the status of the common meth reagents quite a bit before they became scarce, but others, like toluene, just seemed to quietly stop being ordered. Like at first the moratorium on sales is voluntary, then later it becomes the law of the land. Anyone know more about the process?

There is a local, independently owned hardware shop near me. I frequently buy H2SO4 and NaOH there. I always pay cash. One time i bought both items at the same time and the employee asked me if I was making meth? I looked him right in the eye and said "I dont know how to do it with these chemicals, could you teach me?" and he gave me the serious stink eye. And he still looks at me suspiciously when I go in there. But buying these things doesnt qualify as a bad habit like other things in this thread, maybe me being a smartass in those situations is a bad habit.

[Edited on 2-5-2015 by Hellafunt]

Zombie - 1-5-2015 at 22:00

Quote: Originally posted by Hellafunt

Generally speaking, when common OTC chemicals (in the USA) have had their availability restricted, has there been an announcement or grace period, or does it just occur overnight
? I seem to recall talk about the status of the common meth reagents quite a bit before they became scarce, but others, like toluene, just seemed to quietly stop being ordered. Like at first the moratorium on sales is voluntary, then later it becomes the law of the land. Anyone know more about the process?

It kinda happens quietly overnight.

I buy approx 55 gallons of acetone a week in the spring, and 55 a month the rest of the year.

Last year around june/july I received a questionnaire re: my line of work, my need for acetone, expected quantities needed, if I sold wholesale, retail, and in what quantities.

Included was a copy of this...

PART 1310 — RECORDS AND REPORTS OF LISTED CHEMICALS AND CERTAIN MACHINES

§1310.04 Maintenance of records.

(a) Every record required to be kept subject to §1310.03 for a List I chemical, a tableting machine, or an encapsulating machine shall be kept by the regulated person for 2 years after the date of the transaction.

(b) Every record required to be kept subject to Section 1310.03 for List II chemical shall be kept by the regulated person for two years after the date of the transaction.

(c) A record under this section shall be kept at the regulated person's place of business where the transaction occurred, except that records may be kept at a single, central location of the regulated person if the regulated person has notified the Administration of the intention to do so. Written notification must be submitted by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, to the Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Divisional Office for the area in which the records are required to be kept.

(d) The records required to be kept under this section shall be readily retrievable and available for inspection and copying by authorized employees of the Administration under the provisions of 21 U.S.C. 880.

(e) The regulated person with more than one place of business where records are required to be kept shall devise a system to detect any party purchasing from several individual locations of the regulated person thereby seeking to avoid the application of the cumulative threshold or evading the requirements of the Act.

(f) For those listed chemicals for which thresholds have been established, the quantitative threshold or the cumulative amount for multiple transactions within a calendar month, to be utilized in determining whether a receipt, sale, importation or exportation is a regulated transaction is as follows:

(2) List II Chemicals:

(i) Imports and Exports

Chemical Threshold by volume Threshold by weight
(A) Acetic anhydride 250 gallons 1,023 kilograms.
(B) Acetone 500 gallons 1,500 kilograms.
(C) Benzyl chloride N/A 4 kilograms.
(D) Ethyl ether 500 gallons 1,364 kilograms.
(E) Potassium permanganate N/A 500 kilograms.
(F) 2-Butanone (MEK) 500 gallons 1,455 kilograms.
(G) Toluene 500 gallons 1,591 kilograms.
(H) Sodium permanganate N/A 500 kilograms
(ii) Domestic Sales

Chemical Threshold by volume Threshold by weight
(A) Acetic anhydride 250 gallons 1,023 kilograms.
(B) Acetone 50 gallons 150 kilograms.
(C) Benzyl chloride N/A 1 kilograms.
(D) Ethyl ether 50 gallons 135.8 kilograms.
(E) Potassium permanganate N/A 55 kilograms.
(F) 2-Butanone (MEK) 50 gallons 145 kilograms.
(G) Toluene 50 gallons 159 kilograms.
(H) Anhydrous Hydrogen chloride N/A 0.0 kilograms.
(I) Sodium permanganate N/A 55 kilograms

The first list is what I am allowed to purchase, and the second is what I am allowed to sell, and I am under obligation to report all "suspicious sales.

If I do not keep these records or fail to report... I can be prosecuted.

This is not a matter of public record. You can find the info but "they" do not want the general public to know they can be arrested for purchasing these items in "bulk".
Nor am I under any obligation to forewarn the purchaser. Doing so can again get ME in trouble.

Guess I just blew that!

Hellafunt - 2-5-2015 at 17:24

wow, those quantities seem pretty generous to me, should be enough for "personal use", no?

Zombie - 2-5-2015 at 17:39

The quantities are just guidelines. Many times of the year I use much more but it is not a report-able issue due to the nature of my use .ie: retail.

Now lets say in January I ordered 1500 gallons in one month. If my supplier did not report me, and I did anything wrong... He gets prosecuted right along with me. as a co-conspirator.

It's simple yet complex. All they want are proper records for "watch items.

CaptainPike - 3-5-2015 at 16:14

I sometimes squirt the pipette of pure acid back in the mother container – which can contaminate. Plus,I'm titrating directly from the acid bottle.

ave369 - 8-12-2015 at 08:54

I usually work without gloves. If it's hydrochloric acid I'm working with, no repercussions follow: it merely irritates. Today, when distilling hydrochloric acid, I was handling a piece of PTFE tape soaked in azeotropic hydrochloric acid, and didn't find the experience too painful. We Russians have a proverb: "A chicken's no bird, a woman's no husband". I modified this one into "A chicken's no bird, hydrochloric's no hydrofluoric, it will itch a bit and stop".

I also often work with conc sulfuric, also without gloves. My hands look like hands of a coal miner, half of the epidermis is carbonized and black.

And also my lab table is also my computer table and dinner table. It's Russian winter, so I moved everything into the great hall: the only place where it's always warm. In summer, situation is different, of course.

Acidum - 12-12-2015 at 09:00

My first bad habit is to leave stuff unfinished and not packed because I have no suitable conditions at the moment. For example, I have a bunch of chemicals left wrapped in paper because as a perfectionist I want to obtain nicer vials and containers. Of course, they tend to absorb moisture, degrade, and generaly make mess all around them...
I am constantly trying to force myself to finish projects, purify products, pack stuff, etc...

Second bad habit, maybe just the worst, is that I have no habit of writing stuff down. From experiments (I keep them in my head in the begining, but time wipes serious ammount of info from there) and even photos of them, to labels on bottles and containers. I end up having periodically check-ups of situation in home lab, ending in several contaners with question marks on them and a lot of useful informations lost in oblivion.
I am puting some hard effort in eliminating that particularly bad habit, up to point of writing even my thoughts down because they might be usefull and give some serious clues on what I was doing and what have I acomplished...

All the rest should fall in "bad days at the lab" subject...
Ah yes, I have succesfully eliminated the "leave this pile of dirty vessels for the next time" habit in the early days. Definitely worth the effort!

aga - 12-12-2015 at 13:48

NOT writing down the Important stuff makes the whole exercise utterly worthless, no matter how much fun it is.

May as well chuck random stuff in a bucket and go "wooohoo ! it went green !!"

Edit:

A good Compromise for random mixer-uppers is to weight all the reagents FIRST, then do the random mixing up, then weight the reagents after to see how much you actually used ...

[Edited on 12-12-2015 by aga]

JJay - 13-12-2015 at 05:10

I'll sometimes use a respirator instead of performing a procedure in a fume hood.

The Volatile Chemist - 14-12-2015 at 15:24

Quote: Originally posted by JJay

I'll sometimes use a respirator instead of performing a procedure in a fume hood.

Haha, for me, using a respirator was a step up, I don't have a hood

CharlieA - 17-3-2016 at 17:18