Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Bad days in the lab or with glassware?

Bad days in the lab or with glassware?

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Praxichys - 26-8-2014 at 05:18

I can't help but agree with MrHomeScientist! My pants and labcoat are well-worn but entirely intact.

Could it be because I work in a steady stream of air over the bench? I also generally pour stuff down a stirring rod to prevent splashing, and put watch glasses over everything to keep dust out of solutions.

Keep a junk towel in the lab to avoid the habit of drying your hands or glassware on your pants/labcoat.

Magpie - 26-8-2014 at 08:24

When pouring con sulfuric acid I wear gloves, goggles, and a plastic apron. This acid is very dense and spatters readily - likely into droplets not easily seen. The apron has stopped the generation of "moth holes" at the waistline of my shirts.

I agree that doing transfers in the hood with the fan on prevents breathing dusts and small droplets. This is especially important when transferring particulate NaOH.

I try to practice good housekeeping and hygiene. I'm always surprised to see how much my disposable nitrile gloves are discolored after a day in the lab.

[Edited on 26-8-2014 by Magpie]

MrHomeScientist - 26-8-2014 at 10:25

Quote: Originally posted by HgDinis25

MrHomeScientist, when handling concentrated sulfuric acid there's absolutly no chance you're going to avoid holes in cotton made clothes. It just happens. Back in the day I remember PIPPTETING a sample of Sulfuric Acid (using glass pippetes) and finding my t-shirt with those tiny holes, in the following day. Coincidence or not, it has happened to me more than once.

Well again I wouldn't say it's completely unavoidable. I've avoided it so far, and I've been in the hobby 5 years handling conc. sulfuric for probably 3 of those years. Pouring it, pipetting it (in glass and plastic droppers), reacting it, the works. Never have I seen holes in the everyday clothes I wear. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I think with good practice you can prevent it. Just be careful is all.

[Edited on 8-26-2014 by MrHomeScientist]

HgDinis25 - 26-8-2014 at 13:05

Just out of curiosity, the clothes on you on lab duty are mostly cotton or they contain other polymers?

I'm thinking that, perhaps, cotton clothes are less resistant towards dehydration from Sulfuric Acid...

aga - 26-8-2014 at 13:45

Laziness and Stupidity can be very Painful.

Ethanol Distillation again, and i was too lazy to wash out any of my favourite 250ml RBFs.

Just the 3-neck 250ml left, which i somehow don't like as much as the single neck versions.

So, distill 250ml, empty the vessel, add fresh stock, distill again. 25~30 minute cycle as usual.

Usually i don a thick rubber glove and manhandle the single neck out, empty/refill it.

Aha ! 3-neck has Openings !
I'll just syphon out the spent liquid, refill, stopper up and good to go again.

Idiot plan : I just stuck a half meter tube in there and sucked.

Very Hot liquid very quickly burnt my mouth and face.
The liquid moved very very fast.

In shock, i must have rapidly removed it from mouth, and hovered it over my right leg as it kept on syphoning.
Summer here, so Shorts. Sitting down as well.
Mucho hot liquid all over Bare right leg.

Brain re-engaged (it was definitely in chaos for a second or two) and the pipe was dropped.
Quickly grabbed the wash bottle, and squirted on leg.
DIW was about 40 C, so no good.
Grabbed 5L bottle of DIW. Splashed it all over. Same.

Ran to pool, jumped in. That helped me, but not the Watch.

The body's response to dead, cooked dermal tissue started after about 4 minutes in the pool.
That stings a bit.

I got out of the pool and noticed that the pain subsided a little with the cooling effect of the water evaporating, so rigged up a fan and got some kitchen towel and some of the distillation coolant water (back in the lab at this time) and started wetting/blowing/evaporating.

After about 30 minutes of wetting/blowing with the fan, the most damaged areas began to look like uncooked, chicken flesh.

Blistering started after about an Hour.
Noticeable pain lasted for less than an hour

With some snipping and probing, it luckily turns out to be only 1st degree burns, so the same as a Graze really, so no real damage.

The Amazing thing was the Right Leg's behaviour after being scalded.

Naturally i carried on distilling, after rigging a Vacuum flask and some pipes to safely suck out the spent liquid, but my Right Leg refused to be anywhere near anything hot.

I Smoke. When i lit a cigarette, the leg twitched.
Standing next to the disty rig, it was appreciably difficult to get that leg to go anywhere near the heat source.

Learning can be such fun !

Zyklon-A - 26-8-2014 at 14:26

Man that sucks. So was the ethanol at it's boiling point?

Metacelsus - 26-8-2014 at 14:36

I just had an ammonium sulfate solution that I was concentrating boil over onto the hot plate while I left the lab for a few seconds to look up its solubility (as I had forgotten to look it up before.) The effect was similar to a smoke bomb, and ammonium sulfate particles are very irritating.

aga - 26-8-2014 at 14:54

Ethanol had gone, so ~100.

A sulphate bomb ! Good call.

aga - 27-8-2014 at 12:44

Furry blisters

The Volatile Chemist - 3-9-2014 at 12:50

That's horrid aga, so sad :/
Haven't broken anything recently.

gdflp - 3-10-2014 at 12:03

I was making potassium iodate with potassium permanganate and went to vac filter out the MnO2 when *dink* my 11cm Buchner funnel randomly cracked :mad:

I bought it new and only used it 3 times, I'm going to e-mail the seller *cough* Scientific Equipment of Houston aka SEOH on Amazon *cough* Now I can't vac filter, and I lost half of the liquid to a brown sludge flowing on my driveway

The liquid was like 70°C, the porcelain shouldn't be cracked from the thermal stress, right?

[Edited on 10-3-2014 by gdflp]

aga - 3-10-2014 at 12:26

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

That's horrid aga, so sad

Sad that i was so stupid, yes.

Jumping in the Pool was a good plan.
All healed up without scabbing, which was remarkable.

Still furry, but no blisters anymore, and no scarring. 100% ready for the next time.

arkoma - 3-10-2014 at 17:22

But you did not let being burned stand between you and carrying on the distillation of more wondrous Spirits.

Little_Ghost_again - 3-10-2014 at 17:42

I wasnt going to fess up but decided I would. I saw a fractionating column for sale, 1 meter long!!! quickfit joints never used before, it also came packed with rings and a heating jacket.
the price? £130. I thought it was a bargain but was short of cash so I sold my beloved bike to a kid at school, the bike was worth around £250 but I needed quick cash so let it go for £100.
I got dad to drive me the 40 miles to go pick up the column as i didnt want to risk posting. Traffic was awful and it took us 2 hours to get there, on the way back I could here it move around in the boot so when dad said he was going to stop to get fuel I decided I would rearrange it in the boot to stop it moving.
He pulled into the petrol station and I jumped out to open the boot, I grabbed the column and lifted it out.
Dad said something as I did it so I turned with it in my hand, part was still poking inside the boot and as I swung round.....................Crack against the side of the boot! One gorgeous column in half

.
No bike and no column!!! All those distillations I had planed

.

The other one I dare not detail but the long and short is, I recently got the chance to do a fire drill and test the fire extinguisher! it worked really well. The curtains (new) were ruined and the ceiling needs a coat of paint

, but all is well and it could of been worse! I wont be lazy next time and will use the oil bath instead of a bunsen

The Volatile Chemist - 5-10-2014 at 13:53

So sorry to hear that Little_Ghost!!!!!!

I once broke a distillation flask the day after it was given to me, and had to wait two years before I got another one. I never got to even use it!

zenosx - 5-10-2014 at 21:36

Damn Aga. Ouch. Just reading that made me hurt (and the pictures helped).
Ghost. I have a drawer with my accidents in it in the hope that I might one day find a glass blower to repair them lol. Namely a virgrex column and a couple of condensers minus joints. Heh. It's ok to dream

Romain - 4-12-2014 at 23:50

I broke my 2 250 ml beakers... Now I'm stuck with 100 ml and 600 ml beakers, nothing in between...

I was trying to concentrate H2SO4 by boiling it. I did this in the middle of my lawn, 10 meters away from everything. The sulfuric acid boiled over, spilled on my cheap kitchen hotplate, which is now ruined, and I stupidly cooled the whole thing, including the 350°C beaker with cold water... Arrgh!

I also broke my only ground glass erlenmeyer flask while boiling down sulfuric acid... again. I wanted to test the conc. sulfuric acid so I cooled the flask in HOT water this time... but it still shattered!

Anyway, lesson learned, DO NOT cool hot glassware with water, don't be impatient.

Jylliana - 5-12-2014 at 00:11

Hehe.. That little episode of stupidity happened to me more often than I can count. I don't seem to learn from my mistakes..

Sniffity - 27-12-2014 at 01:49

Whilst helping a Chemistry Teacher as a lab assistant... Students were doing the typical thermal demoposition of Potassium Chlorate into oxygent. Basically, they had this very, very, very small test tube, containing the KClO3, which was connected to a rubber hose.

So I was helping out one group of students, when I suddenly heard a loud bang across the lab.

Turns out, another group of students (Which were meant to be supervised by the Teacher) had added too much potassium chlorate into the tube. Heated it, melted it, and then somehow managed to incline the tube enough for the molten potassium chlorate to come into contact with the rubber hosing. Needless to say the tube shattered, sending a drop of molten potassium chlorate flying right at this girl, who just so happened to be wearing a low cut T-Shirt. (Lab coat didn't really help)

And, of course, as is common with Students, her immediate reaction was not spraying cold water, but rather jumping back and holding her hands to the burn (burning herself more in the process). Teacher sent her off to the bathroom with other students.

Thankfully, after hitting her, most of the molten stuff had jumped off and dripped to the floor, protecting her from serious damage.

I was just an assistant, so couldn't really do much, even less so considering the teacher was supervising that group...

But hey, could've been much worse.

Dr.Bob - 28-12-2014 at 09:24

Little Ghost's story reminded me of one of my friend Ed's old stories. He used to be quite the distillation expert, separating isomers of very close BP with very elaborate distillation columns and distillation heads. Back in his days, there were glass blowers at every local university, and most took side work for cash.

So Ed had broken some piece on a rather large vacuum jacketed distillation head which was very elaborate, and took it to the glassblower to repair, which he did, annealed it, and Ed picked it up a few days later. He put it on some pillows in the back seat of his big old American land yacht (an old Ford Crown Victoria or so) and was driving the 5 miles back to his small lab building. About halfway there, someone was not paying attention (and this was way before cell phones came along) and rear ended him-just enough to cause the whole piece to slide off of the seat and drop to the floor, making a sad "tinkling" noise, the vacuum head being imploded. Whereas before it had only had a small bit of damage, that time the head was destroyed completely. So he had to go to small claims court to collect (also in the days before liability insurance and lawyers suing everyone) and order and entire new head which took weeks to get. I am pretty sure that he cobbed together something that worked OK for a while, but for some tasks he had a special head made for only one function. Some had to handle low MP compounds, so the entire head was sealed to let the dist. head be warmed, rather than cooled. Others had multiple distillation columns linked together somehow.

DFliyerz - 6-1-2015 at 18:01

Today was one of THOSE days.
First I wasn't looking at what I was doing, and knocked my ceramic pestle off my workbench, breaking it.
Then I (for some reason) thought I could heat water in a mason jar, which shattered that.
THEN I dropped one of my best, most-used beakers when trying to clean it, which broke it.
I'm hating myself right now.

Loptr - 7-1-2015 at 07:18

Not a significant loss.

I was trying to add an side-arm to a borosilicate test tube, without knowing much about glass blowing, and ended up breaking the test tube under the heat.

I will be doing some more reading before attempting again.

The Volatile Chemist - 8-1-2015 at 08:13

Quote: Originally posted by Loptr

Not a significant loss.

I was trying to add an side-arm to a borosilicate test tube, without knowing much about glass blowing, and ended up breaking the test tube under the heat.

I will be doing some more reading before attempting again.

I hate to say it, but lol. That totally sounds like something I'd do.
Also, I totally didn't know you couldn't heat things in mason jars..... why can't you?

Dr.Bob - 8-1-2015 at 08:34

You can heat things in mason jars, just not quickly or with a very hot source of heat. They are made of soda lime glass which expands a lot with heating, unlike Pyrex or other glasses designed to handle harsh heating well (low coefficient of expansion). But most glasses will break if heated too fast or unevenly. Round pieces are stronger in general, which is one reason why round flasks are used, not square ones.

If you are trying to modify text tubes, make sure that they are the same type of glass as the tubing that you have. If you have a soda lime tube and borosilicate glass tubing, they will be very hard to connect together, or for the opposite as well. I see more and more test tubes made of cheaper non-borosilicate glass nowadays.

The Volatile Chemist - 8-1-2015 at 08:50

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob

You can heat things in mason jars, just not quickly or with a very hot source of heat. They are made of soda lime glass which expands a lot with heating, unlike Pyrex or other glasses designed to handle harsh heating well (low coefficient of expansion). But most glasses will break if heated too fast or unevenly. Round pieces are stronger in general, which is one reason why round flasks are used, not square ones.

If you are trying to modify text tubes, make sure that they are the same type of glass as the tubing that you have. If you have a soda lime tube and borosilicate glass tubing, they will be very hard to connect together, or for the opposite as well. I see more and more test tubes made of cheaper non-borosilicate glass nowadays.

Thanks!
I don't mind the low quality test tubes, as I use test tubes a lot, so as long as I can tell what they're made of, I often buy a lot of cheap ones, and a few of the more expensive ones.

Loptr - 8-1-2015 at 11:50

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob

The test tube became deformed at the spot I was applying heat. I think I essentially un-annealed that part of the test tube, and when I moved the flame to another spot the differential caused it to crack.

Now that you mention it! The glass tube I was attempting to add to the test tube is flint glass! I don't know what difficulty this would add during my attempts, but this one ended in failure.

gdflp - 11-1-2015 at 07:07

Uggh, I was distilling some solvents yesterday outside, and after I was done I went inside and left the apparatus to cool down. I came back around an hour later and the condenser had shattered. Even though there was salt in the water and the water was still being pumped, the entire jacket froze and was cracked throughout. Next time I'm adding antifreeze and draining the condenser right afterwards.

The Volatile Chemist - 11-1-2015 at 11:47

That's ridiculous! What kind of condenser?

gdflp - 11-1-2015 at 12:04

Liebig, it was Chinese and the ice expanded enough to crack it. Don't know if this would have happened with a Pyrex condenser...

Sniffity - 19-1-2015 at 21:27

Quote: Originally posted by gdflp

Liebig, it was Chinese and the ice expanded enough to crack it. Don't know if this would have happened with a Pyrex condenser...

Ice in a Liebig? What happened there?

I mean, unless it was a high MP solvent...? But the salt was there... Confusing.

I'm thinking of getting a Liebig from a Chinese seller on eBay, costs about $25. Did you have any other problems with yours?

[Edited on 20-1-2015 by Sniffity]

Molecular Manipulations - 19-1-2015 at 21:58

He didn't put ice in the cooling jacket, he left the cold water in there outside after distillation and it froze. The expanding ice probably would have done the same in any quality of glass, so I'd say it's better that it happened in a cheap Chinese setup then a Pyrex one.

gdflp - 20-1-2015 at 10:08

No, I didn't have any other problems except for some smaller bubbles around the water outtake of the jacket. All of the condensers had small bubbles around there, I'm still fighting with the seller about that one. They're telling me in broken English that they will replace them if I have any issues, anyone else have more experience with this? The seller in question is interlabglassware, anyone know if they could be trusted, or should I open up a case with eBay? I'm less worried about the condensers, and more worried about the 3-neck 250ml rbf with reasonably big bubbles, a Claisen adapter with bubbles, and a 100ml addition funnel with bubbles in the neck.

The condenser I got was cheaper, it only cost around $14, but it seemed to work reasonably well.

The Volatile Chemist - 20-1-2015 at 15:56

Too bad.
I have an ancient Pyrex Florence flask of an adult friend of mine's. It has a good sized bubble in the side. It's my most used flask, too.

mayko - 28-1-2015 at 14:42

Years ago, a bright-eyed undergrad, I received my Unknown Compound on the first day of organic lab.

"Put your unknowns in the oven to dry," the supervisor said, "And come to the front for instructions."

Over the next fifteen minutes, paper work we were supposed to have already studied was read aloud to us. "Get to it!" the supervisor said.

I opened the door of the oven to retrieve my unknown. Acrid smoke billowed out of the oven.

Everyone else's white powders were glittering just fine on their filter papers. Mine had decomposed into black goo.

Let's just say that the semester didn't really improve from there. The highlight was the fellow who tried to walk a full pipette of thionyl chloride from the fume hood to his bench. Vapor pressure quickly built inside, sufficient to empty the pipette all over everything between the hood and the benches. He tried this twice.

Volanschemia - 28-1-2015 at 21:50

I've been in the hobby for about 2 years now and I've only had one accident and it was a minor one. I had some 3M Sodium Hydroxide solution in a glass bottle. Somehow the bottom of the bottle had cracked (probably when I put it down on the shelf last time I used it) and as soon as I opened the lid it started spraying out everywhere. It went all over most of my labels and I got some on my hands but since it wasn't a very strong solution and I washed it off pretty fast it didn't do anything besides tingle a little. The biggest casualty was all the labels. The NaOH turned them all green and made them fall apart.

Zombie - 28-1-2015 at 22:27

Quote: Originally posted by gdflp

No, I didn't have any other problems except for some smaller bubbles around the water outtake of the jacket. All of the condensers had small bubbles around there, I'm still fighting with the seller about that one. They're telling me in broken English that they will replace them if I have any issues, anyone else have more experience with this? The seller in question is interlabglassware, anyone know if they could be trusted, or should I open up a case with eBay? I'm less worried about the condensers, and more worried about the 3-neck 250ml rbf with reasonably big bubbles, a Claisen adapter with bubbles, and a 100ml addition funnel with bubbles in the neck.

The condenser I got was cheaper, it only cost around $14, but it seemed to work reasonably well.

Interlab is the sticker on a box set of glassware I bought on Amazon. That sticker was placed over a printed label in Chinese. My point is ALL of the 32 pieces in the set had issues. Mianly air bubbles in the glass, and malformed rims.
Even a product as simple as a glass funnel had a haze to it, and the stem was clearly attached, and not one piece blown/molded.
You will get no satisfaction from them as a company. They wanted me to pay to return (shipping) plus a "re-stock" fee.

I gave the whole deal to my 10yo grandson, and ordered new gear from Deschem on Ebay. I'm not spamming for them... As a business they gave me 10% off the order, and free shipping over 100.00USD

You can google the company, and find them that way too. They take pride in the glass they produce, and the company is 100% legit.

I'm just trying to help others avoid the Amazon kit, and Interlab.

Pyro - 3-2-2015 at 08:28

Had a little accident doing a synthesis of urine from EtOH with a few ''lab partners''
A champagne bottle slipped through my hand (I had sabered it earlier) and the sharp rim sliced open my hand where the artery enters the index finger. It soon became a big bloody mess which chased away most of my guests

I stopped the bleeding and put in 2 stitches but one tore out the next day when I was lifting a coal bag.

This also gave me a chance to look over the first aid kit, which is more of a chest the size of a small travel bag. Looks like most things in there are past use, tape that doesn't stick, crumbling rubber things, cracked splints, Mercurochrome, chromic catgut sutures (how long have those been obsolete?),...
we do have a nice collection of hardware though, even a pair of chest cutter (God knows why they are in a first aid kit

) but apparently my dad used to raid deserted hospitals for the leftover equipment

On another note: My dad is in Brussels with a brain hemorrhage since yesterday so I have the place to my own

[Edited on 3-2-2015 by Pyro]

CuReUS - 4-2-2015 at 00:33

Quote: Originally posted by mayko

I opened the door of the oven to retrieve my unknown. Acrid smoke billowed out of the oven.
Everyone else's white powders were glittering just fine on their filter papers. Mine had decomposed into black goo.

why did that happen ?

Quote:

The highlight was the fellow who tried to walk a full pipette of thionyl chloride from the fume hood to his bench. Vapor pressure quickly built inside, sufficient to empty the pipette all over everything between the hood and the benches

why couldn't he just use a syringe ? how did the others do it?

Etaoin Shrdlu - 26-2-2015 at 16:08

I set a beaker in the freezer for recrystallization last night, and went to goof around with other things while the solution cooled. It went completely out of my mind, of course. When I checked today everything was frozen solid; the bottom of the beaker pushed out cleanly, still adhering to the ice-covered crystals in a nice round fragment. RIP 1000 mL.

j_sum1 - 26-2-2015 at 16:14

Quote: Originally posted by Etaoin Shrdlu

I set a beaker in the freezer for recrystallization last night, and went to goof around with other things while the solution cooled. It went completely out of my mind, of course. When I checked today everything was frozen solid; the bottom of the beaker pushed out cleanly, still adhering to the ice-covered crystals in a nice round fragment. RIP 1000 mL.

I hear ya. I hate losing my 1000mL beakers. <sniff>

mayko - 26-2-2015 at 16:34

Quote: Originally posted by CuReUS

Quote: Originally posted by mayko

why did that happen ?

I would guess that the grad student who was preparing the unknown samples didn't consider thermal decomposition, and the lab supervisor didn't check the list to make sure they could all be oven-dried safely.

Quote: Originally posted by CuReUS

Quote:

why couldn't he just use a syringe ? how did the others do it?

They were supposed to use the pipette to add the thionyl chloride under the hood, and carry the reaction flask back.

Quote: Originally posted by Etaoin Shrdlu

My recent adventure in Reagent and Apparatus DeAcquisition:

It's relatively mild, but the wind is howling as I tidy my lab and let a Fischer esterification reflux. The lights go out: at first I think the breaker has tripped, but in fact the windstorm overhead has taken out the power lines.

Eff it, I say. I unplug my heater and go to sleep early.

I wake up cold. It's really cold outside. I feed the cat, brew some coffee, and stumble outside to restart the reaction, now that the power is back on.

NO!

NOOOOOOOO

Turns out, water expands upon freezing

The bright side is, I learned that a pressure-equalizing addition funnel can work as a reflux condenser in a pinch in an unheated lab...

Etaoin Shrdlu - 27-2-2015 at 16:49

Oh dear. A condenser's much worse to lose than a beaker. Glad you found a substitute though.

The Volatile Chemist - 3-3-2015 at 09:22

That's horrible! Sorry for your loss!

Zombie - 3-3-2015 at 15:11

Is there an address to send flowers?

I feel terrible now...

How do you deal w/ Chemical storage? Or the water pipes?
I'd be a nervous wreck all the time.

mayko - 3-3-2015 at 16:22

Quote:

How do you deal w/ Chemical storage?

Most chemicals contract upon freezing, so although I've watched the acetic acid and the DMSO solidify, the bottles are fine. It hasn't gotten cold enough to worry about aqueous solutions. (Yay colligative properties!)

Quote:

Or the water pipes?

In my house, yeah... but this is like the one advantage to not having running water in the shed :cool:

Quote:

I'd be a nervous wreck all the time.

Heh... I don't need an excuse for that!

Volanschemia - 4-3-2015 at 17:59

I smashed my 60mL fritted funnel today

Went to grab something behind it and as I was pulling it out I bumped it out of the cabinet. Maybe I should rearrange my setup...

Zombie - 4-3-2015 at 18:55

Quote: Originally posted by mayko

Quote:

How do you deal w/ Chemical storage?

Quote:

Or the water pipes?

In my house, yeah... but this is like the one advantage to not having running water in the shed :cool:

Quote:

I'd be a nervous wreck all the time.

Heh... I don't need an excuse for that!

Only because I have NO clue on how to make multiple quotes...

I get ya'

One day i'll learn.

Zombie - 4-3-2015 at 19:08

Quote: Originally posted by TheAustralianScientist

I smashed my 60mL fritted funnel today

Went to grab something behind it and as I was pulling it out I bumped it out of the cabinet. Maybe I should rearrange my setup...

Hey TheAustralianScientist~

If you all want a light sucker as a member... I might be interested.

I'm thinking "Black Holes are actually giant drains in the space time fabric.

F" Hawkins, and that other Light bulb guy.

They both have it backwards.

I'll invent the math to prove it (with your groups help)

Bert knows what i'm talking about. So does Mr. BlogFast.

We'll make an EtOH sucker that uses the sun for power to travel to another realm... Oh wait! I already did that.

I'll make the theories, and you guys make the math...

50 /50 but I GET THE WINE!!!!! (45 / 77 ) or something like that.

I KNOW it all sucks, and I can prove it!

Zyklon-A - 4-3-2015 at 19:26

lolwat^^^!

gdflp - 4-3-2015 at 19:35

Quote: Originally posted by Zombie

Quote: Originally posted by TheAustralianScientist

I smashed my 60mL fritted funnel today

Went to grab something behind it and as I was pulling it out I bumped it out of the cabinet. Maybe I should rearrange my setup...

Zombie, I think you're forgetting your place, you're the Hillbilly. Aga is the Forum Drunkard, only he is entitled to ramble incoherently

Zombie - 4-3-2015 at 19:38

Quote: Originally posted by Zyklon-A

lolwat^^^!

I had to google that..Quote:
"Synonymous to lolwhat, implies disbelief to the point of absurdity, where even something that actually happened cannot be believed"

That's what they said to the apple guy!

F' him too!!!!!!!

This forum alone can change the known universe.

You all know about the Quantum Computer, and Bloom cells right?

Don't make me site these.

A binary digit can be BOTH at the same time. It's been done.

A fuel cell can make energy one atom at a time. GOOGLE sells power to California.

Black holes are dark suckers.

Bite me!

Etaoin Shrdlu - 4-3-2015 at 19:42

BOTH? Both what?!? Don't leave us in suspense here.

Zombie - 4-3-2015 at 19:55

Give me a second and I will find ti.

It's the same conversation I had w/ BlogFast...

They are near A zero. That makes Quantum physics come into play w/ computers.

A single binary digit that we know, now becomes free thought, to the point of Artificial Intelligence making up it's own mind.

I've been posting long enough on varied forums to be able to point out the AI posters.

You all know how CAPTCHA works, right?

The guy was paying people to figure out scrambled or warped computer scans.

NOW WE ALL FIGURE THEM OUT FOR FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Captcha is a F'n SCAM!

Ever notice the new member that speaks English yet has no continual train of thought?

The guy that has no inflection? No real continuity?

IT'S AI learning on the web, and WE are teaching it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOOGLE, and NASA!!!! OWN the Quantum computer.

I'll link what we are allowed to know...

Zombie - 4-3-2015 at 20:06

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbApj1U84Fg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMdHDHEuOUE

https://gigaom.com/2014/01/31/leave-the-absolute-zero-to-nas...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dXNmbiGPS4

Don't even TRY to tell me this is not real. There is a working computer that NASA, and GOOGLE are running that takes one binary digit, and made it THREE.

The same math that makes "Black holes" exist, made this happen. Quantum math.

I'd love to discuss any part of this further.

Deathunter88 - 1-4-2015 at 00:19

Quote: Originally posted by Little_Ghost_again

I wasnt going to fess up but decided I would. I saw a fractionating column for sale, 1 meter long!!! quickfit joints never used before, it also came packed with rings and a heating jacket.
the price? £130. I thought it was a bargain but was short of cash so I sold my beloved bike to a kid at school, the bike was worth around £250 but I needed quick cash so let it go for £100.
I got dad to drive me the 40 miles to go pick up the column as i didnt want to risk posting. Traffic was awful and it took us 2 hours to get there, on the way back I could here it move around in the boot so when dad said he was going to stop to get fuel I decided I would rearrange it in the boot to stop it moving.
He pulled into the petrol station and I jumped out to open the boot, I grabbed the column and lifted it out.
Dad said something as I did it so I turned with it in my hand, part was still poking inside the boot and as I swung round.....................Crack against the side of the boot! One gorgeous column in half

.
No bike and no column!!! All those distillations I had planed

, but all is well and it could of been worse! I wont be lazy next time and will use the oil bath instead of a bunsen

A 1 meter fractioning column for £130??? Here a column that size sells for 23$ AT MOST...

Texium - 1-4-2015 at 19:47

A couple weeks ago my favorite fritted funnel got broken.

I don't even know how it happened. I had been using it like normal, and after disassembling the filtering apparatus, I set it down on the bench. About 15 minutes later, I picked it up to clean off, and it had a big crack in the glass right below the fritted disk. I have another, but it's coarse frit rather than fine, and that isn't suitable for most things that I need to filter.

The Volatile Chemist - 2-4-2015 at 12:18

Aww, that sucks. I haven't broken anything recently, but I know the feeling. Like the time I ordered a 50mL beaker so I could own 3 small beakers for making solutions in, and I broke one of my beakers before it arrived...

blargish - 3-4-2015 at 19:18

Just broke my 500 mL sep funnel today...

ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!! :mad:

Zombie - 4-4-2015 at 11:54

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

Aww, that sucks. I haven't broken anything recently, but I know the feeling. Like the time I ordered a 50mL beaker so I could own 3 small beakers for making solutions in, and I broke one of my beakers before it arrived...

Murphy's law Bro! Happens every time.

The Volatile Chemist - 10-4-2015 at 15:42

Quote: Originally posted by Zombie

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

Murphy's law Bro! Happens every time.

And.... I just broke something today, so that statement came back to bite me... I broke a 250mL Beaker by tapping it (It was full of CuSO4 crystals), and I broke a glass stirring rod. I only have two left! :/ And I just bought them. I need to stop using them to pry at stuff lodged in the beaker. The other stirring rod I broke snapped because I was prying at some Urea crystals

Zombie - 10-4-2015 at 19:21

I read somewhere that Hobby Lobby sells glass rod for crafts that is dirt cheap, and youcan get t in cool colors.

http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/opaque-glass-rods-147074...

The Volatile Chemist - 10-4-2015 at 19:34

But I don't wan't cool colors...

No, that's actually a good idea. Too bad they didn't sell chemically pure ceramic enamals...

Kitsune1 - 11-4-2015 at 14:54

Damn, I thought I was doing so well with my glassware, no breaks for a couple of years and today I was planning on doing an end-point titration of HCl I made last week. My prized Class A Volac burette (Given to me by my Grandfather (was a Chemist) when I was a kid) was in the stand while I went and got the solutions out, I came back and the burette exploded from the stopcock, glass all over the bench. How marvellous, of all the things that could have broken that get exposed to hot and cold or that isn't stored in lots of padding, my burette breaks and whilst I'm not even using it.

100PercentChemistry - 30-9-2015 at 16:37

-one day a face shield fell on the tip of my expensive Burette.
-a 3 way adapter and a condenser where stuck, so I pryed them apart, and they broke

-a beaker broke, spilling hot liquid and broke my hotplate, luckily it was not very expensive,

I haven't had any big accidents. The biggest one I've had is.
- a 150mL bottle of 98 percent H2SO4 spilled

ave369 - 1-10-2015 at 01:18

Shit happening to glassware is becoming disturbingly common in my lab. Yesterday I broke my pi-shaped glass tube. About the ruined retort I already told everyone. Also recently I dropped and shattered the Buchner funnel, but it is made of porcelain, so it was easy to glue it whole again.

Little_Ghost_again - 1-10-2015 at 18:07

Quote: Originally posted by Deathunter88

Quote: Originally posted by Little_Ghost_again

.
No bike and no column!!! All those distillations I had planed

, but all is well and it could of been worse! I wont be lazy next time and will use the oil bath instead of a bunsen

A 1 meter fractioning column for £130??? Here a column that size sells for 23$ AT MOST...

I cant find the ebay link now, and google hasnt thrown up much but I will try and describe, it might actually have a more technical name!
http://img.directindustry.com/images_di/photo-g/distillation...
if you look at that picture it was a bit like that but had two other outer glass water jackets, it also has those glass packing rings inside and 3 sections had a kind indentation for a heating wire. It dosnt sound it but it was a real bargain.
$23 is about £15??? I doubt here you get simple 1 meter column for that

, shipping would be that! I now use a borrosilic glass tube I got off ebay for £11, I use small glass beads as packing and a rubber bung at the top to connect to a quickfit bend that connect to my condenser, I havnt used it much but it seemed to work well once it warmed up.
I tend to be lazy now and just distill and then try and get more water out with sodium or calcium sulfate. I sort of gave up trying to get really dry ethanol, I dont need it as dry as I was first convinced I did.
Same with sulphuric acid I was paying £10 more for 98% and the cheaper 96% seems just as good for what I need.
I am going to switch over to the drain cleaner when I find a source cheap enough with shipping.

The Volatile Chemist - 5-10-2015 at 12:21

Today my lab in AP chem went rather badly. The teacher decided to switch from using great glass burettes for titration to using a crappy plastic 'burette' with a drop counter and pH meter. Our drop-counter would not calibrate, but my teacher insisted we try again until it was too late. My lab partners will be repeating the lab during their lunch, but since I have a class that period, I cannot help...

aga - 5-10-2015 at 12:40

A Plastic Burette ?

World's gone mad.

The Volatile Chemist - 5-10-2015 at 12:53

Quote: Originally posted by aga

A Plastic Burette ?

World's gone mad.

Yup.. I know. It was shaped like a large syringe body, and the stopcock kept unscrewing and falling off

Alkoxide - 8-10-2015 at 05:45

Two weekends ago I attempted my first vacuum distillation. I had refluxed isopropanol with calcium oxide to dry it and needed to distill off the dry isopropanol. I bought a beautiful explosion rated KNF two stage vacuum pump a while back and was itching to try it out. I set up everything for vacuum distillation and turned on the vacuum pump. It turns out I had accidentally hooked up my vacuum tubing to the exhaust port on the vacuum pump (ports were not marked on the pump). After 10 seconds of nothing happening, the penny stopper on the top of my distillation adapter popped out of its joint, promptly rising a foot or so in the air, and fell on my concrete floor, shattering. Won't make that mistake again. I replaced the stopper and tried again. Not to long after the distillation started the second time the flask started bumping badly and calcium oxide got into the still head, down the condenser, and into my receiving flask. It was a pain to clean up. Some of my glassware is still dirty with CaO, going to try soaking it in Vinegar which should get rid of any remaining CaO.

Little_Ghost_again - 10-10-2015 at 08:39

Had to end my session today

, I stirred a solution containing mostly 98% sulphuric acid with a hollow glass rod (it was to hand), placed the rod on a white tile next to a clean rod.
Went off for an hour to do a couple of things and decided to stir one of the containers with bleach and salt in, didnt even stop to think about which rod was used or not and stuck the rod with a small amount of sulphuric acid straight into the small falsk of strong bleach.
Small quick fizz nothing special but a sudden strong acrid smell and now my tongue and throat are sore. No fume hood no nothing and standing right over the flask. Could have probably been alot worse but the stupidity of it is what really hurts.

aga - 15-10-2015 at 09:05

A fly destroyed a 100mm glass funnel and a 250ml beaker in the lab today, and spilt hot calcium chloride solution all over the place.

To achieve this it caused a glass prism to leap from a shelf, crashing down into the funnel/beaker.

it cleverly manipulated an idiot with a flyswatter to make all this happen.

Would not be too bad, but a slug killed my washing machine yesterday - it got onto the back of the control PCB, shorted it, killing the board, then fried itself (must have been a suicide slug).

The bugs are fighting back i swear.

[Edited on 15-10-2015 by aga]

NedsHead - 15-10-2015 at 22:37

Quote: Originally posted by aga

a slug killed my washing machine yesterday

I was expecting an elaborate story about how a slug manipulated you into destroying your washing machine, I'm a little disappointed actually

aga - 16-10-2015 at 00:00

The key question is who radicalised the slug and how.

Previously the he was a straight-A student with distinctions in both sliming and leaf-eating.

Current intel points to links with the radical Al-Slugbah organisation.

Little_Ghost_again - 16-10-2015 at 05:43

Quote: Originally posted by aga

A fly destroyed a 100mm glass funnel and a 250ml beaker in the lab today, and spilt hot calcium chloride solution all over the place.

To achieve this it caused a glass prism to leap from a shelf, crashing down into the funnel/beaker.

it cleverly manipulated an idiot with a flyswatter to make all this happen.

Would not be too bad, but a slug killed my washing machine yesterday - it got onto the back of the control PCB, shorted it, killing the board, then fried itself (must have been a suicide slug).

The bugs are fighting back i swear.

[Edited on 15-10-2015 by aga]

Whatever you do dont try and claim for the washing machine on insurance!! That is one claim form that would sweep the net LOL.
I would love to see their faces reading the form at the IC, 'a slug yeah right hes trying it on!' 'also claims a fly is terrorizing him' LMAO.

JJay - 16-10-2015 at 22:01

I once saw a 25 gram vial of bromine dropped on a dorm room floor. It broke. I immediately dumped a few hundred grams of sodium thiosulfate on it, but the room had to be vacated for several hours.

100PercentChemistry - 17-10-2015 at 13:49

Grrr

Some manganese dioxide from a battery I was directing just spilled everywhere! This stuff really stains. It was very wet, so i vacuum filtered it. It got all clogged up so i tried to remove it when is spilled and stained my lab coat, shoes, pants, and now my gloves are black from cleaning it up. It spilled over the floor, and some of the carpet(I know carpet is bad in the lab, I will remove it someday). It was good sized spill, about 230g of wet manganese dioxide, that splashed into tiny pieces everywhere.

[Edited on 17-10-2015 by 100PercentChemistry]

JJay - 18-10-2015 at 21:41

Quote: Originally posted by 100PercentChemistry

Grrr

Oh yeah, carpet in the lab is the worst! You wouldn't believe how much carpet gets eaten by one drop of 37% HCl....

violet sin - 19-10-2015 at 17:32

Been doing a little work with Pt and a Pt/Pd ~50/50 alloy... Spilt the little catch tray with filings, shavings and dust with a few cut bits.... AHHHHHHRRRRRRRGGGGGGG.. MOTHER FU℃¥€®!!!

of course it almost made it to the table, almost. Instead it flips a few times and empties it self all over a pile of junk I have been meaning to clean up. Yet hadn't. Pile of tools, wire and a bucket of wood scraps. Mainly in the bucket. But all the bits are aligned with end grain up so won't be easy to free the grains of metal from rough wood.... I had a feeling that was going to happen, but pushed the though aside.

It was somewhere on the order of 0.5 - 0.75g, no huge loss, and I did find the largest piece, closer to a gram and a half. But some times you are just so mad at your self for valuing time more than proper eticute like cleaning up one in a freaking while.

Not actually a chem project at all, jewellery. But I had been keeping strict tabs on how much loss was occurring in different steps... All for naught now. Total genius

The Volatile Chemist - 24-10-2015 at 12:30

Quote: Originally posted by JJay

I once saw a 25 gram vial of bromine dropped on a dorm room floor. It broke. I immediately dumped a few hundred grams of sodium thiosulfate on it, but the room had to be vacated for several hours.

Why did you have bromine, but more importantly, sodium thiosulfate, in your dorm?

JJay - 24-10-2015 at 22:21

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

Quote: Originally posted by JJay

I once saw a 25 gram vial of bromine dropped on a dorm room floor. It broke. I immediately dumped a few hundred grams of sodium thiosulfate on it, but the room had to be vacated for several hours.

Why did you have bromine, but more importantly, sodium thiosulfate, in your dorm?

I had sodium thiosulfate for cleaning up bromine. Why did I have bromine? Curiosity.

Pumukli - 24-10-2015 at 23:42

Unfortunately thiosulphate is not very effective against bromine in the gas phase. :-)

At first I wanted to strengthen my comment along the lines of "... it surely was a great experience to have you as a neighbour or room-mate..." - but abandoned the idea because I quickly realised that I also did a few stupid things in the dorm.

Maybe the "nicest" was when I made a little bit of nitrogen-triiodide and put the wet slush on a tissuepaper on my shelf for drying. Then I left the room for study in another place and forgot everything about the triiodide.

When I came back atfer an hour or two my roommates were pretty excited, door and windows wide open, they were frantically jumping all over the place, laughing, etc. because the compound on the paper just finished the drying a few minutes before I came back! And of course the end point of the drying process was the self-destruction.

Fortunately nobody was hurt, no shrapnel any sorts just bits and pieces of torn tissue paper here and there, and halogene smell in the air.

So I think they liked to have me as a room-mate.

Dr.Bob - 25-10-2015 at 14:07

Who didn't have bromine in their dorm room? My favorite dorm chemical was sodium peroxide.

aga - 25-10-2015 at 14:24

All this guys-sleeping-with-guys stuff has helped reassure me that the decision Not to go to Uni was the right one.

Add Bromine accidents, NI₃ and ANY peroxide lays the matter to rest in my mind (such as it is).

The Volatile Chemist - 25-10-2015 at 14:36

Haha, hilarious. I probably wont ever live in a dorm, but I still have a year and 3/4s of high school, so...
I tried making some NI₃ by putting tincture of iodine solution (and some sulfuric acid, hoping to produce iodine from the KI too.) and ammonia solution in a good sized container. No precipitate was formed. Any suggestions? Sorry if you consider thread derailing a crime.

aga - 25-10-2015 at 14:49

Synth calls for I₂ and NH₃.

That would be a highly basic solution ...

Check yourself into the nearest Chem Synth correctional facility immediately.

The Volatile Chemist - 25-10-2015 at 14:50

Haha, OK...I'll try again without interfering with the norm...

aga - 25-10-2015 at 14:58

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtxJnqVnPR4

Over here it's all Povidone with all the polymer stuff in it, not 'Tincture'.

Edit:

Interfering with the 'norm' is fine, so long as one understands the 'norm' very well and can explain and demonstrate an improved working procedure.

Your good idea didn't work, so the 'norm' is better (currently).

Doesn't mean your idea was wrong, maybe just the calculations or execution.

Science !

[Edited on 25-10-2015 by aga]

ave369 - 26-10-2015 at 01:01

Quote: Originally posted by aga

Over here it's all Povidone with all the polymer stuff in it, not 'Tincture'.

[Edited on 25-10-2015 by aga]

Try to locate a Russian pharmacy. I've heard that they exist in Western countries, in large cities. Many old-timey prescriptions can be found there, including iodine tincture.

missmendeleev - 26-10-2015 at 04:37

Quote: Originally posted by ave369

Quote: Originally posted by aga

Over here it's all Povidone with all the polymer stuff in it, not 'Tincture'.

[Edited on 25-10-2015 by aga]

Try to locate a Russian pharmacy. I've heard that they exist in Western countries, in large cities. Many old-timey prescriptions can be found there, including iodine tincture.

Don't even consider looking in Canada, some recalls a few years ago and a couple this year ended up with confiscation of the medications/chemicals. They were recalled because of "mislabelling". It was because the label was in Russian.

Praxichys - 26-10-2015 at 08:39

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

Today my lab in AP chem went rather badly. The teacher decided to switch from using great glass burettes for titration to using a crappy plastic 'burette' with a drop counter and pH meter. Our drop-counter would not calibrate, but my teacher insisted we try again until it was too late. My lab partners will be repeating the lab during their lunch, but since I have a class that period, I cannot help...

Quote: Originally posted by aga

A Plastic Burette ?

World's gone mad.

Holy hell, I have seen some stupid things happen to schools but this takes the fucking cake. I think this is what Volitile was talking about :

http://www2.vernier.com/booklets/vdc-btd.pdf

I like where it says "NOTE: This product is to be used for educational purposes only. It is not appropriate for industrial, medical, research, or commercial applications."

So my question is, IF YOU'RE TRAINING FUTURE EDUCATORS, CHEMISTS, DOCTORS, AND RESEARCHERS, WHY WOULD YOU USE THIS?

The Volatile Chemist - 27-10-2015 at 17:05

Yup, that's it exactly. Terrible. Guess what? We're using Vernier stuff all year! (well, most of the time we use glass burettes and no tech., but whenever data needs to be graphed, we use the vernier handheld devices.)

ave369 - 27-10-2015 at 20:32

Quote: Originally posted by missmendeleev

The trick is to know what to look for. The iodine tincture is labeled with the word ЙОДА. If you research some Cyrillic alphabet, it says "Yoda". For the true Jedi, this tincture is.

[Edited on 28-10-2015 by ave369]

JJay - 6-11-2015 at 05:12

Today, after a long day involving several reactions and distillations using numerous pieces of glassware, I dropped a magnetic stirbar down the drain and had to fish it out with another stirbar and a piece of wire.

[Edited on 6-11-2015 by JJay]

The Volatile Chemist - 10-11-2015 at 15:20

Yech. Our basement sink was totally wrecked by my chemistry hobby. I'm totally buying my family another when we move out (from guilt, not obligation)...

TheAlchemistPirate - 10-11-2015 at 20:13

Yesterday I was reacting the MnO2 from an alkaline battery with hydrochloric acid, to get Manganese (II) chloride. After dissolving the MnO2 pieces at room temperature (with lots of chlorine gas evolved), it was getting dark (not surprising when nighttime starts at 5:30 around here, thanks daylight savings time). I decided to boil the reaction to completion indoors, since it seemed to have mostly reacted. Needless to say, my basement was soon full of chlorine gas! Luckily I have much practice when it comes to filling rooms with toxic gases, so I held my breath and stopped the reaction, then told my family to avoid the basement for the night. They were surprisingly understanding. The basement in now aired out, and no one has pulmonary edema, so it's all resolved now

. I now have a problem of finding an outdoor lab in the land of the eternal night, however...

Upsilon - 10-11-2015 at 20:38

Quote: Originally posted by TheAlchemistPirate

Yesterday I was reacting the MnO2 from an alkaline battery with hydrochloric acid, to get Manganese (II) chloride. After dissolving the MnO2 pieces at room temperature (with lots of chlorine gas evolved), it was getting dark (not surprising when nighttime starts at 5:30 around here, thanks daylight savings time). I decided to boil the reaction to completion indoors, since it seemed to have mostly reacted. Needless to say, my basement was soon full of chlorine gas! Luckily I have much practice when it comes to filling rooms with toxic gases, so I held my breath and stopped the reaction, then told my family to avoid the basement for the night. They were surprisingly understanding. The basement in now aired out, and no one has pulmonary edema, so it's all resolved now

. I now have a problem of finding an outdoor lab in the land of the eternal night, however...

That's why I don't use that reaction. I tried it once and hated every bit of it. Extremely slow and produces tons of gas. The presence of all that gas above the reaction makes the reaction proceed even slower. Something you might look into instead is using oxalic acid with sulfuric or some other acid. No toxic gases produced at all with this one. Vinegar even works in place of sulfuric acid, though it goes slower.

j_sum1 - 10-11-2015 at 21:00

Nurdrage has several good videos showing a few different techniques on that one. My next attempt will be to bubble SO2 through. Burn sulfur in a tuna can under inverted funnel. A vacuum pump pulls the gas through the MnO2 mix and then through a NaOH scrubber. The advantage of this method is that it tends to leave the Fe contaminants alone. Therefore, when you filter, you get a reasonably pure solution of MnSO4.

TheAlchemistPirate - 10-11-2015 at 21:40

Strangely the resulting solution (after filtering out the carbon) didn't seem to have any Fe chloride impurities at all (energizer batteries). I did wash the MnO2 with dry acetone before the reaction due to a misunderstanding of a procedure, but the MnO2 was in massive chunks when I did that...
I still don't understand why chlorine gas is evolved, since it is reacting with the manganese and other metals to form chlorides. Shouldn't this reaction only produce water or something similar as a biproduct?
The crystals are beautiful though, and I probably won't try making them again as I haven't heard of any use for the compound other than simply being a good way to store manganese.

j_sum1 - 10-11-2015 at 21:57

Well, that question is easy.
MnO2 has Mn in +4 oxidation state. MnSO4 has Mn in +2. To reduce the Mn something else must oxidise.

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