Sciencemadness Discussion Board

When first starting a home lab, do you recommend following videos from nile red/chemplayer/nurdrage, or vogel's?

Cou - 14-11-2019 at 16:40

I've been following nile red's videos to build up a collection of equipment, and follow his videos. Right now i've been following the videos for making phenol from aspirin, so i went through the video, wrote down every piece of glassware and equipment he uses, and ordered the list.

another advantage of online videos is that they tend to use reagents from the hardware store, which I prefer because of the challenge of making something from OTC sources only. Not always possible with vogel's procedures (1-butanol is hypothetically possible but difficult to make OTC), but most chemicals in vogels you can still buy from ebay or amazon or elemental scientific.

it doesn't have to be an either/or question. Both organic chemistry lab books and online videos are resources to follow you can use both. but which would you recommend for a beginner who needs to make a list of glassware and equipment to collect?

[Edited on 15-11-2019 by Cou]

vibbzlab - 14-11-2019 at 16:46

When first starting a video ,it's doesn't matter if you do a video which is previously done by someone or not. The whole thing depends on how good you edit the video and present it to audience so that they sits and watches your video. That is a very challenging thing too , for me it's challenging. I have been struggling to do that now ,the right way of presenting.practise that by doing videos which you are well-versed with and then when you learn much about presentation,then u can start to experiment your own videos.
I am still in the pace of learning the skill of video presentation

Cou - 14-11-2019 at 17:04

Quote: Originally posted by vibbzlab  
When first starting a video ,it's doesn't matter if you do a video which is previously done by someone or not. The whole thing depends on how good you edit the video and present it to audience so that they sits and watches your video. That is a very challenging thing too , for me it's challenging. I have been struggling to do that now ,the right way of presenting.practise that by doing videos which you are well-versed with and then when you learn much about presentation,then u can start to experiment your own videos.
I am still in the pace of learning the skill of video presentation



I didn't mean making my own videos. I meant following other ppl's videos to use as lab procedures

j_sum1 - 14-11-2019 at 17:24

Depends entirely on what you are wanting to do.
I would copy chemplayerif I was trying to do the same thing as chemplayer.
I would copy NileRed if I was trying to do the same thing as NileRed.
Most of the time I am following my own curiosities and so I use a range of sources for research and do what I want.


That much I thought was blindingly obvious. Or have I misunderstood your question?

Phosphor-ing - 14-11-2019 at 18:30

Depends on how you learn. Visual learners with benefit from videos more, others more from books. I use both to keep it interesting.
If chemical acquisition is a problem. May I suggest: Mario840 https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=63...
We have several members here willing to sell hard to find/make chemicals to our members. With a little research you can find others on here.

vibbzlab - 14-11-2019 at 19:37

Yes , you should learn basic lab techniques which you should follow so that you won't get killed and by killed I mean literally that itself ,because running a lab is really dangerous,but when safety is taken care of then running lab is actually very interesting and enjoyable

Ubya - 15-11-2019 at 01:16

i usually go for a mix of videos and books/articles.
videos have the advantage of showing what is happening, i mean let's say a procedure says that your reaction solution changes color, how do you know if it is changing to the right one? vibbzlab didn't know if the salycilyc acid sulphonate he made was good because he knew that the reaction would darken, but he got a nearly black solution.
good books would give you many more info to troubleshoot any problems, but most of the time it's just a recipe.

about following lab practices, use a book, videos are made to look good, they don't show well safety practices in place (nile red for example)

Sulaiman - 15-11-2019 at 01:31

I agree with the above,
follow a video as it is easier,
read as much as you can absorb from Vogel as it covers a lot of basic stuff as well as the complex.
For equipment - probably follow what you see on video as that would be what is currently available,
but some things that you want to try may not have a video for guidance so use your own discretion.

phlogiston - 15-11-2019 at 02:17

Absolutely both.
At universities it is not different. You get textbooks and lectures for theory. Then you have practical courses where experienced people teach/show you actual lab techniques in practice and you learn by doing.

So, get good books, study theory. and watch videos to see how experiments are actually setup and conducted in practice. Especially the ones that show where things can go wrong are very educational. Then gain experience by doing.
Don't start with experiments that could easily kill you if you make one simple mistake, but build experience with simpler/safer projects.

[Edited on 15-11-2019 by phlogiston]

Mesa - 15-11-2019 at 02:18

Why not both? I learned from books/forums for the first year or so, and picked up one or two bad habits.
A funny example: I never learned how cation and anion was pronounced til well after I'd learned and become familiar with the concepts. I'd pronounce them "CAY-shun" and "an-yun"(onion but with an a.) because I'd never heard them spoken out loud.

Point being that neither source will offer the optimal learning experience alone.

Herr Haber - 15-11-2019 at 05:41

Like other people say: videos and books.
Both are good sources. Videos will give you more details about procedures and from books you learn to develop your own methods.
You dont really need videos to have an idea of your purchase list. A good idea of what interests you should suffice.

Not sure I'm clear. It's a very good question though.

Schmiddy - 16-11-2019 at 18:13

I'm a practical guy so videos are great for me to see how something is done and then copy it and as mentioned the YT chemist are mosty hobbyist/amateurs so they use OTC reagents that I have access too.

And now with ebay getting decent ground joint glassware a affordable prices is within reach to joe average.

I'm just a regular Joe who did't finish high school and now I'm self educating myself through youtube and pdf files.

Vogel is a great book but to be honest much of it is way over my head at this time but watching more videos gets me to go back and read more.

for buying equipment equipment I strongly suggest a ground joint vacuum glass distillation kit in 24/29 or 24/40 at least 1000ml in size(boiling flask)
a buchner funnel,whether ceramic or sintered glass(chemistry is a LOT of filtering it turns out)
and a separatory funnel, at least 1000ml in size.

the rest of the gear like beakers can be substituted for mason jars and such if your on a budget.