Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Obtaining beginning glassware?

Jay - 13-7-2013 at 18:28

Hello fellow mad scientists!
I've been reading this forum for quite a while, (over the course of about two years) and I now have some questions of my own.:) I experiment all the time, having stockpiled some very sexy chemicals. However, my hardware is limited to jam jars, candy thermometers, plastic cups, *slightly* damaged test tubes had from school, and many improvised apparatus.

In order to move on to more advanced/corrosive things, I'd like to obtain some basic glassware. I'm thinking flasks, beakers, graduated cyl, maybe a sep funnel? Also would be nice to have a good quality mortar and pestle and most basic ring stand with few clamps. Right now I only do inorganic chems, but I'd like to move on to organics once I get some serious experience. Could anyone reccomend a good supplier of glassware, perhaps a kit for beginners? Cheaper, btw, is better. Money is a factor in this.

subsecret - 13-7-2013 at 18:38

E-Bay is a good source for cheap glassware. A lot of it is used, so be sure to clean it really well before using it. (It's hard to know what people used it for, so cleaning is very important). E-Bay also offers lots of new glassware. Depending on the size of your hometown, you may be able to find a science/education store. My local education store has loads of new Pyrex "Vista" glassware at really low prices (Beakers and such). I recommend looking for an education supply store. What sort of inorganic experiments are you looking to do?

Jay - 13-7-2013 at 19:07

I'll use eBay, but only as a last resort. The idea of hot acid bubbling in questionable glass is a bit unnerving. A ''local education store'' sounds PERFECT! No shipping costs, things breaking, or waiting a week for your stuff. Orlando is pretty big. Do you remember any names, something to give me a lead? As for experiments, I'd do just about anything. Grow cu sulphate crystals, prepare various chlorides, make halogens (I made iodine without any glass, 10 grams), make chloroform, just for shits and giggles cuz I have no use for it right now. Eventually I'd like to distill and prepare acids, make silver nitrate, fuck around with alkalis other than lithium. Endless fun to be had, things to learn.

skeletal-clown - 13-7-2013 at 21:39

If you don't mind ordering from overseas, I'd highly recommend Laboy. http://www.laboyglass.com/ They're really well priced, have $15 flat rate shipping worldwide, are decent quality and have really good customer service. I ordered quite a lot of glass from them recently and it arrived in just over a week (Australia). The only thing that was damaged was my Graham condenser which they replaced free of charge, let me keep the broken one and gave me a $10 discount on my next purchase. They've also got some really nice looking sets. All in all, they're a pretty great company if you don't mind buying internationally.

Jay - 14-7-2013 at 05:29

Thanks, I'll definitely be ordering some glass from laboy. I do have a few concerns however. Is it 15$ no matter how much crap you order, or is that the base price that increases? I also couldn't find any beakers? I'll surely need them...

ElizabethGreene - 14-7-2013 at 09:04

I heartily recommend SM's Dr. Bob and Laboy. I've purchased from both and was quite happy.

elementcollector1 - 14-7-2013 at 09:18

Doc Bob was able to set me up mightily well, and I owe my eternal thanks to him. Very, very cheap prices, and usually has what you need.

skeletal-clown - 14-7-2013 at 23:21

@jay, The $15 shipping is flat rate. Whether you buy one flask or one hundred, it stays the same. Seeing as shipping to Australia is normally so much, that's half of why I bought from them ;D You're right though, they don't have a lot of the simple things like beakers, erlenmeyers, test tubes etc. They mainly stock more complex items. As for the simple things, I usually get mine from an Australian company due to shipping costs, but if you're in America, as everyone else has said, I've heard great things about Dr. Bob. Good luck!!

Vargouille - 15-7-2013 at 04:45

I've gotta give some love to Alchemy Lab Supply. They're a Canadian company, so shipping is a bit of a bother (not too bad to Florida), but the glassware is good and inexpensive. I've got a Liebig from them, and it's held pretty well between water distillations and nitric acid distillations.

Manifest - 15-7-2013 at 09:41

You could extract caffeine with your chloroform :)

Fantasma4500 - 15-7-2013 at 12:38

about chloroform
http://youtu.be/FDIx_TyPeeU?t=2m49s
this part seems very interesting to me, and i suppose i have decided i want to create a bit of high conce. NaClO to make some chloroform
very surprised and yet mad over how blind ive been when chlorines oxidative powers have been mentioned, now have the most beatiful red brown solution of iodine standing :P

Dr.Bob - 15-7-2013 at 17:17

Jay,

I don;t have as much varety of glassware left now, but I do still have lots of basic glassware and some organic stuff, so if you are interested, send me a message (click on my name and pick u2u) with let me know what you are looking for, or go to the finding a home for glassware thread and look at the spreadsheet and photos there. I still have lots of erlenmeyers, grad cylinders, filtration flasks and funnels, and much more. Shipping within the US is not too bad, and I charge real postage costs, so the overall shipping is still reasonable.

Jay - 17-7-2013 at 18:36

I'm about to place an order with laboy, but I just have one more question.
Do these erlenmyers have ground glass joints, or are they the shitty smooth ones?
http://www.laboyglass.com/flask/single-neck-flask/flask-erle...
Okay, three questions.:D How do you heat a round bottom flask without a mantle? Do sandbaths work for larger ones, like 500&1000 ml RBF's?

Blue Matter - 17-7-2013 at 18:57

Quote: Originally posted by Jay  
I'm about to place an order with laboy, but I just have one more question.
Do these erlenmyers have ground glass joints, or are they the shitty smooth ones?
http://www.laboyglass.com/flask/single-neck-flask/flask-erle...
Okay, three questions.:D How do you heat a round bottom flask without a mantle? Do sandbaths work for larger ones, like 500&1000 ml RBF's?


You can heat a round bottom flask easily and pretty well with a few different methods you have oil baths for med temp heat water baths for low temp heat sand and steel bead baths for higher temp heating.

I did this a while ago but I went to Walmart and bought 3 cans of steal bbs and washed them very thoroughly and put them in a aluminum pot, this method works almost the best in my opinion sand is also good but its kind of messy.

I know a lot of people praise laboy and they do have some nice things at low prices but I personally would rather spend some time on ebay and look for pyrex or kimax brand items if you get lucky and look in the right places you can get them around the price of laboy if not better.

skeletal-clown - 17-7-2013 at 23:43

Yep, those Erlenmeyers are ground glass jointed as far as I know. At the least, they have standard taper joints, which should be good enough for almost any application. As far as the heating of large RBFs goes, I usually use a sand bath on a portable hot plate (In don't have a proper laboratory hot plate/stirrer yet), but yeah, I've heard good things about oil baths, water baths are great for low-temperature heating (ethers and alcohols), and I've heard of many people using steel ball baths (although, if you can get them, copper seem much better).