Tour My Lab

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

lab cats...

Just showing off my humble table top lab

Still growing but I figured I'd share my lil work space and show off the new gear from Alchemy glass. This is a far cry from what I once have, back when I lived in the shitty (Ahhem, city) I had pretty well every thing stolen tools glass wear computers every thing so will need to spend serious cash befor I have a more functional set up (Need to build a proper desk / fume hood too) there are other things too but pointles showing pics of that (Epson salt, bicarb so on.)

The reagent jar is my purified and filtered sulfuric acid from drain cleaner, it goes from dark brown to off yellow oil! it is concentrated to 96.5%

Treat it with 200Ml of 35% peroxide then boil for 3h, once cool I filter it through fiber glass filter backed by fine stainless steel mesh.

Be for I filter it to the storage bottle I weigh out 100Ml to determine the % of concentration if below 95% I boil it longer till it is 95 or better %.

The wire you see is 30 guage NiChrome, and into the cap is 20 guage copper speaker wire.

The container on top of the truvia is purified Erythritol.

Any questions or comments are welcome. All so share your photos too. and mods if all ready such a thread please do move this post there.

Quote: Originally posted by XeonTheMGPony

TY. Ya nothing worse then trying to make sure you have enough reagent then lose chemical by putting it in another container to measure it out. So to make life easy for my self I put the tare weight of container + lid, and tare of container no lid. That way you can know what you have precisely with out any mucking about!

Today I am proud to present something which has been in the works for the last few months: My Lab Version 2.0

It's been tough going without chemistry during construction, but I think I'll be able to make up for lost time with a hood which I purchased and refurbished, an additional table, and a craigslist deal which has left me with enough glass, chemicals, and equipment to last me several years.

Now, without further adieu, my new lab:

Thanks Magpie! It is indeed a 6' hood.

You're completely right about a sink, and I have a metal basin and faucet, although I still need to construct the table for it, and space is getting a little tight
Maybe I could sink it into the wooden table?

Wow Zephyr, your old lab space was nice but this takes it to a whole new level.

Also, I like how you put one of your SM patches in every picture.

Quote: Originally posted by Zephyr

... I have a metal basin and faucet, although I still need to construct the table for it, and space is getting a little tight Maybe I could sink it into the wooden table?

I may be getting a new lab space within the next couple of months too... we'll see. My dad wants to get a decent sized storage building and is willing to let me use half of it to get all of my stuff out of the corner of the garage that I currently use. It won't be a huge space, but it'll be better than what I have now and I'll probably be able to move most of my glassware out of my bedroom/bathroom where I currently store it too. I'm hoping to have a pretty big sink, and an exhaust fan if not a fume hood. I have a squirrel cage fan from our old air conditioner that should work quite well.

Unfortunately, I will only have a few months to enjoy the space on a regular basis before I move out for college, but I won't be far away, so weekend visits would be possible.

Quote: Originally posted by zts16

I may be getting a new lab space within the next couple of months too... we'll see. My dad wants to get a decent sized storage building and is willing to let me use half of it to get all of my stuff out of the corner of the garage that I currently use. It won't be a huge space, but it'll be better than what I have now and I'll probably be able to move most of my glassware out of my bedroom/bathroom where I currently store it too. I'm hoping to have a pretty big sink, and an exhaust fan if not a fume hood. I have a squirrel cage fan from our old air conditioner that should work quite well. Unfortunately, I will only have a few months to enjoy the space on a regular basis before I move out for college, but I won't be far away, so weekend visits would be possible.

Quote: Originally posted by zts16

Well, for me at least, the closest good universities (including the one I will attend) are still about an hour long commute from where I currently live. If I was closer, I probably wouldn't move out. There's also the idea that it's good to live on campus your first year or two, so that you can get to know fellow students better and become more immersed in campus life.

Finally got around to cleaning my lab space:

Quote: Originally posted by arkoma

Quote: Originally posted by zts16   Well, for me at least, the closest good universities (including the one I will attend) are still about an hour long commute from where I currently live. If I was closer, I probably wouldn't move out. There's also the idea that it's good to live on campus your first year or two, so that you can get to know fellow students better and become more immersed in campus life. Not to mention Coeds *cough*

*cough*
I'd love to move out, but I probably will end up going to a local university, so it'll be tough to convince my parents of the profit of moving out...also the cost of board might be an issue, though I think there are some scholarships that can apply to dorms. Looking forward to going to a university, but I still have another year till graduation of high school...

Farlepet, you've got quite a nice, clean space there! You appear to do electronics work, too, which makes it hard to keep things clean and not cluttered...

Quote: Originally posted by zts16

I may be getting a new lab space within the next couple of months too... we'll see. My dad wants to get a decent sized storage building and is willing to let me use half of it to get all of my stuff out of the corner of the garage that I currently use. It won't be a huge space, but it'll be better than what I have now and I'll probably be able to move most of my glassware out of my bedroom/bathroom where I currently store it too. I'm hoping to have a pretty big sink, and an exhaust fan if not a fume hood. I have a squirrel cage fan from our old air conditioner that should work quite well. Unfortunately, I will only have a few months to enjoy the space on a regular basis before I move out for college, but I won't be far away, so weekend visits would be possible.

The new lab space I mentioned in the quoted post showed up last week.

I got everything moved over to it and I'm really loving the space. It's certainly motivating me to do chemistry every day now rather than just once a week or so. I haven't yet set up the sink or the fan, but hopefully that will be done by the end of next month before it starts getting really hot. I will post pictures of it (added on to this post) soon.

Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman

keep your hydrochloric acid fumes away from your electronics and tools ... super efficient rusting !

3 different labs.
First pic is my chemistry/electricity lab.
Second pic is my electronic lab.
Third pic is a portable suitcase lab.
These labs are to some degree used in my job, it is not all hobby!




[Edited on 15-5-2016 by K2ArO7]



[Edited on 15-5-2016 by K2ArO7]

Jealous of some of your labs

Quote: Originally posted by NedsHead

is that a WiseStir hotplate K2Ar07? I have one and really like it

Quote: Originally posted by K2ArO7

3 different labs. First pic is my chemistry/electricity lab. Second pic is my electronic lab. Third pic is a portable suitcase lab. These labs are to some degree used in my job, it is not all hobby!

Here's what i've got

There's an evident lack of sink and fumehood, which are subtituted by :
1. Going outside when needed
2. Cleaning the glassware in my designated W.C sink...

Also, there's this annoying carpet that i've already trashed with minor spills of reaction mixtures.



Where I keep most of my glassware/stuff/Reagent (with the more nervous ones somewhere else...)



This badass Soviet Era Centrifuge (Traded for a little glassware)



And some of my latest acquisitions (Second Hand Vol. Flasks)

Cool labs K2ArO7, the first one looks like it could be on a boat, some kind of portable research lab. T'would be cool if it were
Firmware, that's a sweet centrifuge, and a cool lab in general! I like the lab-bedroom integration Not that I'd ever have one in my room, personally, but aesthetically appealing household labs are always cool, and something I want in the future.

My relatively new laboratory :)

Please excuse the messy fume hood and (temporary) chemical storage, I'm planning on getting a proper acid base cabinet eventually.

[Edited on 21-6-2016 by KodasLab]










Edit: Reduced image size

[Edited on 7-5-2016 by zts16]

Nice lab! Though the pictures probably need adjusting (I've done it too, though...)
Haha, is that a graduated cylinder I see with one of those things used to measure the density of ethanol to determine concentration?

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1

Well, good news and bad news for me. Looks like I am about to lose my lab for a while. I'll need to pack it up and it will be out of action for a bit. The good news is that we are buying a new house -- that is, if our offer is accepted. I will be able to build a spacious dedicated space for a lab and won't have to share bench or storage space with other things. I'll probably acquisition a fridge-freezer at the same time. I can build a fume cupboard (assuming I can figure out a good place to vent to). So, watch this space for j_sum1_labspace 2.0 in a few months.

An update.

Here is my lab still in boxes. I spent a couple of hours last night sorting and labelling so theoretically I know where stuff is. The boxes on the table are an assortment of chems and equipment that I picked up at a garage sale. There is a lot of junk in there but also some nice chems. Behind the table is a dishwasher and drying oven.


And here is the lab space. A lot of work to do. The site is a breezeway under the house. Nice natural ventilation but I will still need to build a nice fume cupboard. The stumps in the ground are ironwood and I have no idea how deep they go. I expect to break a few saw teeth cutting them off. I think they once supported a water tank. There are also piles of waste concrete that will need to be broken up. Then I need to pour a concrete slab, line two of the walls, run some electricity, build benches and storage, install the sink and build the fume hood. The plan looks good in my brain but it will take a while.

Quote: Originally posted by Chemetix

Jsum those ironwood posts look like a challenge, the energetics lads would have a few suggestions for you!

I do have a decent fan, and the room has two windows, so that's been the plan thus far. My main concern with such a setup is, where would the air intake be? I could use the rest of the house (heating/AC out the window, weakening of partition between the residence and the lab) or I could open the second window (which might mean that the exhaust goes outside, around the corner of the house, and then gets sucked back in to recirculate ). We'll see when I'm reconfigured, I guess!

Here's the air routings that I use. The top one is preferred. But I do often use the bottom one.

Alkemist

In my opinion, although hopefuly never required, rapid exit should be planned for, always.
Better to 'design in' early on, and keep in mind.

Other suggestions depend upon your vision/budget


welcome to shed-lab world


[Edited on 9-3-2017 by Sulaiman]

Thanks for the warm welcome...here goes...

I relocated, upgraded and painted my alfresco experimenting table

I thought I'd document that it was once was white

My new workbench :(

During a prolonged EtOH distillation run with no heat shield beneath my hotplate, this happened




close up

Hey, at least it wasn't the dining table



I wasn't a very popular person that day:)

Quote: Originally posted by Magpie

I find that an old cookie sheet makes a great heat shield.

In this same forum (My lab beginnings) I recently posted some pics of how I started building my lab. I stated there that I would soon post a lab tour. So here it is, now that it is mostly complete. As with any lab, though, it's always a work in progress.


From the doorway in the foreground to the back door is 13 feet. The width of the space is 10 feet. See how clean the lab coat is?


First thing on the left is the main lab bench. I recently found some nice thin stainless steel sheeting at a local junkyard, so I covered all my benchtops and the bottom of the inside of the fumehood with it. Sorry I don't yet know how to make a shortcut to another thread, but please see "My lab beginnings" in this same forum to find out more about the lab frames you see. The drawer unit that makes up the main bench I found down the street on the side of the road. A man was remodeling his house and put them out for anyone to take. To the right of that is my old original lab bench that my grandfather made for me when I was just a teen. I joined them together with a sheet of plywood to form the whole assembly. Poor me should I ever have to move this. Available on this bench are vacuum and gas lines, and water inlet and outlet lines which lead behind the whole mess to a sink.




Here's a better shot of the old original lab bench. I removed the wooden shelves and put in glass shelves, and had plans for a light in the top, with lots of cool glassware resting on glass shelves, lit from above. Well, it WAS beautiful, but soon filled up with bugs from the lights, so I stored most of the glassware in drawers and cabinets. Now the whole are is just a disgraceful jumbled storage area, seriously in need of cleaning up. Perhaps I will try that idea again, this time with some proper glass doors, sealed against bugs and dust.

On the top is the fume hood, which I just recently expanded upward. It's now 42 inches high inside, 33 wide and 23 deep. I couldn't set up a reflux column inside, it was too short. Inside I have vacuum, gas, and water inlet and outlets, not immediately apparent here.


Here's the rest of the fume hood. Take notice of my sophisticated counterbalance assembly for the fume hood sash. Its usefulness is debatable, as I used plastic-coated cable which doesn't work too well on such small pulleys as I have at the top, and that needs to be fixed. Also the large white area is where the sciencemadness logo will go.


Moving on, here's a picture of my sink, with chemical storage above it. The last person to own this house was an artist, and the three-car garage was enclosed. I walled off a small part of that now-shop area to form the lab, and the sink is a nice large tub sink where the artist cleaned his brushes. It's glorious! It's large enough to put a five-gallon pan (visible under the sink) in that I use for distillation cooling. There's a circulating pump that draws from that pan, and return lines dump back into the pan. Also visible is a small refrigerator that was kaput so I repurposed it as a lab incubator. Biology is my other love.


There's chemical storage in them there cabinets! These cabinets came with the house. They're 1940's steel cabinets from Montgomery Ward. We remodeled the kitchen a few years ago and I got three of these units to use in the lab. I can't store HCl in them, but just about everything else is OK. To the left is a couple of stainless steel specialty shelves I got for a little bit of nothing from an RV supplier. I needed more storage area, so I picked these up for a song. Great for the gallon jars that I use for larger amounts of chemicals.


Here's the inside. The bottom shelf is used to keep all the glass jars my wife saves for me for chemical storage. One of those jars is actually full of owl pellets!


If we turn 180 degrees, this is the view on the other side of the lab. These are the other two steel cabinets I spoke of. I'm finding I'm going to have to do something for more storage. I'm constantly acquiring more chemicals, and just yesterday spent 20 minutes or so rearranging stuff so I could add one more chemical. I arrange my stuff alphabetically, kinda, sorta like this. Acids, alcohols, bromides, chlorides, dioxides, etc. etc. It's easy for me to remember where stuff is like that. Say I need carbon tetrachloride. Well, that's a chloride (to me), so that's where I go to find it. No, I don't separate chemicals according to hazards like we all know we should. There are oxidizers scattered all through, and I know everything should be separated, but I've not done that, nor do I have the storage area to do that effectively.
Just at the top of the photo you can see a piece of an air conditioning grill. The artist that owned this place previously had this whole space airconditioned with the house system. I pulled the ducting loose from this and closed it off, as I didn't want any direct connection between the lab environment and that in the main living area. Yeah, it'd be great to have A/C in the lab, but I will have to do without it for now.


Here's the bench underneath the previous pic. I bought this from a dentist who was retiring, and he threw in about 10 pounds of mercury! In these drawers and cabinets there is everything under the sun from rock samples (another hobby) to glassware to anything else you can think of. On the far left of the benchtop in the back is a microcentrifuge which I bought broken on eBay. I managed to fix it, so for $15 bucks I've got a $1500 centrifuge, though obsolete. For my biology habit.


The other end of that same cabinet. On top you can see the antifreeze I bought to make Dioxane with so I can make sodium metal a la Nurdrage. Also visible are two one-gallon jars of Calcium Fluoride, about 97% pure. This town used to be a hub for the fluorspar trade back in the 70s, and there are storage bins down by the railroad tracks that still hold some of this calcium fluoride, so I went and got me some. The bins have been long abandoned, and what's left is still as good as the day they put it there. I suspect it won't be long before the railroad will decide to scrap them all, and it'll all be gone forever. I have plans of one day making hydrofluoric acid, and possibly fluorine. But that day is some distance down the road.


Here's my toaster oven and a microwave oven. Above that is a Kenwood stereo that I bought when I was in the Navy back in the 70s. Hey, a guy's gotta have his music! I've got radio, XM radio, or iPhone input to choose from. On the other side of the wall is a rack-mounted Sony reel-to-reel tape player, loaded up with Iron Butterfly.


And here's my biology station. On the left is a regular biological microscope. It's a trinocular with a camera that hooks to the big screen TV above. On the right is a stereo zoom dissecting scope. It's a trinocular also, and the camera is easily transferred from one scope to the other. Sorry, I should have taken the covers off of the scopes for the picture. The first row of drawers to the left of the bench holds petri dishes, microscope slides and slipcovers, stains, etc. This will probably get more use in the coming months, as I'm returning to school to get a master's degree in biology. When I went to school back in 2012, this school didn't offer a chemistry degree, so I went with biology. Now they do offer a chem degree, but I would have to take so many leveling courses just to be able to start a master's plan. But I do love biology, and there's so much, just as in chemistry, that citizen scientists can do.


Last pic, I promise. Just an overall shot of the biology station, it really shows well the stainless steel top. I'm so proud of all that stainless steel I could just pop! Sorry for the quality of the pics, I had to compress them all so they would all fit in one post, so they're not the best quality. Thank you for accompanying me on a tour of my somewhat messy, still-needing-lots-of-work lab in the desert of West Texas.

What a nice lab ... congratulations.

odd, but the two things that caught my eye were
. great to have two exits ... just in case.
. I love the eclectic range of jars, bottles etc. that we accumulate.
the rest is great too. 8(>_<8

Really nice setup, charlie1957. You have done a great job that shows a lot of thought and ingenuity. I'm insanely jealous.

well got tired of my lab looking like some meth cooks dream get away I got to work and started to get the design of it finished, got my vacuum chamber cleaned and painted, need to finish the support brackets, going to finish the other half of my custom lab frame

then get it all plumbed up so I have water, water return and vacuum line running around the entire room

vac chamber can run either off aspirator or rotary vane vac pump.

Well finally got the lab frame finished! it is made of all type L copper pipe with galvanized steel flanges, Next is the sink, then get my water/vac/air lines all set up.

It is 5.3 feet long and 3 feet high. set up on there is a 300mm leibig and a 250mm flask at 24/40 joint size to give an idea of scale.



[Edited on 9-8-2017 by XeonTheMGPony]

Quote: Originally posted by JJay

I see. I have a bag of a dozen boss heads that I've been meaning to use to put together a frame, but electrical conduit is just a little bit larger diameter than I would like, and I haven't made my way to any of the metal suppliers just yet.

Tom

I Just watched a tour of your lab - I'm extremely jealous !

Only one problem ... no excuses for not getting those experiments done now, as planned

Thanks, both of you!

@ CharlieA I couldn't believe it either

@ Sulaiman I'm pretty good at coming up with excuses, but I'll get 'em done eventually!

The biggest lab I can have in Manhattan. Bonus points to whoever can deduce the most from from this picture:





[Edited on 8/27/17 by Melgar]

Quote: Originally posted by Melgar

The biggest lab I can have in Manhattan. Bonus points to whoever can deduce the most from from this picture: [Edited on 8/26/17 by Melgar]

Quote: Originally posted by Melgar

Bonus points to whoever can deduce the most from from this picture

Quote: Originally posted by Melgar

Bonus points to whoever can deduce the most from from this picture:

Finally feeling well enough to set up some space, and as I am a bachelor I can get away with using most of kitchen



Love my new electronic balance. Freshly made black powder on the sheet of paper. "ball milled" by shaking in plastic bottle with 00 buckshot while watching the tube LOL. Crude 1,4 dioxane in flask



Ingredients for 1,4 dioxane. Was a cool synthesis



HOWEVER, I switched out the receiver just before this crap started acting like a science fiction monster



As you can see made quite a mess, and its evolution was SUDDEN. Cleaned up nicely with 10% NaOH solution



[Edited on 9-6-2017 by arkoma]

Quote: Originally posted by Melgar

Yeah, obviously distilling DCM directly from the can. That thickening agent is no fun getting out of glass. I'm sure I'm not the only one to do it this way.

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1

And here is the lab space. A lot of work to do. The site is a breezeway under the house. Etc... (snip)

Update.
I have finally had a bit of a chance to work on lab construction. Lots more to do but it is starting to get there.


This shot was taken from the same angle as my previous post upthread. Stumps were dug out. Concrete laid. Walls put up. Painted. Electrical work done. And now the bench constructed.



There will be plenty of under-bench storage. On the left you can see space for 14 sliding plastic bins of two different sizes. That will be for glassware. Elsewhere will be open shelves for other hardware not in use. I have not worked out the configuration yet. I will keep some bulk chemicals over near the breeze-block wall: the ones that benefit from a bit of ventilation.

The sink has a bit of an unorthodox orientation but I think it will work. I am going to end up with a little corner behind the fume cupboard where I can put the vacuum pump and recirculation pump. Actually I can see myself most of the time just putting a plug in the sink and throwing the pump directly in there. Water will come from a rainwater tank directly outside.


Working round the room from the left:

• Large lockable chemicals cupboard
  
• Fridge-freezer with microwave oven on top
  
• Whiteboard
  
• Wall-mounted computer monitor. USB and HDMI jackpoints connect to the office on the other side of the wall so I won't need to put the laptop in the lab.
  
• Main work area. The bench varies between 900 and 1200mm deep and it is a stretch to reach to the back. I likes my bench-space. I have yet to sort out how I will do the glassware frame -- probably repurposed stainless steel towel rails.
  
• Dishwasher under the bench
  
• Fume cupboard -- 1200mm wide by 700 deep and about 700 high. Ducting will chimney above the roof to a height of 8m which should be acceptable to the neighbours.
  
• Mounted next to the fume cupboard at the entry to the lab will be some fire safety equipment on one side and a place for lab-coat, glasses and gloves on the other.
  
• Drying oven below bench and a toaster oven above.

Not sure how long the rest will take but I hope to get some spare weekends to knock it off.

Quote: Originally posted by SWIM

I'm surprised the short-path head condenser is up to condensing something so low boiling. And you're using an un-cooled collection flask. I always use a long condenser and cool the collection flask in ice water to keep the stuff in the flask, but maybe I'm overcautious. Is it cold where you work? Lately you could almost boil DCM by leaving it out on the Kitchen counter around my neck of the woods.

It's been a very long time in the works, but my total lab overhaul is finally complete. For the full tour, see my video on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfoUfO0QxW4

I took a quick spin around the room to post some photos here if you don't want to sit through the full 10 minutes:


Replaced all carpet with tile and got all new furniture: official lab cabinets with black epoxy tops for maximum heat and chemical resistance. Also got a few lab appliances you see on the left - a toaster oven and water kettle. The kettle is AMAZING; it boils water super fast, and I got it on Amazon for about $25.


Large tabletop work space, desiccator cabinet, and chemical fridge. Not explosion proof, but I'm not keeping much in there anyway.
I want to point out the awesome periodic table poster - I got it from an Etsy store and the seller really worked with me to get the right size and material for me. Each square looks like a solid color from far away, but up close there's a ton of useful information on every element. The site listed on the poster is www.ptable.com. Highly recommended!


Real hazard storage cabinets for flammables and acids. All chemicals separated by appropriate storage code. Also note the giant SDS binders up top - it's very important to know the hazards of everything you work with. Printed SDS's are expensive, but could be very helpful if you need to provide info to first responders quickly and easily.

There's also another giant cabinet in another room, because it was way too big to fit through the hallway to the lab (see the video). Whoops! I keep extra stuff in there that I don't use often. It actually worked out nicely because it forced me to get a 3rd low cabinet, and putting those together makes another large work surface which is really nice.


Total cost: over $8,000
Worth it though! I'm so happy with how it turned out.

The only thing missing is a fume hood. I can't for the life of me figure out where to put it, mainly because I can't for the life of me figure out where the fumes will go. I really don't want to put a hole through the roof. Working on the back porch will suffice for now. Exciting times ahead!

This is a teaser /progress report.
I spent today doing construction in my lab. Hopefully fully complete this side of Christmas (maybe without fume cupboard). I will do a proper tour then.

Today's task was to complete the under-bench storage -- at least for this part of the bench. The top is 1200/900 mm deep. On the left are six black bins that slide out and 10 white bins with lids that will mostly contain ground glassware. Next to that are three open shelves for highuse equipment: power supply, pump, mantle, hotplate, boxes of indicators and filter papers and thermometers -- that kind of thing. The baskets slide out on drawer sliders. Next to that will be a dishwasher. What you see in this photo is about 40% of the total bench space.