Sciencemadness Discussion Board
Not logged in [Login ]
Go To Bottom

Printable Version  
 Pages:  1  ..  19    21    23  ..  38
Author: Subject: Bad days in the lab or with glassware?
Zyklon-A
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1547
Registered: 26-11-2013
Member Is Offline

Mood: Fluorine radical

[*] posted on 16-1-2014 at 15:47


Just broke one of my Hg thermometers today as well, it over heated and shattered, so stupid of me.:mad:

Hey, look my 200th post!

[Edited on 16-1-2014 by Zyklonb]




View user's profile View All Posts By User
Pyro
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1305
Registered: 6-4-2012
Location: Gent, Belgium
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 16-1-2014 at 16:03


I broke one a few weeks ago, it was however inaccurate and the bottom 5 cm were intact so no mercury escaped



all above information is intellectual property of Pyro. :D
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Zyklon-A
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1547
Registered: 26-11-2013
Member Is Offline

Mood: Fluorine radical

[*] posted on 16-1-2014 at 20:18


Wow, everybody's braking thermometers now.



View user's profile View All Posts By User
elementcollector1
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 2684
Registered: 28-12-2011
Location: The Known Universe
Member Is Offline

Mood: Molten

[*] posted on 16-1-2014 at 20:39


When I was younger, I was tempted to break one on purpose and recover the mercury for my collection. Ah well, I ordered it from Elemental Scientific instead - well worth it.
On topic, I keep breaking glass tubing like tomorrow isn't a thing. Luckily, short lengths of tubing are exactly what I need in most applications...




Elements Collected:52/87
Latest Acquired: Cl
Next in Line: Nd
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Zyklon-A
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1547
Registered: 26-11-2013
Member Is Offline

Mood: Fluorine radical

[*] posted on 16-1-2014 at 21:41


I once broke three test tubes in one day.



View user's profile View All Posts By User
blargish
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 166
Registered: 25-9-2013
Location: Canada
Member Is Offline

Mood: Mode Push

[*] posted on 17-1-2014 at 07:33


Quote: Originally posted by elementcollector1  

On topic, I keep breaking glass tubing like tomorrow isn't a thing.


Story of my life
View user's profile View All Posts By User
UnintentionalChaos
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1454
Registered: 9-12-2006
Location: Mars
Member Is Offline

Mood: Nucleophilic

[*] posted on 17-1-2014 at 23:51


Quote: Originally posted by Eddygp  
A hot test tube dropped in a cold water bath... CRACK! thought it was Pyrex.


Eh, even pyrex has it's limits. Properly annealed quartz or vycor might stand a chance with such severe thermal stress.




Department of Redundancy Department - Now with paperwork!

'In organic synthesis, we call decomposition products "crap", however this is not a IUPAC approved nomenclature.' -Nicodem
View user's profile View All Posts By User
repo1030
Harmless
*




Posts: 7
Registered: 17-2-2013
Member Is Offline

Mood: Cold!

[*] posted on 26-1-2014 at 23:47


I was scraping ammonium nitrate crystals out of a beaker earlier today (1/26/14) when my glass stir rod snapped in half. I cut my thumb which proceeded to bleed quite profusely, despite the cut being no bigger than your average paper cut. Unlike a paper cut though, it didn't hurt very much. My thumb is just a little sore and I can barely see the cut.

View user's profile View All Posts By User
*FWOOSH*
Hazard to Self
**




Posts: 90
Registered: 6-9-2013
Location: ooo esss ahhh
Member Is Offline

Mood: manic

[*] posted on 31-1-2014 at 13:06


Lived up to my name today.
Runaway nitration, which proceeded to deflagration and thankfully stopped short of explosion. Almost burnt my damn house down. The one time I think "Oh I'll just do it inside at a window this time, it's gone fine every other time and it's -20 F outside..." :cool:
Luckily I was wearing goggles, gloves, a respirator and at least keep a fire extinguisher nearby when that voice in my head says "What could go wrong?" So I escaped with some minor HNO3 burns on my my hands and arms, some really watery eyes, a cough, and a slightly well done windowsill.
And nobody even felt the need to call the fire department! :D
I'm waiting for the smoke and fumes to finish clearing out of the room before I start cleaning up all the extinguisher dust...
View user's profile View All Posts By User
UnintentionalChaos
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1454
Registered: 9-12-2006
Location: Mars
Member Is Offline

Mood: Nucleophilic

[*] posted on 31-1-2014 at 23:43


:mad::mad::mad:

Goddamnit. I just broke my 250ml sep funnel (aka: my only useful sized sep funnel) and largest glass funnel simultaneously. Granted, I have not been very kind to the sep funnel over the years (using free flame to break emulsions for example) and it's probably accumulated a lot of internal stress. But I had my back to it (I hold it with a very large castaloy clamp instead of a ringstand) and was filtering some distillate through a cotton plug into the sep funnel when suddenly, CRASH. Maybe I had the clamp a bit too tight or maybe it was just tired of my shit, but it scattered bits all over my bench and the floor. Snapped the neck off my good funnel too, and took 25ml of furfural-laden distillate with it.

I managed to mop up most of the distillate from my relatively clean work surface with a paper towel and wring it out back into the flask, so it could have been worse. So much for representative yield numbers though.




Department of Redundancy Department - Now with paperwork!

'In organic synthesis, we call decomposition products "crap", however this is not a IUPAC approved nomenclature.' -Nicodem
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Mailinmypocket
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1351
Registered: 12-5-2011
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 2-2-2014 at 09:58


I flushed a 20$ stir bar down the toilet and didn't even realize it until I was cleaning up and saw the nice clean empty rbf :(
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Pyro
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1305
Registered: 6-4-2012
Location: Gent, Belgium
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 2-2-2014 at 16:29


I hate it when that happens. I often tip them out into my waste bottles.



all above information is intellectual property of Pyro. :D
View user's profile View All Posts By User
zenosx
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 188
Registered: 7-7-2012
Location: East TN / Near Oak Ridge
Member Is Offline

Mood: Awaiting Results....

[*] posted on 4-2-2014 at 21:00


Not really an accident, but because of a recent house addition the county building inspector will be where my lab is.
Because gov officials in my lab in a county touching the worst meth lab county in the state didn't sound like a good idea, and tarps would look suspicious, I am having to move my entire lab to the other side of our basement. Luckily there is an addition with an existing garage door that when closed doesn't look suspicious, (and no windows in it).

Thankfully my bench has all metal drawers and all my glassware and chems are on rollable shelves, but it is still going to be a MAJOR hassle to get done. Arrrggg.

At least I can hopefully not be facing a warrant by backwoods hillbilly cops (I live in what is pretty much the Deep South) or at the least being fined for possible (incorrect storage of hazardous chemicals). I keep my stuff seperate ect. But there is no flammable a cabinet for example., or a gov sanctioned chlorinated waste bin.

I start tomm, fingers crossed I don't break anything. I'm keeping my Dr Bob shipment upstairs till the move is done (arrived today).

(EDIT: Fingers crossed but I have the entire lab moved with no breakages in one direction. Hope for the same on reconstruction. Took over 2 hours)

[Edited on 6-2-2014 by zenosx]




A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?

Albert Einstein
View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User
Brain&Force
Hazard to Lanthanides
*****




Posts: 1302
Registered: 13-11-2013
Location: UW-Madison
Member Is Offline

Mood: Incommensurately modulated

[*] posted on 5-2-2014 at 20:22


I tried dissolving cobalt in nitric acid for a complexation reaction. It was a bad idea to remove the cobalt with a neodymium magnet because it caused the bottom to crack, leaking cobalt nitrate and nitric acid.



At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
View user's profile View All Posts By User
blargish
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 166
Registered: 25-9-2013
Location: Canada
Member Is Offline

Mood: Mode Push

[*] posted on 6-2-2014 at 19:56


I was being really clumsy and accidentally bumped my 300 mm Liebig condenser whilst it was resting on a stone table. It rolled over and one of the glass tubing connectors broke off and shattered... Gah



BLaRgISH
View user's profile View All Posts By User
ParadoxChem126
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 104
Registered: 5-4-2013
Location: USA
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 21-3-2014 at 15:55


Today I was taking apart a lithium battery to recover the lithium. At one point the battery shorted out, so I chucked it outside before any of the chemicals in it were released. It soon started to smell like H2S, and then it caught fire! Luckily I was ready with a bag of sand to snuff it out... Everything was fine, there were no serious catastrophes ;)



View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User
*FWOOSH*
Hazard to Self
**




Posts: 90
Registered: 6-9-2013
Location: ooo esss ahhh
Member Is Offline

Mood: manic

[*] posted on 21-3-2014 at 21:12


I broke my 2L seperatory funnel...
Then I melted the stopcock out of my 125mL sep funnel...
I'm currently using the upside down remnants of my other 1L sep funnel I broke the stopcock off of a while back (glass, it froze up to the point that I snapped it off trying to twist it) along with a 24/40 stopcocked vacuum adapter when I need to seperate things. It works but I miss having a proper funnel.:(
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Texium
Administrator
********




Posts: 4566
Registered: 11-1-2014
Location: Salt Lake City
Member Is Offline

Mood: PhD candidate!

[*] posted on 22-3-2014 at 21:17


One time I was scraping some boric oxide off of a glass stirring rod, and it just wouldn't come off. So I got so fixated on it that I just started scrubbing it harder and harder, not even thinking that it probably wasn't the best idea since it's made of glass, until after it had broken into a few pieces in my hands.
It wouldn't have been such a big deal, except that it was my last stirring rod! On my next supplies order, I made sure to buy a copious amount...
View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User
smaerd
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1262
Registered: 23-1-2010
Member Is Offline

Mood: hmm...

[*] posted on 23-3-2014 at 07:24


Well this is just dumb and it wasn't a big loss.

I was dissolving some vitamin b tablets in acetic acid(vinegar), yea this isn't even chemistry... I was working on a light demo for a presentation in physics (at home so it still counts). So anyways I broke the tablets up a bit by hand instead of using a mortar and pestle. After letting them sit for a few hours I decided to poke at the tablets with a pocket knife. Punched a hole right through the bottom of a small beaker. Not a big deal, figured I'd share a daft moment.

[Edited on 23-3-2014 by smaerd]




View user's profile View All Posts By User
copperastic
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 158
Registered: 15-3-2014
Location: In your basement
Member Is Offline

Mood: Good

[*] posted on 23-3-2014 at 12:02


Once when i was re-sublimating iodine I lifted the flask on the top off and it instantly cracked in the air (Winter) so i needed to quickly put it somewhere (It was just a little crack so it didn't fall apart) so i put it on the still-hot hot-plate.... a plume of iodine vapor came off so i dropped in into the snow and ran away. luckily it was windy.
I dont know what i was thinking.




View user's profile View All Posts By User
higgsbosonman
Harmless
*




Posts: 1
Registered: 1-4-2014
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Member Is Offline

Mood: Experimental

[*] posted on 7-4-2014 at 20:54


I'm new to this forum, but i have my share of stories from high school that i didn't really understand were bad until i came to college and saw how careful (and well equipped) the college chem labs are. In high school, we had a class of around twenty five people sharing a single fume hood in a room with no windows and a tiny vent fan, working with hydrochloric, nitric, and sulfuric acid, along with sodium hydroxide. We had to boil down acidic reactions often, and while i would always wait in line to use the fume hood, others would not. I realized my chronic trouble breathing for the months i was in that class was because of the horrible ventilation. We were doing qualitative analysis of a mixture with up to fifteen unknowns, if i remember. My chemistry teacher was aware of the issues in his lab, but he didn't have the funding to upgrade it to what he wanted. It was a few years ago.

I remember spilling 12M HCl all the way down my arm one day, but i was able to make it to a sink before it burned me. The person washing some test tubes was very eager to step aside when i rushed up and stuttered 'I spilled acid on my arm!'.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Bert
Super Administrator
*********




Posts: 2821
Registered: 12-3-2004
Member Is Offline

Mood: " I think we are all going to die. I think that love is an illusion. We are flawed, my darling".

[*] posted on 7-4-2014 at 22:02


Oh boy. A two fer-

I don't know how I lived to grow up?




Rapopart’s Rules for critical commentary:

1. Attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly and fairly that your target says: “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.”
2. List any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).
3. Mention anything you have learned from your target.
4. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.

Anatol Rapoport was a Russian-born American mathematical psychologist (1911-2007).

View user's profile View All Posts By User
TheAlchemistPirate
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 151
Registered: 25-3-2014
Location: The point of no return
Member Is Offline

Mood: Enigmatic

[*] posted on 8-4-2014 at 09:11


Well recently I managed to freeze a glass stopper in my two-necked round bottom flask by leaving an assembled distillation setup overnight (I now know how dumb this was). After trying many different methods and chemicals to free the stopper I ended up attempting to break it off in frustration. I actually managed to safely remove most of the stopper when the neck suddenly snapped off :( . But I had to learn the hard way that you never leave distillation apparatus for longer than necessary.



"Is this even science anymore?!"
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Zyklon-A
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1547
Registered: 26-11-2013
Member Is Offline

Mood: Fluorine radical

[*] posted on 8-4-2014 at 09:16


I broke two test tubes a couple days ago. Not really a big deal though.



View user's profile View All Posts By User
plante1999
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1936
Registered: 27-12-2010
Member Is Offline

Mood: Mad as a hatter

[*] posted on 15-4-2014 at 14:07


A disaster happened in my lab today. I just had transferred my pyridine from my ground glass bottle to a 30 ml polycarbonate bottle. When I came back today after school, the bottle was non-existent and "luckily" for me, all the other bottles under it where made of polycarbonate... The bottles melted up.

About 20 of my reagents are too messed up to be recovered, mixed with melted polycarbonate, pyridine and other reagents that where aside of them...

That was a shitty day, at least I will know polycarbonate is a no-no for solvents...

I'm quite disappointed, I mean, it is like 300$ of chems destroyed... most of which that were very exotic, like vanadium pentoxide etc.




I never asked for this.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
 Pages:  1  ..  19    21    23  ..  38

  Go To Top