watson.fawkes
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Sciencemadness group on Instructables
I've taken the liberty of creating a Sciencemadness group on the Instructables site. While I think it's perfectly appropriate to publish projects here, there's a goodly amount to be gained by being more visible
and more public. Instructables is good place to do that; it's populated by like-minded people, for the most part, even if the bulk of them aren't
doing amateur chemistry. Indeed, there's very little chemistry on the site, mostly involving pyrotechnics.
One of the best kinds of project for this site is making lab equipment. There are lots of people here who make their own gear. Chemistry gear would
fit right in. There's no project, for example, about making your own fume hood (well, there is one, but not for chemistry). There's plenty of
expertise here about making fume hoods, though. It would be useful to get that expertise out as a calling card for the good side of amateur chemistry.
As a second kind of project, I'd recommend reagent purification from common sources. I'm planning on doing one on purifying agricultural sulfur, for
example. I believe purification is a better kind of early topic than synthesis, simply because purification helps people get started and synthesis
assumes that they've already started.
It's your project, though. Post anything instead of nothing, please.
As for administration, I've got the group set to no moderation of any kind. Anybody can join and anybody can post. If Polverone wants to take over
this group, fine by me.
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Sedit
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"There are lots of people here who make their own gear"
 Yo!
I noticed they have alot of DYI magnetic stirrers projects yet non of them have managed to combine that with a heating bath or anything. Perhaps if I
feel up to it I could show how to make a DYI magnetic stirrer/heating oil bath from common household items. It works well and can reach temperatures
well over the 420 degrees F that my cheep digital thermometer kicked out on.
Thats just one of many things I could do but I have issues writting detailed long drawn out writeups because of ADD or something. I start to type
enthusiasticly but after 10-20minutes or so im begging to finish ASAP and quality drops quickly.
Knowledge is useless to useless people...
"I see a lot of patterns in our behavior as a nation that parallel a lot of other historical processes. The fall of Rome, the fall of Germany — the
fall of the ruling country, the people who think they can do whatever they want without anybody else's consent. I've seen this story
before."~Maynard James Keenan
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entropy51
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Excellent idea!
I'd like to propose two more ideas (less excellent) for consideration:
(1) perhaps the management could consolidate some of the Forum Rules into a prominent site. Newcomers would also be taken to that page when they
register. Currently the rules are spread throughout too many threads for anyone to ferret out. Examples: search before you post, no new threads if
one exits, if no refs post in Beginnings and so forth.
(2) This one would have to be a long-term project. The forum has grown so large that it's not easy to find anything by search engine. Everytime I
browse through old topics I'm amazed at everything here that I had forgotten about. If there were some kind of INDEX it would help newbies as well as
others. I'm not sure how an index should be set up, maybe by forum and the most common topics therein indexed. I'm guessing that the highly-paid
( ) Polverone could program an app to generate an index from the data on the
server.
Food for thought or flame. Have at it.
Sedit, some of your DIY could double as Watson's Don't Try This At Home safety films!
[Edited on 11-7-2009 by entropy51]
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Sedit
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No way!
I have been playing with chemicals since I was a child and the worst accident I ever had was H2SO4/acetic acid spatter on my hand and face. Would have
been my eye also but I had SAFTY GLASSES on  .
Knowledge is useless to useless people...
"I see a lot of patterns in our behavior as a nation that parallel a lot of other historical processes. The fall of Rome, the fall of Germany — the
fall of the ruling country, the people who think they can do whatever they want without anybody else's consent. I've seen this story
before."~Maynard James Keenan
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entropy51
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Way! I was thinking about that 215 C oil bath! Mazola or 10-W-40? When you finally get a vacuum still you won't generate so much oil smoke! Be
careful in the meantime, there's not much worse can happen to a person that getting hot oil spilled on them.
Yeah I once got a tiny drop of 20% AcOH in my eye and it wasn't pretty.
Better to remain silent and appear a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
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watson.fawkes
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Quote: Originally posted by Sedit  | | Thats just one of many things I could do but I have issues writting detailed long drawn out writeups because of ADD or something. I start to type
enthusiasticly but after 10-20minutes or so im begging to finish ASAP and quality drops quickly. |
Plan, then,
on writing up your project in stages. Spend the first period planning out your writing project and dividing it into sections. That way each writing
session can end with a success, having finished a section.
If you eliminate your expectation that you can finish quickly, you'll be able to finish.
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Sedit
International Hazard
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Registered: 23-11-2008
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Thats a good idea watson. Maybe as im constructing onething or another I could write up at each step as to not make it annoying to me.
| Quote: Originally posted by entropy51 | Way! I was thinking about that 215 C oil bath! Mazola or 10-W-40? When you finally get a vacuum still you won't generate so much oil smoke! Be
careful in the meantime, there's not much worse can happen to a person that getting hot oil spilled on them.
Yeah I once got a tiny drop of 20% AcOH in my eye and it wasn't pretty. |
Peanut oil entropy. I have some silicon oil around that I would much rather use but I can't find it at the moment. I have had it for many years so it
could have found its way to alot of places around my garage.
Even though it has proven itself at those temperatures I never ever maxed it out. It is a glazed ceramic pot with nichrome wound around the outside
for the element and completely insulated with Cal-Coat. Sadly its no longer functioning at the moment so Im going to build anew. Its a work in
progress and I learned quickly with the first prototype that if even a few drops of oil spill on the insulation I can kiss it good by so I must find a
way to seal it else the oil carbonizes and shorts out the element a few runs after the fact.
Knowledge is useless to useless people...
"I see a lot of patterns in our behavior as a nation that parallel a lot of other historical processes. The fall of Rome, the fall of Germany — the
fall of the ruling country, the people who think they can do whatever they want without anybody else's consent. I've seen this story
before."~Maynard James Keenan
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