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Author: Subject: Bad days in the lab or with glassware?
Rogeryermaw
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[*] posted on 17-7-2012 at 15:07


ya all real equipment. i even check my glass before i use it for cracks or scuffing that weren't present from the last use. sometimes accidents just happen.
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Mailinmypocket
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[*] posted on 15-8-2012 at 14:03


This didn't really happen in the lab but it does involve an epic mess with tincture of iodine made by a really stupid mistake:)

I have an elbow scrape from a biking accident and last night decided to put some iodine tincture on it, I haven't used it in ages. I held the bottle in my right hand and then lifted my right arm to apply the iodine... not remembering to first put the f***ing bottle down first.

I literally dumped 30ml of 5% iodine over my shoulder where it then fell to the floor for maximum slattering effect of the tiles, shoes, clothes, and a crapload of other stuff in the vicinity.

It took me a second to realize where the splattering sound was coming from ... then I had the "oh..." moment! Good times. :P
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[*] posted on 15-8-2012 at 15:23


In all honesty, I have generic tube galvanized fittings and plenty of broken glassware to slip in to a 24 opening. This is basically a metallic flask which will accept a ground glass mate. It's good for dirty work, tarry destructive distillations. Then save your organic set-up to handle the products from the metal flask. It's a real work horse, I tell ya.
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Pyro
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[*] posted on 12-10-2012 at 11:00


I had a little ''lab accident'' at school today! We were doing the immensely complicated synthesis of AgCl from AgNO3 and NaCl :D
and I have the bad habit of putting stuff in my lab coat pocket, so this time I put my Mt.Blanc in my (rented from school as I don't bother taking mine from home for such a time waster) lab coat pocket and forgot it! I went back to the lab and looked through all the pockets until i found it, I was so worried!
but recently i broke two 400ml beakers. the first i tapped ever so gently on another one by accident while washing up and, but it was a faulty one as the wall was only about 1mm thick.
and the other had a plug dropped on it by somebody else





all above information is intellectual property of Pyro. :D
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Vargouille
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[*] posted on 12-10-2012 at 11:36


I would be terrified if I had lost any MontBlanc. Those are expensive, even the least expensive ones. Nice pens, though, with the gold and the white star and the resin and whatnot.

I think the only pieces of glassware I've broken were at school. I broke a little test tube while trying to clean it at the end of the year, when all the dirty glassware were cleaned up and put up in the storeroom. I knocked a 50-mL graduated cylinder onto the floor when I was putting back a wash-bottle. Just sighed and went to get the dustpan. Before that, I think I broke a 250-mL beaker while cleaning it. It was a long while ago, so I don't remember how it broke.

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Pyro
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[*] posted on 12-10-2012 at 12:15


you would not believe how terrified I was! luckily it was mine and not my dads! his has a Pt inlay on the nib. mine nib just Au. it slides over the paper so well! I so agree with that! they are simple, sober if you will and look elegant. black and gold is a perfect combo.

I never broke anything at school sadly, ''fine'' for breaking any school glassware is 1$, considering that almost all glassware is a lot more expensive then 1$. at school we can't do washing up :( I quite enjoy cleaning glassware.
did nobody notice you broke the grad. cyl?




all above information is intellectual property of Pyro. :D
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Vargouille
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[*] posted on 12-10-2012 at 14:13


It would have been hard for them not to. It was during a lab session. Of course, this was an AP quasi-college-level class, so I wasn't immediately whisked away from the scene of the accident, as I assume would happen in a standard Chemistry class. No fine for breaking glass, but the teacher put the fear of God in us when we were using volumetric flasks, which, is reasonable, I think. These were all nice volumetric flasks, Pyrex and Kimble-Kimax, mind you, most with PE snapcaps.
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Pyro
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[*] posted on 12-10-2012 at 14:21


seems everybody seems to pay more than me for their glass! :D
if i had broken something at my school they would freak out. he gave a one hour lecture about how to work with glass etc. for the stupid little experiment.




all above information is intellectual property of Pyro. :D
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sargent1015
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[*] posted on 13-10-2012 at 09:47


I have broken way to many pieces of glassware, fortunately, my company does not care about the small cost of glassware as opposed to their HPLC's, UPLC's, MALS, MALDI, NMR, etc.

There are WAY worse things to break then glass! For example, the MALS (Multiple angled light scattering), the setup alone is $0.8 million.

Compare that to a $20 round-bottom and it does not sound so bad :P




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[*] posted on 1-11-2012 at 20:32


My biggest screw-ups include:

Having a 200mm Liebig condenser female joint shatter on distillation assembly from incorrect clamping....kicked myself on this one and expensive too. At least I can still use it for refluxes...

Dropped a 100 mL beaker on the floor to shatter, not terribly expensive, and no chemical spills.

Stupidly tried to use a petri dish I thought was Pyrex to evap some solvent for a crystallization on VERY low heat that shattered anyway and lost all my work.

Went to eat dinner then became distracted by family with my hotplate too high on a long reflux, so that my water bath dish (that said Pyrex) went bone dry and exploded in the lab. If I had been there it wouldn't have happened, but if I had been there when it exploded it would not have been great for me. I still find bits of glass here and there occasionally. Reminded me that Pyrex doesn't mean Heat Proof :)

Biggest screw up involved Cl2 production with a leaking hose that filled the lab (basement) with chlorine gas, the amount was probably rather small but it doesn't take much Cl2 to drive you out of the area. To be safe, I evacuated the household and completely aired out the house. Took over 3 hours before the lab itself was safe to enter again without irritation. Needless to say, my family was NOT pleased.

I got yet another lecture from the wife of ("I thought you said you NEVER work with ANYTHING even SLIGHTLY poisonous down there in that crazy hobby of yours!!!")

For the umpteenth time, when I try to explain that "Honey, I don't work with stuff that's Really poisonous, I mean, it could be Dimethyl-Mercury...."... She's never convinced :)

Anytime I break glassware I think of how I am going to explain to the wife that I need $XX dollars to replace "bla bla" as she says, while all the time she is berating me on "wasting money" on this "silly hobby",,, anyone else have this issue?? :)

I suppose it doesn't help that I fly real planes when I can afford to, and fly remote controlled ones when I can't, both of which are not cheap either... Boys and their Toys eh!
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elementcollector1
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[*] posted on 1-11-2012 at 21:04


""wasting money" on this "silly hobby""
...
Where have I heard that before? XP

Not sure if I posted this some time before, but back in my younger days (i.e. a year ago) when I was just learning how not to be a k3wl, I was heating baking soda in a beaker to decompose it over a stove flame. Didn't appear to do anything, so I decided to cool off the beaker with water. The beaker asploded.
So, waste of a 1000mL beaker, and no recovered sodium carbonate.

Ah, the good old days... :D




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[*] posted on 2-11-2012 at 11:38


For the last several years, I manage not to break a single beaker, flask, etc. Then in the past 2 weeks, I have managed to break a nice 1000 ml Erlenmeyer flask, a 1000 ml beaker, and a thermometer (destroying a synthesis in the process), all at different times. I must not be getting enough sleep or something. :(



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[*] posted on 4-11-2012 at 16:18


Quote: Originally posted by zenosx  

I got yet another lecture from the wife of ("I thought you said you NEVER work with ANYTHING even SLIGHTLY poisonous down there in that crazy hobby of yours!!!")


I would reply nothing is without poision it is stricly the dose

On the topic of bad days
In my younger days i would stupidly stand my soxhlets vertical on the bench before assembling them for use

one day i knocked them over for them to fall like dominos breaking 13 of them :o

After the accident I asked myself why dont I lie them down before use instead of stand them up mmblah

Lucky it wasnt my money

[Edited on 5-11-2012 by feacetech]
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[*] posted on 4-11-2012 at 17:57


Quote: Originally posted by feacetech  

one day i knocked them over for them to fall like dominos breaking 13 of them :o

After the accident I asked myself why dont I lie them down before use instead of stand them up mmblah

Lucky it wasnt my money

[Edited on 5-11-2012 by feacetech]



Rather unfortunate event for your lab though :P

[Edited on 5-11-2012 by sargent1015]




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[*] posted on 6-11-2012 at 22:19


Well I was running the simple KMnO4 oxidation reaction of toluene and while it was refluxing, it bumped so hard it shot the purple solution all over the ceiling... Not one of my greatest achievements. :P



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[*] posted on 7-11-2012 at 01:02


Quote: Originally posted by sargent1015  
Well I was running the simple KMnO4 oxidation reaction of toluene and while it was refluxing, it bumped so hard it shot the purple solution all over the ceiling... Not one of my greatest achievements. :P

How long was your condenser...?

I always forget boiling chips, really hate it... :P




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sargent1015
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[*] posted on 7-11-2012 at 06:30


I even had a stirbar going in there...

Its 300mm I believe, she's big lol. It was a very strong bump




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[*] posted on 7-11-2012 at 15:33


I had the same thing happen once while heating some copper II hydroxide to get copper II oxide. I was constantly stirring it, but with no boiling chips. The copper oxide flew all over my hotplate and the table around it. My beaker even fell off of the hot plate. Amazingly, it never busted. Not even a chip. :)



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[*] posted on 7-11-2012 at 15:50


Quote: Originally posted by zenosx  

I got yet another lecture from the wife of ("I thought you said you NEVER work with ANYTHING even SLIGHTLY poisonous down there in that crazy hobby of yours!!!"


Hey, that sounds familiar. Is my wife 2-timing me?;)

Many moons ago when I was in college chem lab, I forgot to put boiling chips in my solution before heating it. When I realized, I panicked and dumped them in the hot liquid. It boiled furiously, but I got lucky. It didn't explode and didn't boil over. I was so lucky that no one else realized what a stupid thing I had done.
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[*] posted on 17-11-2012 at 16:10


Today I was drying some powder in a bottle in my drying oven. I've always had an Hg thermometer installed in the air vent to monitor the oven temperature. This thermometer only goes up to about 120C. Not thinking, I set the oven at 80%, which is much higher than 120C. This caused the thermometer bulb to burst. I recovered a little mercury that was still in the thermometer. There was still 1-2g missing, and I was afraid I was going to find it scattered in microspheres all over the inside of the oven, or even down into the internals below the perforated bottom. Luckily I had placed the bottle, which had a mouth of about 3cm wide, right below the thermometer. The mercury and glass fragments were in that bottle! Needless to say I will be replacing that thermometer with a non-Hg type.



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[*] posted on 17-11-2012 at 16:37


lucky catch!



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[*] posted on 26-11-2012 at 07:51


Today,I assemble a fractional distillation setup for ethanol distillation.When running the distillation I noticed a "line" at the stillhead-condenser joint.I thought it was nothing so I continue the distillation.

But when I disassemble the glassware I found that the "line" is the place where my condenser ground glass joint cleanly being cut off:o :



PB264595.jpg - 478kB PB264596.jpg - 436kB

There wasn't even a scratch before,I dont know what cause it.
I guess an extra force is lethal to your glassware.
Would superglue do the magic?:(

[Edited on 26-11-2012 by kuro96inlaila]




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Mailinmypocket
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[*] posted on 26-11-2012 at 11:38


Quote: Originally posted by kuro96inlaila  

Would superglue do the magic?:(

[Edited on 26-11-2012 by kuro96inlaila]


No, it wouldn't :( but from what I can tell it looks like you might have enough ground glass taper left for it to still be useable... I have a still head which has a similar break in it and I can still use it perfectly just because there is taper all the way around and it still makes a tight seal. Although it will be useless if you want to use it with keck clips
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[*] posted on 26-11-2012 at 15:19


Yeah,it is still usable.But I am worried that it put to much stress to that joint.
I think I'll give it a try.

Thank!:)




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[*] posted on 27-11-2012 at 13:36


It might be sabotage... Do you share your glassware with other people?:D

You can only make such a clean cut with a glass cutter. With time, heating and cooling the glass would eventually break.




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