Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Bad days in the lab or with glassware?

Bad days in the lab or with glassware?

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neptunium - 27-2-2012 at 06:02

yeah at the emergency room ! after the blood finaly stop gushing..
13 stiches and no nerve damage i got lucky!
it happen so fast i didnt even feel a thing! glass a bad mot....er!

+ION - 2-3-2012 at 23:19

Receive flask from Bob.

Have flask out of the box for less than 5 min before I break it.

Yup...

SOOSAD.bmp - 170kB

Hexavalent - 3-3-2012 at 07:53

That's the worst time for glassware to break . . .I would rather it die valiantly in a destructive distillation than before its even been used.

If you have all the pieces and access to a good glassblower, he/she may be able to fix it for you.

garage chemist - 4-3-2012 at 12:48

I got an electric shock from my heating mantle today. Not serious though, just enough to startle me. I didn't even touch any metal parts, just the glass wool with both hands as I was feeling whether it started getting warm. It must be all the moisture in my unheated lab, it condenses inside the glass wool and together with traces of salts from spills and aerosols it becomes partially conductive.

Hexavalent - 5-3-2012 at 12:54

Nasty, GC!

Yesterday I was washing glassware. A very cheap Erlenmeyer falls on the floor, and is fine. Phew.
Today, I was washing glassware. A condenser falls on the floor, and breaks. Screw!

neptunium - 5-3-2012 at 12:59

glasware can be so unpredictable sometimes...trust me !

Hexavalent - 5-3-2012 at 13:10

I agree! I once had a boiling, concentrated solution of potassium chlorate in a large beaker heating over a Bunsen flame. Two minutes later, a large purple flame is observed as the beaker breaks and the liquid (and glass) is sprayed everywhere!:/

plante1999 - 5-3-2012 at 13:38

Quote: Originally posted by Hexavalent

I agree! I once had a boiling, concentrated solution of potassium chlorate in a large beaker heating over a Bunsen flame. Two minutes later, a large purple flame is observed as the beaker breaks and the liquid (and glass) is sprayed everywhere!:/

It depand on the quality of the glassware , bomex will break only with heating , pyrex classic could withstand boiling water and then be dropped in ice. This is why I buy only pyrex classic beaker/flask and for the test tube pyrex vista.

500 post!!!!

mr.crow - 11-3-2012 at 12:38

The wind blew over my 1L 24/40 addition funnel and it broke. God fucking dammit!!!

Hexavalent - 11-3-2012 at 13:44

I'm 13 and my Dad never believes me when I say that the wind blows an item of glassware over and breaks the bloody thing!

mr.crow - 11-3-2012 at 13:58

Well I was leaving it out to dry

I hope you don't swear as much as me when something like that happens, haha

Endimion17 - 11-3-2012 at 15:31

Quote: Originally posted by Hexavalent

Nasty, GC!

Yesterday I was washing glassware. A very cheap Erlenmeyer falls on the floor, and is fine. Phew.
Today, I was washing glassware. A condenser falls on the floor, and breaks. Screw!

Oh, trust me, it's not fine anymore. Mark it as "potentially failing".

Regarding the swearing, I unleash my fury when shit happens, but otherwise I'm quite calm and dislike swearing.

barley81 - 11-3-2012 at 17:32

The other day, when I was cleaning up my stuff from chromium (VI) residue, I was using sodium metabisulfite. The wet solid fumed so much I couldn't breathe well for 10 minutes afterwards. It made my cough much worse. I hate SO<sub>2</sub>. From now on I'm going to wear a respirator when working with sulfites or just use sodium thiosulfate.

neptunium - 11-3-2012 at 17:43

i hate it too man ! its much worse than chlorine ! i take chlorine over SO2 anyday!!

neptunium - 12-3-2012 at 09:28

somebody ask me to put a picture of my bad day with glassware and the 13 stiches i got last year....
enjoy!

Endimion17 - 12-3-2012 at 11:17

Awesome! Kind of reminds me of this. :cool:

Hexavalent - 29-3-2012 at 12:59

Nasty!

Today I was dumping a waste lead acetate solution down the toilet and forgot there was a stirbar in it. . .so I attached a magnet to some acrylic rod and went fishing down the lavatorium!

Lambda-Eyde - 29-3-2012 at 13:12

Quote: Originally posted by Hexavalent

Today I was dumping a waste lead acetate solution down the toilet and forgot there was a stirbar in it. . .so I attached a magnet to some acrylic rod and went fishing down the lavatorium!

Lead down the toilet? How much? You should rather precipitate it and then dispose of it, or recycle it.

Also, I have forgotten my stirbar at least twice when pouring something into the sink. Unscrewing the trap beneath it and getting it out is pretty nasty work...

Hexavalent - 1-4-2012 at 02:36

I usually do, but it was only a very dilute (probably less than 0.01M) and had a volume of about 30ml. So not much lead was actually present, and, where I live, proper hazardous waste disposal costs an arm and a leg.

White Yeti - 1-4-2012 at 12:19

Quote: Originally posted by Hexavalent

where I live, proper hazardous waste disposal costs an arm and a leg.

Are you sure? The least you could have done was to react the lead salt with baking soda to form an insoluble carbonate. I do that whenever I deal with iron salts (after staining multiple things, including my roof

).

If you're wondering how I stained my roof, I used to have my lab upstairs and I like to keep the window open in the summer. Clumsy as I am, I knocked over a large jar of iron III acetate and it spilled all over the roof. Somehow the jar didn't break, but the solution quickly evaporated and the iron deposited onto my roof. To this day, I'm not sure how to get rid of the stain. I guess you could call that a bad day in the lab.

Just gravity filter out the carbonate and bury it somewhere far, far away. Although lead carbonate is insoluble, it will react with acids and become soluble again over time, so even pouring lead carbonate down the toilet is not a good idea either.

The proper disposal method IIRC is to bubble H2S into a solution with dissolved lead, but considering you didn't even do the bare minimum, I don't think you'll go through that much trouble.

DJF90 - 1-4-2012 at 15:55

Its very irresponsible to dump ANY heavy metal waste down the drain. Always precipitate it and save it in a polybottle, either as "lead waste" or as "mixed metal waste". The advantage of collecting it separately is that it is re-usable with less hassle than having to separate the elements again. Same with solvent waste, although you can't always recycle this efficiently (e.g. hexane-ethyl acetate waste, boiling points are too close for anything resembling a trivial separation).

I was trying to break up an oil that had solidified in a rbf the other day at work, and ended up putting the spatula right through the wall of the flask, despite not being heavy handed with it. Thankfully my hand was underneath the produced hole, allowing me to catch my valuable product! I was left unscathed thankfully, and my compound was recovered in full.

Hexavalent - 3-4-2012 at 03:22

As aforementioned, only very small amounts of lead ions were actually present, yet from today forwards I shall do as you say and collect all hazardous waste. But, alas, what should I do with it when it's full?

woelen - 3-4-2012 at 06:19

I collect all hazardous metal waste in a single bottle. This bottle contains solutions of lead, cadmium, nickel, silver, mercury, tellurium and quite a few others. When it is full, I bring it to a municipal waste processing facility and I tell that it is photography darkroom waste. The bottle is labeled with the text "heavy metal waste".

In this way, the heavy metals do not go down the drain and I also do not bury any precipitate (which to my opinion is even worse than pouring it down the drain).

Many other metals salts I simply dispose of down the drain, e.g. iron, titanium, manganese, magnesium, calcium, chromium(III). Metals like zinc, copper, nickel, cobalt are borderline. If I have a gram or so of metal waste, then I put it in the bottle, if it is minor (only 100 mg or so, or a few ml of dilute solution in a test tube), then it goes down the drain with a lot of water.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Volatile organics I simply dispose of by letting them evaporate outside on a paper tissue and when the tissue is dry, I put it in the normal household waste. Having a few ml of e.g. DCM, acetone, chloroform or some other organic evaporate outside does no harm at all.

FUCK!

DJF90 - 7-4-2012 at 11:02

Shoulda drained the water out of this before winter. Expensive mistake...

Hexavalent - 7-4-2012 at 11:45

Is that from your rotovap? I feel sorry for you

DJF90 - 7-4-2012 at 11:53

Yep. I'm lucky I didnt leave any other condensers hooked up to the water recirculator. I'm pissed off enough as it is.

Arthur Dent - 7-4-2012 at 11:57

Quote: Originally posted by DJF90

Expensive mistake...

Oy ve! I understand that not all people can have a lab indoors, but leaving expensive stirplates and valuable precicion glassware in a cold damp environment where freezing can occur is not a good idea by any definition...

This unfortunate Friedrichs condenser is a perfect example of gear that should have been washed, dried out, packed in newspaper, boxed and put away in the warm environment of a house during the cold winter days.

the only stuff that I leave in the cold of winter are plastic bottles of Hydrochloric Acid, anything else, especially glass bottles and anything that could be affected by corrosion, is strictly kept indoors. If you don't have room for it, the only thing I can say is make room for it somehow!

I feel your pain though, that looked like a massive condenser!

Robert

DJF90 - 7-4-2012 at 14:48

Its the dual-coil condenser on a buchi. I left it hooked up to the water recirculator (inside an unheated outside building), with the water turned off, but it didnt drain and I didnt think about it at the time. I only got back home today and found it "not in working order".

Hexavalent - 8-4-2012 at 10:15

Haha, what a shame! How much will a replacement cost for your model . . .can a very good glassblower somehow mend this one somehow?

DJF90 - 8-4-2012 at 10:27

Mending it will be out of the question, it'd be far too tricky. The best that could be made of it is to salvage the taps and joints. Not very nice to laugh at anothers misfortune really. I have a friend who is helping me procure a replacement. Failing that I'll save for a new rotavap.

Hexavalent - 8-4-2012 at 10:48

Quote: Originally posted by DJF90

not very nice to laugh at anothers misfortune really

I beg your pardon?

DJF90 - 8-4-2012 at 11:51

If you insist I explain...

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ha-ha

Check it out.

Hexavalent - 8-4-2012 at 12:49

I only got back home today and found it "not in working order".

This is what I meant as funny.

INORGANICUM - 8-4-2012 at 13:33

£595.00 hotplate/stirrer, after 4 can's of special brew I decided to test out my new purchace and boil a flask of H2O, I plugged it in and turned it on, At the same time I remembered it was from the US.

Just as I flicked the switch with no voltage reduction in place. POP with a puff of smoke it went. I still can't believe my stupidity to this day.

I couldn't possibly remember the amount of glassware ive broken, but reflux condencers is my forte for breaking glass.

Hexavalent - 9-4-2012 at 08:01

Nasty, Inorganicum! Was there no protection on the circuitry in your hotplate/stirrer . . .can it be replaced, or is it under some kind of warranty? That cost seems to imply that you got it new. Personally, I once bought a US-plugged 20V adjustable bench power supply for electrolysis etc. . . I was only informed of its origin when it arrived and I had to order an adapter from eBay to suit. It does however mean that I can usually buy any bit of electrical equipment from the US now if needed, which is a nice feature for the lab . . .diverse electrical sockets, I call it

Personally, I can also report the resignation of a 1L 19/26 RBF from service today. . . .my fault I guess for dropping it when I fell over the step down into my lab

White Yeti - 9-4-2012 at 11:46

Quote: Originally posted by INORGANICUM

£595.00 hotplate/stirrer

A $600+ stirplate/hotplate and it was not fuse protected? I don't own a hotplate myself (I'm in the process of making one), but most things are fuse protected these days, you know, in case someone had too many beers

and decided to plug it into an outlet and let twice the current run through that unfortunate piece of macinery

Pyro - 9-4-2012 at 16:12

i used to have alot more accidents than now.
when i was 15-16 i worked in the living room quite a bit, and i spilled quite a few chemicals on the VERY expensive carpet. the worst ever was when i dropped a 250 ml erlenmeyer (luckily only 50 ml full!) of bleach and something else on it! luckily the glass didnt break, but i threw 4 Gal. of water on it and then dried it out, i got away with a mild discouloration. IMPORTANT LESSON: don't work on an expensive carpet!
and the next bug incident was when the cleaning lady spilt 2 Gal. of high grade navy paint on the ash floor, it took hours to remove.

Hexavalent - 12-4-2012 at 01:24

Nasty, Pyro!

Yesterday I was removing a stir bar from an Erlenmeyer . . .the magnetic field took the neodymium magnet out of my hand towards the stir bar inside the flask, shattering the outside of the glass. Nasty, really, as it was holding some aqueous sodium hydroxide!

OctanitroC - 22-4-2012 at 13:04

My hand a few days after learning the hard way that NaOH+NaCl has a nasty combination of low surface tension and good solvating properties. No sir, not doing that flame test again. And getting a better pair of gloves.

Pyro - 28-4-2012 at 15:13

thats even worse, were your hands soapy?

Hexavalent - 29-4-2012 at 04:08

For a while, yes . . .I was luckily wearing gloves, but I still ran to the sink and flushed my skin thoroughly for about 15 minutes.

Teen Chemist - 29-4-2012 at 05:44

Hexavalent that would really have ruined your day if you werent wearing gloves.
I have in the last 3 monthes broken about 6 test tubes a 100 ml beaker and an Erlenmeyer flask.
Luckly the test tubes were cheap probably why they broke so easily. I droped the beaker from about 3in and it broke. The flask wasnt my fault a spectator bumped it.

White Yeti - 29-4-2012 at 07:31

Quote: Originally posted by Hexavalent

For a while, yes . . .I was luckily wearing gloves, but I still ran to the sink and flushed my skin thoroughly for about 15 minutes.

What was the concentration of your NaOH solution?

Hexavalent - 1-5-2012 at 11:51

I think it was about 20ml of 0.1M standard sodium hydroxide . . .not too nasty, but still something I would prefer not to have all over my hands.

Rogeryermaw - 24-5-2012 at 08:35

flip flops are bad. once upon a time as a yute i thought i would try electrolysis on a molten bath of NaOH. i went to adjust the electrodes and as i pulled one from the bath, a blob of molten NaOH dripped on the top of my left foot. no solution here it was pure NaOH. i still have a very deep and rough scar about the size of a nickel. live and learn eh?

chemrox - 23-6-2012 at 00:57

I just had one of those days: watch glasses and 5 ml beakers all over my benches and tables trying to find a solvent or solvent pair to recryx my intermediate product. It put me in a frustrated mood. Trying another solvent paair and watching polymerization begin along with the unexpected develpment of two phases didn't prepare me for having one of my two female 24/40 stoppers jump off the evaporator smashing the hard-to-find stopper along with a beaker on its way down. This was so inspiring i decided to catch up on washing my glass and managed to break a couple more beakers. A seried of little things like setting up a filtration and finding no paper to fit the chosen Buchner. Giving myself a lecture/pep-talk on the value of optimizing work-ups... lets see the reaction took three days of which 2.8 days were refluxing the first solution with a Dean-Stark. The next three steps went as planned; evaporate, wash, extract, dry, evaporate, check with TLC oh boy now comes the fun! Maybe I'll try DMF next. Acetic acid dissolves it in any concentration.. maybe something simple like ether/acetone. I hadn't tried that pair yet (had to crack open a new can).

Eliteforum - 23-6-2012 at 02:14

^ PPPPPP!

Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance!

Eddygp - 23-6-2012 at 03:49

Heating a non-Pyrex test tube, and cooling it down in cold water. The test tube cracked open...

Rogeryermaw - 17-7-2012 at 08:41

had a one liter bit of pyrex glassware shatter on me boiling down a bleach solution to make chlorate. fortunately no glass on or in me but some burns from the boiling fluid and steam. face and left arm. good thing for goggles. eyes are safe. no idea why it broke. i didn't move it or slosh the liquid. didn't bump it with anything. just time for something to happen i guess.

[Edited on 17-7-2012 by Rogeryermaw]

mr.crow - 17-7-2012 at 11:37

Oh no im always worried when this thread gets bumped up again

Is it a real pyrex beaker? Is it a real hotplate?

Rogeryermaw - 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.

Mailinmypocket - 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.

SM2 - 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.

Pyro - 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

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

Vargouille - 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.

Pyro - 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?

Vargouille - 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.

Pyro - 12-10-2012 at 14:21

seems everybody seems to pay more than me for their glass!

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.

sargent1015 - 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

zenosx - 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!

elementcollector1 - 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...

sbbspartan - 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.

feacetech - 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

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]

sargent1015 - 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

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

[Edited on 5-11-2012 by sargent1015]

sargent1015 - 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.

Lambda-Eyde - 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.

How long was your condenser...?

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

sargent1015 - 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

sbbspartan - 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.

triplepoint - 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.

Magpie - 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.

smaerd - 17-11-2012 at 16:37

lucky catch!

kuro96inlaila - 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

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]

Mailinmypocket - 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

kuro96inlaila - 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!

White Yeti - 27-11-2012 at 13:36

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

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

tetrahedron - 27-11-2012 at 13:47

Quote: Originally posted by White Yeti

You can only make such a clean cut with a glass cutter.

it sure looks like it. or a hard grain lodged itself between the joints and caused an invisible circular scratch upon turning.

kuro96inlaila - 27-11-2012 at 15:35

Quote: Originally posted by White Yeti

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

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

No,it is just me who use it

.The fact that it look like glass cutter cut that baffled me.

Quote: Originally posted by tetrahedron

Quote: Originally posted by White Yeti

You can only make such a clean cut with a glass cutter.

it sure looks like it. or a hard grain lodged itself between the joints and caused an invisible circular scratch upon turning.

Hard grain is the plausible cause of this accident.

Eddygp - 28-11-2012 at 09:04

A hot test tube dropped in a cold water bath... CRACK! thought it was Pyrex.

Hexavalent - 4-1-2013 at 08:40

Nitric acid fumes burning my nose....lovely.

kuro96inlaila - 12-2-2013 at 03:08

Today I decided to purify the red phosphorus which I obtained a couple days ago.It is from an old source so the quality isn't good.It appear to be hygroscopic powder which the real red phosphorus isn't.

I follow the purification method described on sixth edition of "Purification of Laboratory chemicals":

Quote:

Phosphorus (red) [7723-14-0] M 31.0, m 590o/43atm, ignites at 200o, d 4 20 2.34.

Heat it for 15minutes in boiling distilled H2O, allow it to settle and wash it several times with boiling H2O.
Transfer it to a Büchner funnel, wash it with hot H2O until the washings are neutral, then dry it at 100o and store it in a desiccator.

So I started to boil it in distilled H2O in a beaker using heating mantle.It heat up and boil steadily until one point it bumped out of the beaker onto the heating mantle's fiberglass wool.I quickly turn off the heating mantle and took the beaker out of the heating mantle.Some of the red phosphorus slurry had dried on he fiberglass wool.

After it cools down I scraped off the red P and vacuum cleaned it.It didn't clean it all the way but pretty much of the red P were sucked off.I decided to give the HM a test run.So after the HM reached auto ignition point of red P,the stained fiberglass started to smoke and glows.After a half a minute it stoped and I stopped the test run.

Stain left after the test run.

Anyway the other red P have been successfully purified.The stain on the HM worries me,does it give side effect on their performance?

[Edited on 12-2-2013 by kuro96inlaila]

woelen - 12-2-2013 at 04:41

I would take this heating mantle outside and allow it to heat at maximum heat for an hour or so. In this way I expect most of the red P to disappear and the formation of smoke to stop after a while. If it does not give off any smoke anymore and still heats OK, then you can safely assume that it is not really harmed.

The reason why I say you to do this outside is that if you get fire or a short circuit then at least you don't have the mess in your house. Assure that you can quickly disconnect the heating mantle from the power supply and have a bucket of water nearby (in case of emergency FIRST!!! disconnect from power supply, then use water to kill any fire or overheating).

kuro96inlaila - 12-2-2013 at 06:16

Thanks for the advices woelen,
I'll try it tomorrow.

Pyro - 12-2-2013 at 10:30

I broke a 600ml beaker drying CaCl2 in the microwave

Hexavalent - 12-2-2013 at 11:09

I dropped my nice 100 mL porcelain evaporating basin whilst washing it...so I wrapped it in a towel, took a hammer to it and made boiling chips from it

kuro96inlaila - 14-2-2013 at 09:02

@Pyro and Hexavalent:Things do happen aren't they?

Ok,I have give the HM another test run as woelen described.After a moment it start to smokin' but it is only a faint smoke.A few minutes later it stopped smokin'.Then everything looks fine to me.

But after I stopped the test run,I realised that the stained fiberglass matting had became brittle and crumble when I poked it.

I vacuum cleaned the spot because I thought it is bad to have fiberglass particles lying around.

Here's how it look like after the cleaning:

Does this alter the HM's performance?

Magpie - 14-2-2013 at 09:28

If you could find some fiberglass fabric at a hardware store or auto parts store you could probably sew a patch over the bare area.

The bare spot might be a hot spot but my guess is that it would work ok as is.

repo1030 - 24-2-2013 at 22:41

When I was a kid and first starting out in chemistry I did the HCl and Zinc experiment. I made the mistake of picking the test tube up with no gloves on after the reaction stopped. Boy! Was that test tube HOT! Needless to say I dropped the test tube causing it to smash on the floor.

Endimion17 - 25-2-2013 at 00:29

Quote: Originally posted by kuro96inlaila

Today I decided to purify the red phosphorus which I obtained a couple days ago.It is from an old source so the quality isn't good.It appear to be hygroscopic powder which the real red phosphorus isn't.

Actually, it is hygroscopic. Not the RP itself, but its products of reaction with air. RP reacts with oxygen and moisture very, very slowly, but the product, phosphoric acid, is so hygroscopic it makes it all clumpy in few years. It seems the deterioration is exponential if the powder is exposed to the atmosphere, as if some catalysis is in order. I honestly don't know.
If you let it in sit for decades (30+ years) in a not so well closed bottle it will get wet. The top will be diluted acid, and the bottom will be like a fine, wet, red sand.

The closest thing I can describe it with is the red sludge from Ajka in Hungary.

[Edited on 25-2-2013 by Endimion17]

kuro96inlaila - 25-2-2013 at 00:38

Quote: Originally posted by Endimion17

Quote: Originally posted by kuro96inlaila

Actually, it is hygroscopic. Not the RP itself, but its products of reaction with air. RP reacts with oxygen and moisture very, very slowly, but the product, phosphoric acid, is so hygroscopic it makes it all clumpy in few years. It seems the deterioration is exponential if the powder is exposed to the atmosphere, as if some catalysis is in order. I honestly don't know.
If you let it in sit for decades (30+ years) in a not so well closed bottle it will get wet. The top will be diluted acid, and the bottom will be like a fine, wet, red sand.

The closest think I can describe it with is the red sludge from Ajka in Hungary.

Thanks,Endimion17!
I learnt something new today.

elementcollector1 - 27-2-2013 at 09:36

Just lost a loyal beaker to the war effort.
It will be missed.
...And replaced.

Mailinmypocket - 20-3-2013 at 09:52

I noticed the secondary container which hold my bottle of anhydrous aluminum chloride was a bit frosty looking. I decided to Wrap the threads in Teflon tape and whatnot, and had a little stupid idea... To smell the air inside the secondary container. Don't ask why. Anyhow- needless to say I almost screamed from the HCl gas present in there!!!

Oh aluminum chloride- so tame

DrSchnufflez - 20-3-2013 at 17:46

My 400mm Liebig condenser shattered whilst I was washing it

zenosx - 21-3-2013 at 15:26

Quote: Originally posted by DrSchnufflez

My 400mm Liebig condenser shattered whilst I was washing it

Ouch, that's an expensive bad day....

My only irritation this last month is my stopper from amazon was 14/20 instead of 19/22

zenosx - 21-3-2013 at 15:29

Quote: Originally posted by Magpie

If you could find some fiberglass fabric at a hardware store or auto parts store you could probably sew a patch over the bare area.

The bare spot might be a hot spot but my guess is that it would work ok as is.

I would go this route as well. If you can try to keep the thickness near to the original it shouldn't cause a hot/cold spot.

madscientist - 27-3-2013 at 21:41

Quote: Originally posted by UnintentionalChaos

Don't ever shake a flask with a stirbar in it...I had a rather large stirbar in a 1L, 4-neck RBF and one good shake while cleaning put it cleanly through the side wall. I almost cried. That was my fanciest flask and one of only 2 1Ls that I owned. I picked up a 3-neck 1L on ebay though, to replace it, so all is okay...just cost me $30.

Now, for those of you with rotovaps, think about what would follow if this happened while pulling off solvent. Don't ever leave stirbars in flasks that are anything but stationary!

Gross Alert...

Mailinmypocket - 29-3-2013 at 08:15

While reaching to grab something next to an extremely hot hotplate, my finger hit the HOTplate. Skin stuck to it

I'm lucky my nail didnt die... This is almost a week later!!

Pyro - 29-3-2013 at 10:44

WTF? how did it get so damaged? I once put my hand on a red hot piece of steel and just had a big blister! looks very painful!

Mailinmypocket - 29-3-2013 at 10:54

Quote: Originally posted by Pyro

WTF? how did it get so damaged? I once put my hand on a red hot piece of steel and just had a big blister! looks very painful!

If only I knew... I've had bad burns before but this time when I pulled away the skin just... Came off.. Very nasty indeed, and painful, especially when you go to reach in your jeans pocket and forget about it!! It'll be fine though- they don't call them hot plates for nothing apparently. Maybe it has something to do with the ceramic top...

[Edited on 29-3-2013 by Mailinmypocket]

Hexavalent - 29-3-2013 at 12:47

My hotplate has a coil underneath it that expands when the hotplate heats up, allowing a small brass metal tab with "HOT" written on it in red lettering to protrude out. This gives a clear indication of whether or not the hotplate is hot, and indeed how hot it is, i.e. by how far out the tab is extended.

Suffice is to say that this feature has probably saved me from some very nasty burns in my time.

Mailinmypocket - 29-3-2013 at 13:07

Quote: Originally posted by Hexavalent

My hotplate has a coil underneath it that expands when the hotplate heats up, allowing a small brass metal tab with "HOT" written on it in red lettering to protrude out. This gives a clear indication of whether or not the hotplate is hot, and indeed how hot it is, i.e. by how far out the tab is extended.

Suffice is to say that this feature has probably saved me from some very nasty burns in my time.

Same here... Mine has a flashing triangle light thing that says "Hot Top" when the unit is above 60c, except stupid me knew damn well it was hot, ah well... Live and learn I suppose

otherwise that light has also saved me a few burns I'm sure.

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