Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Pictures of your home lab

Pictures of your home lab

mewrox99 - 11-6-2010 at 01:15

Show off your home lab.

Here is mine. It's in my laundry as a temp setup before I get there spare attic room.

P6110001.JPG - 113kB

[Edited on 11-6-2010 by mewrox99]

JohnWW - 11-6-2010 at 05:03

Mewrox, thanks for sharing, although you obviously need a lot more equipment, especially distillation apparatus and analytical instruments, and many more reagents, before you can do any really serious chemistry. Oh, and I hope that the corrupt New Zealand Pigs, who oppress us, do not recognize the scenes depicted in your photos, possibly using Google-Earth, and use them as evidence to concoct an excuse to raid you on the pretext of making drugs!

[Edited on 11-6-10 by JohnWW]

entropy51 - 11-6-2010 at 06:15

JohnWorryWart,

Have you taken your galantamine today?

DJF90 - 11-6-2010 at 08:09

Quote:

although you obviously need a lot more equipment, especially distillation apparatus and analytical instruments, and many more reagents, before you can do any really serious chemistry.

Don't be so hard on the guy, he's made a good start and thats more than many of us have done!

Quote:

Oh, and I hope that the corrupt New Zealand Pigs, who oppress us, do not recognize the scenes depicted in your photos, possibly using Google-Earth, and use them as evidence to concoct an excuse to raid you on the pretext of making drugs

You're being ridiculous John, like they can see in his laundry room from google earth with any detail(/at all).

Skyjumper - 11-6-2010 at 17:58

I'l pop a few pics on monday of the lab I work in. Full fume hood and 4 8foot tall cabinets filled with chems.

mewrox99 - 11-6-2010 at 20:22

Yeah. My lab is really new. I only made it a week and a half ago. I'm getting some more reagents in the mail. Sodium Acetate, Strontium Nitrate, Barium Nitrate, Potassium Permanganate and I'll be making some sodium metasilicate some time soon.

[Edited on 12-6-2010 by mewrox99]

JohnWW - 11-6-2010 at 20:56

Where in New Zealand are you buying those reagents, Mewrox99? Do they ask any awkward questions?

mewrox99 - 11-6-2010 at 20:59

I so far haven't bought my reagent from real companies.

Trademe, OTC sources, sometimes if it's rare I'll beg my chem teacher who often gives me stuff.

On trademe, countingsheep1 will sell you stuff through email if you have bought alot from him.

Clarks Products LTD sell to individuals but it's bulk technical grade.

HMS-Beagle sell internationally

psychokinetic - 11-6-2010 at 22:43

So countingsheep1 is reliable? That's good to hear. He has a lot I like the look of.

*uses his csi skills to see the reflection in the beakers, to see your eyes which can't be made out, but somehow I can see the reflection of your outdoor area. I then take that image and scan it into my computer arbitrarily, push a few buttons seemingly at random and watch as a million images flash on my screen for no reason, as there's no point in downloading all the wrong answers. I then send out a team of analysts who really have no power over you, and one ominously pulls off his sunglasses and makes a bad joke*

mewrox99 - 11-6-2010 at 22:48

Quote: Originally posted by psychokinetic

So countingsheep1 is reliable? That's good to hear. He has a lot I like the look of.

*uses his csi skills to see the reflection in the beakers, to see your eyes which can't be made out, but somehow I can see the reflection of your outdoor area. I then take that image and scan it into my computer arbitrarily, push a few buttons seemingly at random and watch as a million images flash on my screen for no reason, as there's no point in downloading all the wrong answers. I then send out a team of analysts who really have no power over you, and one ominously pulls off his sunglasses and makes a bad joke*

Yeah, Countingsheep1 is reliable I've bought many items from him although at times he can be a wee-bit slow.

Anyway lol wut

Chainhit222 - 12-6-2010 at 14:14

I have been slowly working on it for a while.
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=12868#...

Current Picture:
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1986/labncurrent.jpg

I put all the equipment that would fit into the little filing-shelf by the fume hood. I want to get some nice lockers for the large equipments so its not laying on shelves exposed to the dust. I am a bit lacking in the reagents department too

.
The acids are stored in the tupaware container under the desk, in case a bottle magically breaks.
But... CL-20, I'm coming for you!

[Edited on 12-6-2010 by Chainhit222]

mewrox99 - 16-7-2010 at 03:21

My collection of chems has grown quite bit. And this doesn't include the oxidants and I have ordered some metals (Al, Mg, Zn)

chemicals.jpg - 75kB

JohnWW - 16-7-2010 at 10:34

Oh good, with those you will be able to do your own organic reductions using H2 generated by the action of an acid on those metals, and make (using organic halides) your own Grignard reagents for additive organic syntheses.

mewrox99 - 19-7-2010 at 02:25

Still very inexperienced in O-Chem (I'm only 14)

I'll be making some ethanediamide soon, since that seems simple enough.

Maybe at the start of next year I'll get some distillation equipment, and a magnetic stirrer

Sedit - 19-7-2010 at 14:15

IF you don' mind me asking which route do you plan on taking to getto EDA? Iv had my sights on this for a while and was curious as to hw you want t go about it. My idea was to brominate ethylene glycol and pass the Dibromoethane into and excess of (aq)NH3 to yeild EDA*(HBr)2. If you feel its off topic PM me.

smaerd - 20-7-2010 at 15:23

<img src="http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad173/smaerdsdreams/73e8485a.jpg"/>
<img src="http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad173/smaerdsdreams/1ca3a016.jpg"/>

Finally making some progress on this damn thing. Dig the home made test tube rack? lol

entropy51 - 20-7-2010 at 16:45

Fire extinguisher: Check

Safety Goggles: Check

You get a thumbs up, my man.

How's the ventilation?

smaerd - 20-7-2010 at 17:01

Thanks

.

Ventilation is pretty poor. That's my next step before buying a vacuum I believe. I want to do something like a fume-hood or cabinet. I'm just not sure what I'm going to have to do to get that constructed safely. The nearest door/window to the outside is maybe 10 feet away so that's not too far thankfully. I want to do something nice though, like some kind of hockey court glass or something, but that might be wallet draining. Adequate fan's are seemingly expensive as well.

I mostly need to do some research though

. Some great threads on fume-hoods on here.

entropy51 - 20-7-2010 at 17:16

Fume hoods have to be fancy to meet official safety requirements. They need not be so fancy to actually take the fumes outside, especially if you don't work with HCN or phosgene. It doesn't take a lot to remove HCl, NH3 or halogens if you stick to a small scale. If you have a blower that provides adequate air flow you're 90% of the way there. Just avoid ether and carbon disulfide in anything but the best hood. Safety is more a mindset than fancy equipment.

psychokinetic - 20-7-2010 at 17:32

I've just moved house, and I have a garage

Still setting it up. Need to get the fusebox to stop pinging so I can have a stable power source, and perhaps remove the net curtains and put some blinds up.

entropy51 - 20-7-2010 at 17:34

Garage good! Blinds even better!

psychokinetic - 20-7-2010 at 17:43

Yeah, my 6th form chemistry teacher showed me well what happens to light curtains in a chemistry lab....

If I get off my arse today, I might actually contribute to the topic of this thread, and show pictures of what was already set up in the garage before I moved.

Magpie - 20-7-2010 at 17:47

Quote: Originally posted by smaerd

Dig the home made test tube rack? lol

Yes, I like the test tube rack. That was the first piece of equipment I made for my lab.

I also like the Morton salt. I have that too, labeled "For lab use only"

A lot of my larger utensils came from my wife's kitchen and are now labeled "For lab use only." Dinner plate, sauce bowl, stainless steel bowl, coffee grinder, etc. Today I grabbed her turkey baster! Of course I replace all her stuff with new.

psychokinetic - 20-7-2010 at 17:53

Do you label her stuff "For Mrs. Magpie's use only"?

Magpie - 20-7-2010 at 18:56

Quote: Originally posted by psychokinetic

Do you label her stuff "For Mrs. Magpie's use only"?

That's a default position for utensils located in the kitchen, so labeling is not necessary. She does understand, however that the needs of the lab sometimes take precedence over mere eating.

My little lab

ThatchemistKid - 22-7-2010 at 07:44

Hello here are a few pics of my little lab, it is situated in a garage

a view of the messy lab with the in the making glove box on the side (still needs to be sealed and the argon cylinder bought for it)
P1010726.JPG - 143kB

the fumehood and the chemical cabinet
P1010727.JPG - 163kB

the glassware, along with a glimpse of some benzene being distilled at the side.
P1010729.JPG - 154kB

chemicals

chemicals!
P1010718.JPG - 148kB

chemicals!!
P1010719.JPG - 130kB

some hardware
P1010731.JPG - 115kB

the touch screen and brain that controls all of appliances( switch program turns everything on and off etc..)
P1010734.JPG - 149kB

Inside of the glove box!
P1010707.JPG - 188kB

a picture of a constant extraction set up in the fumehood that for whatever reason will not post but keeps coming up as an attachment ( I must have done something wrong somewhere)
Attachment: phpQSa6fH (179kB)
This file has been downloaded 1166 times

ThatchemistKid - 22-7-2010 at 07:47

Ok I figured it out so here are the last couple of pictures

05012010 186.jpg - 153kB

Im very interested in seeing other peoples labs as well so please do post more!

Sedit - 22-7-2010 at 09:36

After seeing yours you would be less then interested in seeing mine

smaerd - 22-7-2010 at 11:20

Jesus! What a nice set-up!

How much was that vacuum pump and what kind of trap do you use to catch solvent, etc?

Really nice fume-hood! What kind of metal is the exhaust?

ThatchemistKid - 22-7-2010 at 12:03

uhhm that vacuum pump was 79 dollars actually, it works very well. In terms of a trap I use the pump more for filtration then vacuum distillation but generally a a heavy walled flask two holed stopper at -30 or -40 or colder depending on the solvent.

the fume hood duct is just regular duct aluminum/steel (I think), which means every year or so it has to be replaced but that can be avoided by putting a couple of activated carbon filters in the duct system and switching them out every couple of months

I also plan on tiling the inside of the fumehood to prevent an extra corrosion because the past couple of years are starting to take their toll. The fans (there are actually two fans one of which just died so i have to replace it) in the fumehood are one from a stove hood and the other is a fuel air fan for a boat, the second fan moves quite a bit of air.

smaerd - 22-7-2010 at 12:32

Thanks for responding so thoroughly, that fume-hood is an adventure I need to take soon enough.

Hey paying a couple dollars every year to keep yourself safe and alive, I'd say is a fair trade

.

I never thought of using just a cold flask, but that's pretty clever

.

I say lay the tile down. The hardest part is cutting the tile, but if you have a wet-saw(or rent one), it's not even hard haha. Tile can be acquired very affordably too. Easy to clean, etc. I'm sure you knew all that already though.

Thanks again, and your lab is a beast! Hard-work pays off

ThatchemistKid - 22-7-2010 at 12:37

well i found some very nicely white or black (cant decide) tile 8 inch squares I think it was for 40 something cents a piece at the hardware store so thats a done deal!

ACProdigy - 22-7-2010 at 17:37

@ThatChemistKid: Don't forget some of the new features for the control program

ThatchemistKid - 22-7-2010 at 17:48

mmm sounds nice if I ever get around to buying those sensors or you ever get around to finishing the code

ira_deZ - 11-9-2010 at 15:09

mr.crow - 11-9-2010 at 21:39

@ThatchemistKid Holy Cow!!!

@ira_deZ that looks like it came from the DEA website

Mr. Wizard - 12-9-2010 at 05:57

Hmmm. Not to sound toooo paranoid, but one man's home lab is another man's 'probable cause'. I don't doubt all shown here are legitimate home labs, but some government agents simply don't care what you are doing with it; if you could make drugs with it they can convince a judge to issue a search warrant. Cops and judges are not usually science buffs and a scale and a reflux set up just look like the last meth lab they just handled.

My advice, and I realize it wasn't requested, is to keep your lab pictures off the internet. You are not anonymous, your IP shows up on this board, and I'll bet my 5" floppy drive they can pinpoint your posting to a spot on a map.

mewrox99 - 23-9-2010 at 01:56

I think your being a tad too paranoid. But I live in NZ

If I lived in Australia on the other hand, noone would see my home lab

Rogeryermaw - 29-9-2010 at 21:23

he's not paranoid at all. it's complacence that makes people (at least in the states) think that there is a single key stroke they ever made hasn't been monitored. they see your posts. they see your text messages. they hear your phone calls. they know what porn you jerk it to. they have deep pockets in washington and they use it to fund some of the most sophisticated hackers you ever dreamed of. if you really want any privacy at all, go inside, close the doors, cover the windows and turn off and unplug every electronic thing in your house. it has nothing to do with paranoia. it has to do with governments being terrified of people who have enough brain power to think for themselves and when you start absorbing information you can get the fool notion that its ok. they hate free thought. they feel it makes you a threat to thier monopoly.

i have some nice things i'm dying to show to my fellow chemist community but i don't dare because i live in what was once the meth capital of the u.s. and that i own such things is certainly worth a conviction regardless of my intentions however benign.

[Edited on 30-9-2010 by Rogeryermaw]

1281371269 - 30-9-2010 at 05:53

'Paranoia is a thought process heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat towards oneself.'

So Rogeryermaw, whilst nothing you say about the capabilities of the government is untrue, I think you would still be classed as a paranoid:

1.) You assume that you, personally, are the subject of all this highly expensive government attention.
2.) You allow this fear to have a debilitating effect on your day to day life.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be careful, of course, to stay on the right side of the law and not provoke the authorities. But like, come on.

[Edited on 30-9-2010 by Mossydie]

Rogeryermaw - 30-9-2010 at 08:45

i don't think it's me they're watching. i think it's all of us. maybe not directly but all communications are archived. if you do something wrong and get caught, they have records to use against you. i will never for one second think that any member of our federal "system" cares about anything but furthering their own interests. it's like the grass in the yard. when one blade rises above the rest we don't celebrate it. we cut it down to match the template.

psychokinetic - 30-9-2010 at 11:53

It would be impossible to monitor everyone, but they notice things.

DDTea - 5-10-2010 at 14:07

Really, I think some of you are a bit too paranoid about monitoring and surveillance. I mean, it doesn't hurt (well, it DOES hurt your sanity), but really it's worth researching. Surveillance/monitoring, simply put, is expensive. It costs many man hours to collect and analyze data, especially if it might not be an important case in the end. Really, most people are *not* watched until they set off some trigger which could initiate an investigation. For example, if you have suspected AQ connections and there are records of you ordering a few gallons of phosphorus oxychloride, then you can reasonably expect to be watched

Chemistkid: how does your glovebox work? Do you load things from the top, or do you have some atrium where you load things in?