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Chisholm
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How much have you spent on your lab?
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Poll Guidelines
For the purposes of this poll, "spent on your lab" refers specifically to equipment, reagents, storage space, or real estate that you bought for use
in laboratory science experiments, and NOT utilities such as electricity or water. Don't include lost wages or other opportunity costs.
If you somehow make money from your lab (tutoring, making products, etc.), do NOT deduct that from your total.
Existing things that you commandeered or cannibalized for lab use don't count, unless you had to buy another item to replace it. For example, if you
gave up coffee and repurposed your grinder, it doesn't count unless you later had to buy another coffee grinder for non-lab use.
Even if you don't know for sure, try to make an estimate. |
Hello, everyone! It's time we helped give each other a better picture of our community. If you have the time, please tell us about your lab and the
financial aspects of setting it up and running it.
One obvious issue with this poll is that it doesn't capture how long you've operated your lab, which of course can vastly impact the results.
An expensive but new lab and a cheap but long-running one can give the same results, which is why it's a good idea to tell us about how long you've
been doing science.
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Sulaiman
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3 years,
£621.57 on chemicals
£739.75 on equipment
Starting costs were high but average monthly now much less (usually) 
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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JJay
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I think between $2000 and $3000. I have only spent maybe $500 tops on chemicals. I typically spend between $100-200/month on new equipment.
I had a pretty decent lab in college... I think I spent about $4000 on it. My current lab has started to move beyond the capabilities of my college
lab, but I still don't have an inert gas setup.
[Edited on 21-5-2017 by JJay]
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elementcollector1
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I've been focusing on being as cheap as reasonably possible (with respect to equipment and glassware). Therefore, I think my total expenses, after
about 6 years, lie in the range of $500.
Elements Collected:52/87
Latest Acquired: Cl
Next in Line: Nd
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violet sin
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Location: Daydreaming of uraninite...
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Think in the 2-3k $US. Maybe into the next bracket, it's been a while. Not all purchases were strictly chemistry as some work for a few hobbies.
But things like 8' hood, immersion cooler, desktop furnace, ground glass distillation set, chems and all manner of materials for building other
usefull contraptions are deffinitely chemistry expenses.
The saddest part is 93% (give or take) is in storage and NOT in my work space. Need an actual stand-alone shed or building for that, and a few less
neighbors couldn't hurt. In other words I wish I lived in the country as opposed to in town, be WAY more active if I could actually use my hard won
supplies. Patients is a virtue 
[Edited on 21-5-2017 by violet sin]
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mayko
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Figure 1: Me, looking back and trying to reckon this sum...
al-khemie is not a terrorist organization
"Chemicals, chemicals... I need chemicals!" - George Hayduke
"Wubbalubba dub-dub!" - Rick Sanchez
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j_sum1
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Mood: Most of the ducks are in a row
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Really hard one to estimate.
I inherited a bunch of chemicals from a throw-out pile at my work. I have maintained a steady trickle of OTC chemicals and equipment over the past
three years. And I have also spent a few hundred on proper glassware and chemicals online.
At the moment I am constructing my lab space. It is part of another building project and has probably added about $1000 to the cost of that project.
I clicked $2000-3000 -- estimating in USD since that is what I think most people will be using for comparison. It is probably at the higher end of
that range. And has been spread over three years. Good storage is a surprisingly big part of the cost.
Realistically, I expect that my expenditure will drop significantly once the new lab space is up and running. But there is still the expense of a
camera and PC and video editing gear to come.
As far as hobbies go it is not really all that expensive. People pay much more than that for a single bicycle or 4WD gear or for rock climbing or for
football injuries or for just about anything. I saw a lego display on the weekend. The smallest investments that I saw would have been in the region
of tens of thousands of dollars for plastic bricks.
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Phosphor-ing
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Real hard one to put a price on. I have been at this so long that I really guessed at how much I have spent.
grammar edit
[Edited on 22-5-2017 by Phosphor-ing]
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" -Ronald Reagan
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j_sum1
Administrator
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Oh, come on. Who spent over a million?
If that was remotely serious it would only be to cover legal expenses and environmental clean up.
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Chisholm
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Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1  | Oh, come on. Who spent over a million?
If that was remotely serious it would only be to cover legal expenses and environmental clean up. |
You never know. Maybe someone has a catalytic hydrogenator, an SO3 generator, argon atmosphere glovebox setup, supercritical CO2 setup, a cryogenic
cooling apparatus, a GC-MS, an NMR, an HPLC, and a cyclotron for radioisotope experiments, on top of several dozen grams of every platinum-, rhodium-,
osmium-, and iridium-based catalyst known to man and a few gallons of deuterated solvents of nearly every kind.
EDIT: Not me. I'm in the lower end of the 10,000-20,000 range. If you have spent over 100,000 on your lab, please tell us about it!
EDIT 2: Only 30 responses and we already have a pretty nice normal distribution. Interesting
[Edited on 5-23-2017 by Chisholm]
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MrHomeScientist
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I just completed an $8,000 renovation of my lab space, for new furniture, tile, and storage cabinets. Counting all the equipment and chemicals I
already had, it's probably mid-range in the $10k - $20 bracket. Yikes.
The new lab looks NICE though. Once I get it cleaned up and organized I'll post something in the 'tour my lab' thread and a reveal video on my
channel.
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Crowfjord
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Mood: Ever so slowly crystallizing...
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It's a rough estimate, but I think I've spent between $3000 and $5000 on chemicals and equipment over the nine years since I started the hobby.
Glassware alone has probably cost me around $2000 over that timeframe.
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Magpie
lab constructor
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Location: USA
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Mood: Chemistry: the subtle science.
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I built my hood early on at an estimate of $2000 right after I retired.
I made a rough estimate of $5000 -10,000 but might be low. Fo r a 13 yr span I consider this a relatively low cost hobby compared to golf, boating,
etc.
[Edited on 23-5-2017 by Magpie]
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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Praxichys
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I'm in the $10k-$20k range.
My stock sheet keeps track of a lot of it.
I built the lab itself for about $1800.
I have $3141 in reagents.
I bought $3200 in mercury but sold a lot to buy some of the other stuff.
I have around $2300 worth of glass
That's $10,441 plus 7000lbs of ion exchange resin I'm gearing up to sell.
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j_sum1
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| Quote: Originally posted by Chisholm |
EDIT 2: Only 30 responses and we already have a pretty nice normal distribution. Interesting
[Edited on 5-23-2017 by Chisholm] |
Correction. Lognormal.
Which is not terribly surprising for this kind of economic data.
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cabal
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I should be located somewhere right in the upper sector of the $3000-$5000 department. However, that number is a bit misleading because I've made a
hobby out of gradually reselling my used lab equipment at a profit as I buy new stuff, so taking that into consideration my lab is currently worth
something like $2000-3000.
Also I second the demand to see the million-dollar lab.
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Sir M
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I actually haven't spend much money on my lab - I inherited most of the glassware or got it as a gift  Only spend money on chemicals, even though I got most of them when they were discarded from school. It is quite
cheap, when you have some support.
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Vosoryx
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I'm in the 750-1000 range, but that's for a few reasons. Firstly, I'm assuming this is in USD, so I had to convert from CAD first. I'm also not
counting the electricity or water costs, or the roughly $750 of equipment I've gotten for free. Also, my lab building was already built and already on
my property, so there was no building costs or space rental fees. I also have only been doing this for about a year, so I'm sure that number will
increase with time.
If the million dollar lab wasn't a troll, I would kill to see that.
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Mesa
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I voted $2000-3000 because that's how much my current lab cost me. Though I had a slightly more expensive setup that I had to leave behind when I
moved back from mexico to australia a few years ago.
Turns out that much glassware doesn't fit in a hiking pack  .
(But seriously, border security in both countries convinced me transporting it was a no-go. I was naive and they were everyday chemophobic assholes.)
[Edited on 4-10-2017 by Mesa]
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CLaS
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| Quote: Originally posted by Mesa | I voted $2000-3000 because that's how much my current lab cost me. Though I had a slightly more expensive setup that I had to leave behind when I
moved back from mexico to australia a few years ago.
Turns out that much glassware doesn't fit in a hiking pack .
(But seriously, border security in both countries convinced me transporting it was a no-go. I was naive and they were everyday chemophobic assholes.)
[Edited on 4-10-2017 by Mesa] |
did you consider shipping it?
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NEMO-Chemistry
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I dont know what I spent, i got some given to me, i have brought alot of bulk glassware, it soon adds up though. Chemical wise I have spent what seems
like a fortune. Solvents always seem to cost alot and dont last long.
I am about to order my next batch of chems, with the plant experiments and general stuff i buy every month, i expect the cost to be around £450 this
time. Then the machine for electro fusion i ordered, that comes in at around £500.
Then the new dissimulation rig so I had all the same size joints, thats £220............ So before i wrote all that I would of said £2000 ish, but
thats got to be way off! Actually thats really scary what this hobby costs!
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LearnedAmateur
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I don't have a lab as such, just a small area in which I can conduct small scale procedures so that cost me exactly zip to set up. Most of my
glassware (14/23 or 19/26) is from job lots, not much I might add, and a few other odd bits. When I was in my last year of high school, I managed to
get my hands on some old glassware they would've thrown out, just some test/boiling tubes, bungs, and beakers, nothing special but definitely useful
for the amounts I deal with. At least half of my expenditure would have to be on reagents, I don't spend more than £20 at a time but I do have a wide
variety of solids and liquids that have been collected over the past few years, a couple of hundred grams/millilitres here and there. So yeah, it
would have to be in the $250-$400 range for me since it is purely a hobby and I certainly don't want it turning into a money pit.
In chemistry, sometimes the solution is the problem.
It’s been a while, but I’m not dead! Updated 7/1/2020. Shout out to Aga, we got along well.
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karlos³
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It would be easier for me if the question would be "how much do you spent on your lab monthly?", which can be answered with estimated 100-400 dollars
each month.
But I don´t really know, neither do I want to, what I´ve spent over all my active time...
including every mistake-buy, every fucked up synthesis, etc...
Because then I would have to realise, the largest expense in my activities are fuck-ups, which means my incompetence costs me my money 
Nobody said it was a cheap hobby, anyway
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Vosoryx
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Im not sure i like the "monthly" though.
For that to be honest, for me, id have to take all the money ive spent and divide that by how many months - neither of which i really know.
In september, i didn't spend a dime, but i bought 100 bucks of stuff last month.
But to each their own.
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aga
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I like that answer the best.
Me too.
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