RVM45
Harmless
Posts: 5
Registered: 21-7-2009
Location: Sovereign Nation of Indiana
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Mood: Okay...little too laid back
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Introduction: "Howdy All"
I joined your Forum a few days ago; since then, I've been lurking and studying.
I just recently came across a copy of "Grandad's Wonderful Book of Chemistry"; and since then, a half-dozen other PDFs about small home labs.
I've wanted the "Grandad's..." book for years; but find that it doesn't really answer the question that I had in mind...
Just exactly what can one do with a small home Chem Lab?
#1} Quite frankly, Explosives scare me half to death. I have an absolute phobia of blowing fingers off--not wild about losing an eye or two; and
getting various assorted cuts; bruises; burns and traumas--but its losing the fingers that first springs to mind...
#2} I was once into Drugs; but I got out of it. Don't want to get back into that depressing scene...Sure don't want to hazzard the Draconion
Punisments the Hobnails are handing out...
#3} Not really terribly interested in Perfumes (Seems to be one popular area of Home Chemistry)
I do have a lively interest in Electro-Plating and Electroless Plating--as well as self-sufficiency.
But anyway, once one has built the requisite skills; what are good money-saving products that he can make at home?
Also, where are there still some dusty neglected attic corners of Chemistry, where a lone; low-budget experimenter might still strike Gold, with a
usefull Patent?
Really, I like the idea of having a nice Lab; but am having a little problem rationalizing...
Oh, by the way--Can I please have access to "Whimsey" and "Resources"?
I assure you that I'm not a Spammer; 'Bot; ATF Agent; Snitch; Pest; Troll--or other person of low moral character...
.....RVM45  
Though forced to live in Exile in the Twenty-First Century; I will always be a Proud Citizen of The Twentieth Century.
It has to be a Flying Saucer--I don't believe in Aeroplanes.
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Magpie
lab constructor
Posts: 5939
Registered: 1-11-2003
Location: USA
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Mood: Chemistry: the subtle science.
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| Quote: |
Really, I like the idea of having a nice Lab; but am having a little problem rationalizing...
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If you can't rationalize it just on the basis of your love of chemistry, then you probably can't rationalize it.
Some people make money off soap or candles, or save some money on cleaning products. But I don't really think of that as amateur chemistry, or even
as having a home lab.
However, one Victor Deeb was doing research in his home lab with economic gain in mind. You might research his name on this forum to see how this
turned out for him. I do think there are other members of this forum who have economic gain in mind, discounting the cooks, of course.
[Edited on 23-7-2009 by Magpie]
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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RVM45
Harmless
Posts: 5
Registered: 21-7-2009
Location: Sovereign Nation of Indiana
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Mood: Okay...little too laid back
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Oh well, once you get down to the fun stuff, you usually lose sight of the profit motive--
At least I do...
I am persuaded though, that there are some useful--or at least interesting--discoveries that could still be made in a small Lab...
Whether they will, or not...
.....RVM45
Though forced to live in Exile in the Twenty-First Century; I will always be a Proud Citizen of The Twentieth Century.
It has to be a Flying Saucer--I don't believe in Aeroplanes.
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bfesser
Resident Wikipedian
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Registered: 29-1-2008
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Don't forget the people who are into building their own instrumentation, producing biodiesel, and tinkering with fuel cells.
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The_Davster
A pnictogen
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Registered: 18-11-2003
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Mood: .
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Are you seriously asking what you should try if you want to discover something?
Of course there are simple discoveries to be made, damned if I know what they are, or I'd be all over them.
On the self-sufficiency idea you could always get some nano-TiO2 and some raspberries and make your own solar cells.
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RVM45
Harmless
Posts: 5
Registered: 21-7-2009
Location: Sovereign Nation of Indiana
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Mood: Okay...little too laid back
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I meant the question in the Sense that one might have asked an old-tyme geographer where the biggest expanses of uncharted territory lie...
Not of asking him what lay in those uncharted areas.
Now I understand that there may be no good way to know where the biggest and most accessible areas of Chemistry lie--
Or on the other hand; it may be rather evident.
See, I'm asking from a standpoint of relative ignorance; and don't know how quantifiable the answer might be.
.....RVM45
Though forced to live in Exile in the Twenty-First Century; I will always be a Proud Citizen of The Twentieth Century.
It has to be a Flying Saucer--I don't believe in Aeroplanes.
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woelen
Super Administrator
Posts: 8012
Registered: 20-8-2005
Location: Netherlands
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Mood: interested
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I think that we must be realistic and must admit that real breakthroughs cannot be made anymore by a home chemist. All low-hanging fruits of science
have been picked 100 years ago or even earlier, nowadays, only amazingly high-hanging fruits are left and picking those requires well eqipped labs
with equipment, worth at least tons of dollars and probably millions of dollars.
But that said, this does not mean that home chemistry (or whatever home science) cannot be rationalized. Doing science, (re)discovering things on your
own, studying special physical or chemical effects in your backyard or attic can be a wonderful thing to do. Even if I say that e.g. chemiluminiscence
is discovered already 200 years ago and there is a good theoretical basis for its descriptions already for a several decades, it still is fantastic to
see it happen in your own beakers or test tubes and it becomes even more fun if you manage to make the required chemicals from simpler chemicals. So,
for me (and I think most of us over here), it is not the idea of doing a great discovery or making $$$$ from the lab, but it is the idea of wondering
about all possible remarkable things which are put in Nature.
Sometimes, you may stumble upon some obscure reactions, which long ago were described, but which have been forgotten in modern times. Many chemical
reactions and corresponding compounds simply have been forgotten. Who knows about the yellow I.nSO2(-) complex (which can be made as easily as adding
some KI to an acidified solution of Na2SO3) or the deep brown, almost black mixed valency chloro/copper complexes which can be studied with nothing
more than some hydrochloric acid and copper wire? it is remarkable how many very poorly understood or simply forgotten reactions there are, which can
be studied with just a few common reagents). Sometimes I simply don't understand why noone has taken the effort in the last two centuries to study
such reactions. A few examples of these things are on my website:
http://woelen.homescience.net/science/chem/riddles/
This kind of things is one of my drives to do home chemistry.
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merrlin
Hazard to Others
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Registered: 3-4-2009
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Quote: Originally posted by RVM45  |
I do have a lively interest in Electro-Plating and Electroless Plating--as well as self-sufficiency.
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There is quite a bit of unexplored territory involving electrochemistry with non-aqueous electrolytes, particularly room-temperature ionic liquids.
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