peach - 18-10-2010 at 11:30
I have been chatting with some guys at a biochemistry lab who have two absolute monster centrifuges. They're refrigerated Sorvalls and will do 22 and
24k respectively, and they're fairly new models.
I was supposed to be taking them, but I can't sort the carriage as I have far too much on the go and not enough space.
They're being ditched because they've got some new ones on the insurance / warranty.
Faults;
One of them has a controller that stops the program randomly. So one of the interlock connections is likely wonky. I expect that won't be hard at all
to repair.
The second needs three new bolts for the motor and an asbestos ring. Again, not that difficult.
These would usually be something like £20k each I think. But are essentially free if you can take the immediately.
If not using them as centrifuges, you could rip the motors and controllers out and use them for a lathe or mill, as they're a couple of kilowatts at
those RPMS and designed to deal with imperfect load balancing. They will be NICE inside.
PM me very soon if interested. Kind of, today or tomorrow really. Perhaps the day after. But then I can't wait any longer. You really will need to get
them shifted soon as well - they'll need to go on pallets and get out of their way (about £60-70 each in shipping).
[Edited on 18-10-2010 by peach]
spirocycle - 18-10-2010 at 11:35
how do you get such monster connections?
do you work in the industry?
peach - 18-10-2010 at 11:36
Lots of 'verbose' chatting. 
Same way I got an even more expensive semiconductor lab piece of gear for two beers.
Here's one of them, the other is very similar. That weighs 300kg+, so there's something good hiding in there. But they're on wheels, so one guy can
push them around.
You seriously need to hurry on these.
[Edited on 18-10-2010 by peach]
spirocycle - 18-10-2010 at 11:43
do you find a lab in your area, and just give em a call?
peach - 18-10-2010 at 11:48
Nah, it's usually that I'm already buying something from them or asking them about something to do with what they're doing. Asking them directly,
it'll sound like you're just after the money, which is what I'd think as well, as 99%+ of people are. A lot of the time, I don't even know they've got
something I'm interested in, they just offer it.
As an example, my school gave me a £15k CNC lathe for £50 - which was basically a good will donation to the department. I wasn't expecting that, but
they gave it to me because I was taking in books about building my own and trying to cast and hand scrape the components myself. Which absolutely no
one else gave a shit about.
They're much more willing to talk to you or give you things if you're genuinely interested. As opposed to "Oh right.... now give me that thing that
cost tens of thousands for nothing".
I've had a long, long replies from the technicians working in nuclear power stations, purely because I showed some genuine interest.
I apply much the same philosophy. If someone's funny or genuinely interested, they immediately get far more than the boring tarts trying to make
££££. With science, money isn't really the important thing. Amazing things are found with 5p's worth of gear and £5 million's worth of gear.
Same with the girlies. If you're just after emptying your nuts after 5 seconds, you're not getting very far into those knickers. 
[Edited on 18-10-2010 by peach]
spirocycle - 18-10-2010 at 11:58
^worked with my organic chem teacher
I started talking to him about extraction of spices, and he said he'd give me a bunch of sodium to make some ether for the extractions.
But i'll stop now to not totally derail your thread.
*-------*---------------------------------------
If i were in the country, I would totally drive for a day or two to pick this this up.
peach - 18-10-2010 at 12:00
Don't worry about derailing it, if someone's interested they need to PM me quick.
Getting some free sodium is sweet. I'm considering doing a Len on the sodium to dry solvents, since the lab suppliers I use don't have it in stock.
spirocycle - 18-10-2010 at 12:05
I've been looking at some local labs, but all i can find are herbal supplement manufacturers and citrus oil factories. . .
I did find one lab with an R&D department and also does food testing, and I already sent them an email.
yea, that chem teacher is great, he'll let me use pretty much all the chem department's resources.
which means ill get to make a ton of BZ reagent for no cost!
peach - 18-10-2010 at 12:11
As our graduating present, our organics teacher let us make gun cotton.
There was some theory behind it, but the main event was seeing who could make the loudest firework with theirs. We nitrated the cotton, then dried it
and it went in a tin, well hidden up on the fume hood. Then we wrapped it around bits of wire, wrapped that with thick paper and set them off. Who's
ever was loudest won.
Technically, that was very illegal, as he was letting us make a high explosive fairly recently; kind of, beyond normal law illegal. Realistically, it
was entirely harmless.
There was also a funny incident involving a coke can. We were allowed to bring drinks into the lab, so long as we were careful with them. One of my
friends was very gently tapping a coke on the desk when, in the middle of the theory section, the seal failed and emptied the entire can over all of
us.
We also used to spend a fair bit of time trying to come up with funny, usually sexually odd, weird names by combining the acronyms from the 6ft
periodic table on the wall.
The inorganics teacher was quite a lot more boring. I say quite.... I mean.... lots. He used to make us copy out photocopies by hand and then collect
the copies back in by hand, so they'd stick in our memories. Boring, but highly effective.
[Edited on 18-10-2010 by peach]
spirocycle - 18-10-2010 at 12:13
sounds cool,
do you have any advice on how to get friendly people at the lab?
peach - 18-10-2010 at 12:16
Not really, no.
If you're terrible at it, there's no secret trick to it.
If you're great at it, there's no need to ask.
It's like asking how to get girls to instantly like you. It's too complex to explain.
BUT.... if you give me £500.....
[Edited on 18-10-2010 by peach]
spirocycle - 18-10-2010 at 12:17
i gotcha,
i'll just keep calling around and see how it goes