Sciencemadness Discussion Board

In Need of Some Equipment

Rich_Insane - 28-9-2012 at 11:38

Hey everyone!

It's that time of year when I go around looking for equipment I may need for future experimentation. Now I've already found sources for all of these, but the costs do add up, and I'd love to get some feedback from fellow amateur experimentalists.

The most important piece of equipment I am acquiring is a hot plate. Unfortunately, as a teenager with a very restricted budget, I can only really afford cooking stoves. I did find a hotplate on Amazon (Ceramic Top Laboratory Hotplate), and it falls within my price range, but it looks a bit shady. Has anyone had experience with this particular product? I only really need a heat source (no stirrer), but it should heat up relatively quickly and be able to maintain a relatively constant temperature (no higher than 120oC is needed).

I'm also looking for ways to improvise a) A lab stand + clamp or b) A flask weight. This is to keep a 100-500 ml RBF secured in a water/oil bath without the flask bobbing up in the heating fluid and spilling the contents all over the bath vessel (which will probably be an aluminum bowl or cooking pot). The heating element is the main concern. I do need a hand-driven vacuum pump to run a vac. filtration setup, but there's probably no real good way to substitute that and it's not exactly OTC for prices cheaper than what Elemental has to offer.

As for reagents, I was wondering if there were any good sources (OTC or online) for 14-15% bleach (most household bleach here is ~5% and contains other substances), sodium bisulfite, THF and ethyl acetate. I can find toluene, xylene, acetone, naphtha etc at the hardware store, but I cannot find ethyl acetate anywhere. Nor can I find THF or dioxane (obviously the former is likely more widely available).

Feedback is well appreciated!

ScienceHideout - 28-9-2012 at 11:42

Hey, Rich_Insane!

Not to advertize or anything, but on my website I have several hotplates for sale.

Hotplate number HP-0003 has a suspected buyer, so I will give him first priority to that, but I have 3 more nice ones. Each is $40 including shipping and I might even throw in a couple extras!

Please contact me by email if you are interested. admin@sciencehideout.net

UnintentionalChaos - 28-9-2012 at 12:29

Quote: Originally posted by Rich_Insane  
Hey everyone!

It's that time of year when I go around looking for equipment I may need for future experimentation. Now I've already found sources for all of these, but the costs do add up, and I'd love to get some feedback from fellow amateur experimentalists.

The most important piece of equipment I am acquiring is a hot plate. Unfortunately, as a teenager with a very restricted budget, I can only really afford cooking stoves. I did find a hotplate on Amazon (Ceramic Top Laboratory Hotplate), and it falls within my price range, but it looks a bit shady. Has anyone had experience with this particular product? I only really need a heat source (no stirrer), but it should heat up relatively quickly and be able to maintain a relatively constant temperature (no higher than 120oC is needed).

I'm also looking for ways to improvise a) A lab stand + clamp or b) A flask weight. This is to keep a 100-500 ml RBF secured in a water/oil bath without the flask bobbing up in the heating fluid and spilling the contents all over the bath vessel (which will probably be an aluminum bowl or cooking pot). The heating element is the main concern. I do need a hand-driven vacuum pump to run a vac. filtration setup, but there's probably no real good way to substitute that and it's not exactly OTC for prices cheaper than what Elemental has to offer.

As for reagents, I was wondering if there were any good sources (OTC or online) for 14-15% bleach (most household bleach here is ~5% and contains other substances), sodium bisulfite, THF and ethyl acetate. I can find toluene, xylene, acetone, naphtha etc at the hardware store, but I cannot find ethyl acetate anywhere. Nor can I find THF or dioxane (obviously the former is likely more widely available).

Feedback is well appreciated!



Methyl Ethyl Ketone has been abandoned by WM Barr, so that's hard to come by now, but the "MEK replacement" that they now sell is nothing but ethyl acetate. THF is hard to come by. There is a fair bit of it in PVC pipe cements, but it's mixed with other solvents and would be a pain to purify. Dioxane can be made from ethylene glycol and sulfuric acid. See youtube. I think reactionfactory has a video about it.

For sodium bisulfite, look for sodium metabisulfite. It's essentially the same thing, just missing a molecule of water. Online wine and beer making equipment suppliers carry it as a sterilizing agent and some stump removers are now metabisulfite. Bleach is rarely available in the 14-15% range as it's inherently unstable. 10% can be had from pool supply stores, or you can make it from NaOH solution and a chlorine generator.

[Edited on 9-28-12 by UnintentionalChaos]

Hexavalent - 28-9-2012 at 12:48

MEK is available on eBay, and in the UK I can get EtOAc as acetone-free nail polish remover (just mixed in with 5% iPrOH and glycerol, nothing a quick distillation can't fix); sodium (meta)bisulfite is carried in my local hardware store with the brewing supplies (and lots of organic acids) and 14% bleach was available on eBay the last time I checked.

willchem - 28-9-2012 at 13:39

I have that exact hot plate. It heats up very fast,but only has one setting(hot). You have to turn it almost all the way on before it will start heating. Then if you turn it down any it goes off. Or at least that is what mine does. If all you want is to boil a liquid it works well for this. In regards to the amozon one,not sciencehideout one. Also the ceramic top cracked the first time I used it.

elementcollector1 - 28-9-2012 at 14:56

To DIY a lab stand and clamp, an idea i've had for a while is to take a piece of rebar, and drill it into something inert (fiberglass, plastic, wood if you're cheap). The clamp could be made a number of different ways, from attaching a hair clamp to a clothespin, to more complicated stuff. this is speculation, and probably would not hold together as well as a real stand, but its an idea.

UnintentionalChaos - 28-9-2012 at 15:26

Quote: Originally posted by elementcollector1  
To DIY a lab stand and clamp, an idea i've had for a while is to take a piece of rebar, and drill it into something inert (fiberglass, plastic, wood if you're cheap). The clamp could be made a number of different ways, from attaching a hair clamp to a clothespin, to more complicated stuff. this is speculation, and probably would not hold together as well as a real stand, but its an idea.


I just took a large rectangular disposable container with a snap on lid, inverted it, cut a hole in the bottom centered and toward one end, filled it with mixed plaster and stuck a steel rod in it which was supported upright until the plaster cured. Real lab clamps work well and if I'm going to risk having glass being held by it fall ($$$), I'd rather my spending be preventative in nature

Dr.Bob - 28-9-2012 at 16:30

Quote: Originally posted by elementcollector1  
To DIY a lab stand and clamp, an idea i've had for a while is to take a piece of rebar, and drill it into something inert (fiberglass, plastic, wood if you're cheap). The clamp could be made a number of different ways, from attaching a hair clamp to a clothespin, to more complicated stuff. this is speculation, and probably would not hold together as well as a real stand, but its an idea.


Rather than rebar, I would suggest a threaded rod or straight rod stock, as smooth as possible. Home Depot and Lowes, plus others, sell rod like that. For the base, a chunk of 2 x 10 also works well, or scraps of granite, soap stone, or solid surface from a kitchen counter shop.

For clamps, I have some nice larger 3 prong ones left.

elementcollector1 - 28-9-2012 at 17:26

Oh, I have soapstone! It's a huge slab, perfect for this sort of thing. I do actually have a straight, smooth metal rod, but i was planning to use it for something else.

On the stand idea

zenosx - 28-9-2012 at 21:33

I use standard lab clamps, but needed a spare lab stand so to make I used the following.

Purchased a bar of aluminum at the local hardware (I think 1/2") for $8, and 3 of those tool hangers made to Screw into wood, looks like a Y kinda with the threads being on the part pointing down.

I then took a block of wood about 2x2x4, and drilled a main hole in the center for the support rod, and 3 pilot holes in a triangular manner at a slight angle around the base of the block.

I can now use the threads of the hangers to adjust the level of the rod, and it works perfect. It's no where as good as my iron bases for holding heavy objects, but works great as a single flask holder, condenser support etc. You could use a large piece of wood for higher stability.

I can post a picture if you need one.