Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Relocating labs ? Any experiences?

DubaiAmateurRocketry - 25-6-2018 at 01:36

So, assuming I have a lab, and I have my reagents, such as organic solvents, inorganic salts, etc. And one day I am moving from east coast to west coasts, a new home.

How would I make it without losing these reagents? Can you ship it as a mail to your new address? or?

Does anyone here have experience in moving to a new house with your chemicals?

To what limit (hazardousness) do shipping companies start rejecting or government starts intercepting your shipment? Obviously not any real explosives, but I may still have potentially strong oxidizing agents, acids, flammable solids (but even plastic is a flammable solid, so I doubt its a problem).

j_sum1 - 25-6-2018 at 01:56

Hmmm.
Not sure I have much relavent to say. I did shift my lab but my circumstances were a lot different from yours. I was simply able to put all my stuff in plastic bins and drive it across town.

I did lose some chems though. Everything was packed up for over a year. My iodine sublimed in tge summer heat and escaped through a cracked lid. I lost it all. The I2 compromised some other containers on the way out and destroyed a few labels. Many other labels in my oxidiser bin were also unreadable. HCl escaped as it does and there was acidic residue on lots of things. I had spills of solutions that I had mixed up - I hoped to avoid that. And there was a lot of equipment that acumulated dust.

You will use a lot more packing than you would expect. Take your time packing and labelling. And be prepared for stuff to attempt escape. Think about storage time as well as transit time. Be prepared to downsize some stuff to make it manageable.

JJay - 25-6-2018 at 06:44

I have moved mine lots of times... use sturdy containers and wrap all of your glassware in bubble wrap. I haven't run into problems with reagents leaking, but that is probably luck as much as anything else. I put the reagent bottles in leakproof containers, acids with acids, oxidizers with oxidizers, etc. in case of a spill. There are laws limiting the quantities of hazardous substances that you can carry without labelling your vehicle. I am not terribly familiar with them, but as long as you aren't transporting kilograms of lead picrate, drums of sulfuric acid, multiple large cylinders of fluorine, etc., you probably don't have to worry about them.

Oh and if you are mailing reagents, the U.S. requires labelling on almost anything remotely hazardous and is extremely strict about what can be shipped by air. Ground shipping is far more accommodating but requires package labels. I have no idea what the laws are in other countries.



[Edited on 25-6-2018 by JJay]

Dr.Bob - 25-6-2018 at 07:26

It is illegal to ship almost any hazmats via the US Mail. They are very picky and it is a federal crime to do so. So don;t "mail" them, unless you like trouble. You can likely ship the solids that are not hazardous if well packed without much issue, but shipping liquids is nearly impossible without lots of paperwork and costs. Shipping hazmat material is a pain, likely to also create issues. Small samples may qualify for exceptions, but very dependent on how much and what. Moving companies will not move hazmats and if anything leaks they will file a claim against you. Best way is to carry your chems in a car, very well packed. Good luck. You may be able to find someone local to help you store things or help ship them.

DubaiAmateurRocketry - 25-6-2018 at 10:32

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob  
It is illegal to ship almost any hazmats via the US Mail. They are very picky and it is a federal crime to do so. So don;t "mail" them, unless you like trouble. You can likely ship the solids that are not hazardous if well packed without much issue, but shipping liquids is nearly impossible without lots of paperwork and costs. Shipping hazmat material is a pain, likely to also create issues. Small samples may qualify for exceptions, but very dependent on how much and what. Moving companies will not move hazmats and if anything leaks they will file a claim against you. Best way is to carry your chems in a car, very well packed. Good luck. You may be able to find someone local to help you store things or help ship them.


What if I found like, say a home-moving company to move my stuff from one place to another? Theres moving companies that does it (expensive i suppose).

coppercone - 25-6-2018 at 11:46

use a crate on a pallet. It will fare better then anything else in the postal service. If you wanna be really safe make your own crate with heavy wood and wood screws but still make it look shitty with a pine body. Biggest no-no's would be using sheet rock screws. Be sure to drill holes for your screws before you insert them so it is stronger and the wood does not crack. You can also apply adhesive to your crate walls to glue them together in addition to screwing but then you can't take your crate apart to do something else with the wood. This will make it super strong.

pack it so it can survive a fall from a forklift off the back of a truck.

If you wanna be really good then get yourself a vacuum packer.

Would not hurt to put your reagent bottles in individual bags that are heat sealed too in order to add another layer of protection.

do however read guidelines on how to use screws, you need to drill the hole to a specific diameter in the relationship to the screw size. Glue will make it all better though. You basically want to drill a hole so the screw threads just barely stick out from the outline of a drill bit if you hole it up to a light so it sound look like a little fuzzy amoeba.

If you don't drill a hole out, you will have residual stress in the wood (like hydrogen belittlement of a weld), so something made of thinner boards can be destroyed easier.

or you can just nail the fucker shut, if you use wood, nails and glue then you prob have something quite secure. Nail and screw have a bit different properties in terms of sheer, since the screw is carved its kinda brittle, but wood screws are designed to be pretty good. Brad/nailgun nails would be convenient and inconspicuous as far as the people in shipping thinking your retarded for using both nails and screws.


also there are standards on how to package fragile objects for shipping with cushion dimensions and shit in existence, find them.


You will also want to get a nice tool for opening them, if you use glue and nails, a crowbar can slip. I would recommend making a packaging instruction so you remember how to open it. Good way to do it would be to use a circular saw that has cut depth carefully limited so you can simply take the top off your boxes without vibrating them or anything funny.

You can request for pallets not to be stacked also with shipping companies, but I believe you will pay more.

One trick to make them obey this order is after you join your crate and your pallet with straps, you put some irregularly shaped garbage on top of your crate, then put rags and bubble wrap over it, then saran wrap the shit out of the thing, so its kind of dome shaped, this will discourage stacking. They will think that they can crush something important hidden under the lump on top of your crate if they stack it anyway, and make the lump tall so they are discouraged from using cribbing that can cause unequal load distribution.

Also, putting a vibration sensor on it will help (they sell devices that will detect shock loading) keep the shipping company in line. Use a uncommon one.

Using thicker wood and an internal skeleton of 2by4's will help against stacking also, you never know if someone will get creative using a bunch of different boxes to act as a gap filler. You need to make it annoying and difficult to do so.

If your crate is strapped to a pallet with a lump on top, and its kind of pyramid shaped, it will be more difficult to turn it sideways without alot of cribbing materials. Using colored saran wrap will help too since they will be discouraged from modification if they only have the cheapest clear shit on hand.

I also wonder if hiding a crate inside of one of those feed-bags they use for bulk transport would help, like the kind you ship rice, prill form chemicals, etc inside of, since they won't stack well.


Also take a picture so you have proof if they do some how modify it to violate your shipping requirements. Spray painting like a number on it will help since it will look like some kind of markings used inside of a factory or w/e and make it unique and more difficult to modify. Something like orange spray paint.

Why would they do it? It saves them money if they can stack shit.

[Edited on 25-6-2018 by coppercone]

zed - 25-6-2018 at 16:39

If you don't own a suitable vehicle, rent one. Pack carefully. Then, drive it yourself.

At any rate, that is what I have done in the past.

Plenty of opportunities for trouble during such a move. Bored sheriffs in small towns, bored overly-eager, State Highway Patrol agents, on desolate stretches of road.

I assume you are not doing anything illegal, but if your cargo is exposed to scrutiny, it might look very suspicious.... Especially to someone who is paid to have a suspicious nature.

j_sum1 - 25-6-2018 at 16:52

Fully. Label. Everything.

If nothing else you will thank yourself when it comes to sorting everything out at the other end.

JJay - 25-6-2018 at 19:56

I personally would not trust a moving company to handle my glassware, let alone any reagents. The safest way to transport your lab - for you and everyone else on the road - is to transport it yourself.

[Edited on 26-6-2018 by JJay]

coppercone - 26-6-2018 at 08:22

Not really the shipping company knows the roads, has people that do nothing but drive, wont get harassed by all manner of people.. While you will be driving across the country through lands you never saw before.

Flat tire, out of state license, gasoline problems, car breakdown, the delivery company will be immune or trained on how to deal with all that shir efficently.

And if you use the federal post it will require a search warrent to open. A road vehicalcan get fucked 50 ways till sunday based on all soets of crazy ass bullshit people can come up with. Especially with the mexico problem.

[Edited on 26-6-2018 by coppercone]

VSEPR_VOID - 26-6-2018 at 19:33

I just boxed everything up and put it in the truck. Most chemicals will be fine but don't ship anything really unstable, volatile, or poisonous. Think to your self, "if this bottle breaks, will the truck containing it catch fire or will the driver die". For instance don't try and ship a liter of chloroform, a glass bottle of mercury, or your fuming nitric acid.

Glassware should be at least bubble wrapped and put into labeled boxes. Anything really expensive like large flasks or reaction vessels should be transported independently and insured. Film your self unboxing them so you have a case if they are broken.

JJay - 26-6-2018 at 23:21

I just had the most amazing experience relocating mine. As I was putting in my code to open the exit gate, a guard came up behind me and told me that the people in the car in front of me had just committed a burglary and not to put in my code to let them out of the gate. He then called the cops. 18 cops showed up within about two minutes. I had to hang out for about twenty minutes and then was told I could go. They never even asked my name....