Jor - 28-1-2008 at 10:22
On your lab?
I have now spend 400 euros , but Im still getting like 100 euros back, because I didnt get a present for my last birthday. So that sets me a total of
300 euros back on my bank account. And you guys?
YT2095 - 28-1-2008 at 10:31
if by Lab you mean everything in it incl chems, glassware, components, test equipments etc...
I`m in the 6,000 GBP ballpark. and it`s ongoing....
edit: quick calc, at 75p per euro, that`s about 7500 Euros.
or 12,000+ dollars
[Edited on 28-1-2008 by YT2095]
woelen - 28-1-2008 at 11:12
I think, I spent approximately EUR 5000. This is spread out over a period of 5 years or so. This amount of money does not include the cost of building
the lab/room itself, only the chemicals (appr. EUR 2000) and the equipment (appr. EUR 3000, including many high voltage devices, meters, glassware,
pump).
Zinc - 28-1-2008 at 11:15
That much??
Where do you then buy your equipment and chemicals if they are so
expensive? I buy test tubes for 20 cents, bakers for 2-3 dollars flasks for about the same (3 L flask costed me 3 dollars), laboratory burner 10
dollars...
woelen - 28-1-2008 at 11:24
EUR 5000 is not that much. If you look at the kind of chemicals I have, such as NaIO4, RuCl3, IrCl4, SOCl2, SO2Cl2, NbCl5, H2PtCl6, HAuCl4, CsBr,
CsNO3, UO2(NO3)2 and many other rare stuff, then I think I have them for a bargain. Most of these are from old supplies, some of them more than 30
years old. Of course, if you stick to chemicals like KNO3, KClO3, CuSO4.5H2O, FeSO4.7H2O and some acids, some common organics and a few more metal
salts, then of course you don't spend that much, but when you buy really special chemicals, then you need a lot of money.
Equipment also is quite expensive. I have several 5000 V , 40 uF capacitors for high voltage discharge experiments, I have built my own 15000 V
voltage generator and I have many special glassware items for my chemistry experiments. In due time, you also spend quite a lot on such things. In my
last addition there was a membrane vacuumpump with some accessories, which cost me EUR 200.
This gives you an impression on what kind of things I purchased. I'm quite sure that there are several members on this board, who spent a multiple of
EUR 5000 in total (Sauron??).
[Edited on 28-1-08 by woelen]
evil_lurker - 28-1-2008 at 11:36
I've done lost count... well over $3K and probably closer to $5K USD.
Equipment costs adds up quick... you can only do so much with those .20 cent test tubes, $3 dollar beakers, and $10 dollar hot plates.
Once you get into jointed specialty glassware, magnetic stirrer hot plates, heating mantles, frames and stands, vacuum equipment etc. you get to
talking $$$$
BromicAcid - 28-1-2008 at 14:29
Probably only $3000 or so, over the course of 9 years. My biggest purchase was my distillation setup ($200) and my hot plate ($100) everything else I
bargain shopped.
MagicJigPipe - 28-1-2008 at 14:43
About 1000USD over the past year. Much of my stuff was destroyed by my maintanence man and the cops a couple of years ago. Even though all my
charges were dropped (nothing to do with drug manufacture) I still received no compensation because they claimed the stuff was either already broken
or I was lying about having it.
Fleaker - 28-1-2008 at 15:01
Probably expended about 5,000 USD for my part of the laboratory, my lab partner having spent an equivalent amount. But what's been spent on glassware,
reagents, apparatus is perhaps only 40% of what our combined laboratory's worth. We acquired many expensive items as gifts from friends in both
industry and in academia. Our Parr hydrogenator is a prime example--I would never spend $9000 on a brand new one with all the options...but we got it
free 
Speaking of the lab, I just recently acquired (as a gift) some very old glassblowing supplies. I'd estimate them to be at least from the 1950s, if not
20 years or more before that. The patent number on the vintage bakelite torch handle was in the lower 3 millions Included were a lot of very fine graphite pieces, an asbestos workboard which
scares me, long fibre asbestos ropes and cloths, glass cutters, goggles, and a very interesting type of resin that's meant for sealing glass to metal
and wood, and for making electrodes. Much more also in the box. If there is enough interest for those to see what glassworking tools look then like I
will post up photographs.
Should also mention that the torch tips and small graphite mandrels were packed in a box of "Habana-Rolled Cigars" 
[Edited on 28-1-2008 by Fleaker]
chemrox - 28-1-2008 at 15:21
When I was just starting from scratch and needed basic glassware, I got a chem-kit from Sigma. It cost about 300 EU as I recall. If I'd taken the
time I would have done much better at LabX and ebay. As has been mentioned, its ongoing. I managed to get an IR for free and a couple of hundred got
it in service. I got a great vacuum pump for under a hundred with shipping. I keep buying glass and have had some made. It's endless. Chemicals
run us about $500/mo. depending on how active we are in the lab. Sometimes we're too busy writing or doing fieldwork to run experiments... oh, did I
mention the modifications needed to make the space function as a lab? I'd say about $4-5K when we're done.
If you're patient you can get a lot of glass for almost nothing on ebay. Patience is key because one month the glass will be going for top
dollar-menaning close to retail. other times it will go for shipping costs plus minimum bid. I got two graham condensers the other day for $9 +
shipping. I needed them for solvent recovery. I got a pair of addition funnels, 500 ml + 250 ml, for $9 + shipping and one was in its original box.
If you can take some time troll ebay and surplus lab sites. Make a list based on a standard taper size. 19/22 is versatile. 24/40 is more common.
Build up around specific needs. You might find a used Fischer-Johns for less than a new Thiele tube. Get a copy of Organic Chem Lab Survival Manual.
Use it as a guide for equipment to get started.
The_Davster - 28-1-2008 at 18:00
around 2k CDN$, over 6-7 years or so.
I have more than that in chems however, as I got to the precious metal compounds my uni was going to dispose of. Sold for their origional costs I
would have no net loss over my years of lab buying.
I also have extensive expensive glassware as a professor whom I was friends with retired, and he wanted help getting rid of it, and was happy for me
to pack it into my trunk. I am thinking of turning the 3L 3neck RBF into a fish tank, or putting it on ebay, as I do 99% of my experiments in
<250mL size. And big flasks are big money on ebay.
EDIT: wow! For the 5 of you whom U2Ued me about the RBF, I am not getting rid of it currently, but when I do I will post it.(I did not want to type
out 5 U2Us)
[Edited on 29-1-2008 by The_Davster]
chemkid - 28-1-2008 at 18:18
Well, i do science in a couple of fields chemistry being the most recent. Chemistry expenses would probably be around 200 USD. Everything else?
roughly 500 USD. Most of what i have i got for cheap from strange places and therefore payed a lot less than what it was worth which puts the
actually value of my equipment much higher.
Chemkid
anotheronebitesthedust - 29-1-2008 at 01:12
About $6000 just in the last 2 months. Seems like the more money I make the more I spend on lab equipment/chems/supplies. I'm a sucker what can I say.
My most recent achievement is two Glas-Col 12 Litre StirMantles 
Spent On Lab ?
MadHatter - 29-1-2008 at 02:55
Probably close to $5,000(US). I'll bet that at LEAST $1,000 is in my condenser collection.
LOVE that pretty glass ! Trying to list all the other glass, electrical, electronic, and
mechanical equipment would take hours. This was built over many years and I've
had lots of fun ! 
Last but not least: Chemicals, fuze, miscellaneous pyro supplies.
hashashan - 29-1-2008 at 03:43
I think i spent something like 3K$ .. mostly because the cheap shops here are far away and the closer ones just kill you with their prices.
SecretSquirrel - 29-1-2008 at 06:07
About EUR 400. I'm very lucky, because I got a lot of stuff (mostly chemicals) for free or very little money from people that were trying to get rid
of it.
I'm far from finished though. Still have to buy a decent stirrer with heating, because the one I use is over 15 years old. There are lots of things
mising in my lab, but I am still in college and can't afford any big purchases. Hopefully, this will change once I have a permanent job.
[Edited on 29-1-2008 by SecretSquirrel]
Nick F - 29-1-2008 at 07:13
I would estimate that I've spent probably £3000 or slightly more, mainly over the past four or five years. I could have spent less if I'd used ebay
more, but some of the glass that gets sold there is really nasty quality. Also I have everything in 14/20 and 24/40 which probably isn't really
necessary. That price also includes vacuum pump, furnace, stirrer hotplate etc, not just glass.
Large Glassware
MadHatter - 29-1-2008 at 13:32
The Davster, I too, acquired a piece of lab glass that I don't have a use for but it makes for
a nice conversation piece as well as a collectible item:
18 liter(That's right - 18,000 ml) round bottom boiling flask. I can't believe the eBayer gave it
up for $50 plus shipping. I have yet to locate a stopper big enough to plug the beast !
I saw only one other flask bigger than that one and the seller required that the buyer come
get it because you would've needed a pickup truck ! That one was going for $400.
[Edited on 2008/1/29 by MadHatter]
Twospoons - 29-1-2008 at 14:04
I've spent bugger all. I got lucky, and got all my glass free. Perhaps $200 on chems.
DeAdFX - 29-1-2008 at 17:44
Probably 2000USD. If you are going to d o something you should do it right the first time and buy the higher quality, generally more expensive
hardware. Anywho chemicals set me back another 1K-2K USD
kilowatt - 31-1-2008 at 11:49
I don't really want to know, but probably $400 on my big distillation rig (maybe more, it's depressing to think about), $3000 for my shop and other
equipment, and another couple thousand on various projects with high voltage or chemistry. I have only perhaps $200-$300 in precious and non-precious
metals (mostly gold, lead, and aluminum) and I know I would be at least $1000 richer if I had been more frugal with my large reconnection gun (an
electromagnetic lateral disc launcher with a 30kJ capacitor bank). If you count the medical bills from my RFNA accident then a couple more thousand.
I'm too young to have spent so much; at this rate I will be continually broke, and I have so many projects going that few of them are completed and
many are not near completion.
Aikimike - 31-1-2008 at 12:05
Over the years... I'd estimate at around £3000 for all my glassware, hardware (inc. rotovap and fume hood) and chemicals...