Refinery
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Space for a lab?
I've recently encountered an issue: I have no space for my hobby. I can't do it where I live, and the place I'm doing it goes out of my reach soon, so
I'm in sort of dead end.
I was interested in hearing what kind of space considerations do you have for your labs?
I was thinking of making a fume hood or even a larger "fume-room" which I would attach into a duct fan and activated carbon filter for an interim
space.
[Edited on 1-6-2020 by Refinery]
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Ubya
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i live in a 47m^2 (500ft^2 according too google) apartment on the last floor of my building, my parents and my brother spend all day on their pc, i
monopolized every free space in my house for my stuff, i even invaded the space outside my home entrance (luckly it's the only home on this floor so
nobody complains). i envy a lot people with a garden, or just a big house with a spare room for a lab, you must get creative otherwise. with smaller
space go with smaller glassware, my diy fumehood is 80cm x 80cm x 60cm, a full 24/29 distillation apparatus barely fits, you could build a smaller
fumehood and do the same reactions if you scale down everything.
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Sulaiman
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I agree with the use of smaller (NS19 or NS14) glassware compared to NS24 or larger,
space for experimentation, chemical storage and glassware storage will be more manageable.
(I have quite a lot of NS10 glassware but I think it is a little too small)
I like the idea of a 'fume room' provided that you make provision for rapid exit.
Fumes created during experiments can be mitigated but fumes from stored chemicals (e.g. hydrochloric acid, ammonia solution, solvents) do need
ventilation.
If you use jointed glassware it is much easier to vent and/or scrub any fumes compared to using open vessels such as beakers.
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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Refinery
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The fume room idea came from a friend who I once talked with and it was just a concept to build a frame from wood and stitch construction plastic
membrane to it, and create negative pressure to it with duct fan and blow it through and ACF. One could also create in situ sink and tap for water and
for washing equipment and to drain any low residue waste liquids into sewer without exposing them to open air.
This kind of setup is very cook-ish though and best suited for an operation that needs a timeframe and thereafter the tent is disassembled. I'm not
that much into chemistry as a hobby - and I do not cook neither - so better ideas would be welcome.
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Ubya
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oh well a fume hood of some sort is pretty much mandatory for some experiments, if you don't want to deal with keeping one, don't do experiments that
need one, but at that point you get quite limited, or if you can find an open space, you can setup a bench with all your stuff on it, like
esplosion&ire.
if you want to do dangerous experiments, you need the equipment, and it needs space, if you have no way of getting that space, you can't do those
things, or you can, but safety goes out the window.
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SWIM
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Yes, smaller glassware saves a lot of space.
I also agree that 14 mm is about as small a neck size as is convenient to clean and work with.
Normal semi microscale 14/20 and 14/23 are great sizes, and if you REALLY get pressed for space they do have full microscale kits like 14/10, and the
'microflex' jointed kits.
Get the 14/10 if you go microscale and can afford it. The threaded-only microflex joints rely on gaskets where the 14/10 just has the gasket as a
backup to a ground short joint.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91NY1CCRSsL...
You could have an organic lab in a phone booth with equipment like that and an SH-2 hotplate stirrer. (Too weak for full size work, but fine for this
kind of Keebler Elf sized chemistry.)
I suppose you'd need a tiny vacuum pump too...
Warning: Just looked at Ebay, they have microflex kits mislabeled as 14/10, so watch those pictures.
[Edited on 1-6-2020 by SWIM]
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mackolol
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I didn't ever use a fumehood. When I needed I just went outside and it worked way better. My dad built one for me but I still don't feel safe as it is
few meters away from my working place.
I work in garage and I have occupied whole workbench as well as two shelves under it and recently two more shelves next to the workbench. All of them
are fullfilled with reagent bottles and glassware. I have one hotplate stirrer which I exchange with cheap one if i need and the other goes on the
floor. Over my workbench there is a window, but when I perform dangerous synthesis I just go outside the garage and do it on planks not to destroy
driveway. I don't complain about place, but surely chemistry takes a lot of it.
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Yttrium2
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I dont have any space either
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