sternman318
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Ordering glassware
I am placing an order for glassware fromUnited Nuclear, and I just wanted y'alls input. as far as what i already have: 400 mL beaker, 100 mL graduated cylinder, and a 500 mL florence
flask.
I am looking to order some flint glass tubing, this set, a watch glass, some HDPE jars ( 2-30cc, 1-150cc, and 1-250cc) ,and stoppers.
here is the questions part:
1. Is it difficult to drill holes for stoppers? They do not have a pre-drilled stopper for the 150 mL florence flask, so I plan on buying two and
trying my hand at drilling. I read that it helps to freeze them.
2. How are HDPE containers as far as storing possibly corrosive chemicals?
3. With shipping, it comes to about $30. Is this a decent deal? Are there other places I might try? The shipping alone is $10 
4. Is there anything else that I should get, as far as important/useful equipment goes? I would get chemicals aswell, but
-They seem pretty expensive for the most part
- I would have no idea of what to get xD
[Edited on 1-7-2011 by sternman318]
[Edited on 1-7-2011 by sternman318]
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barley81
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That's overpriced. The user Dr.Bob is having a sale here, with lots of great stuff at excellent prices. I bought from him, he gives a lot of extra
stuff, ships fast, and replaces broken items. Rubber stoppers can't be drilled, it makes a messy hole. Buy a cork borer with a sharpener. There is a
description of how to bore a stopper in Vogel's Practical Organic Chemistry. You need lubricant, patience, and a steady hand.
Try Elemental Scientific also, they're cheaper than United Nuclear. They have everything you want as well as pre-bored stoppers.
elementalscientific.net
HDPE can be used for storing corrosives, even conc. HNO<sub>3</sub>. Some organics will weaken it though. Elemental scientific has glass
jars and bottles (get the French Square ones and caps)
Concerning equipment:
You may want some Mohr pipettes and a pipette bulb. They are useful for measuring small amounts of liquid without pouring and are very accurate. You
also may want some smaller beakers (150mL, 250mL) and some more erlenmeyers, 250mL is a good size.
Also, some ring stands, rings, clamps, and ceramic gauzes are a good idea to have.
Woelen's site has a page for people who want to start their own labs:
http://woelen.homescience.net/science/chem/misc/homelab.html
Also, see this thread:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=16691
[Edited on 1-7-2011 by barley81]
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Arthur Dent
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The question of boring holes in stoppers is a good one. I have custom-bored holes of various sizes in all the type of stoppers, from plain cork
stoppers and black vulcanized rubber stoppers to the beige neoprene or green stoppers, all using my drill-press.
I wouldn't attempt drilling a hole into a stopper with a plain handheld drill, you really need a solid surface and a very straight axis to drill into
rubber. With a drill-press, use a wooden plank to put the stopper on and hold the stopper upside-down with a good pair of gardening suede gloves.
drill straight in the middle (or within 1/3 of the girth for multi-hole stoppers) and go all the way through down to the wood plank. If it's a big
hole, start with a smaller size pilot hole and then proceed with the final hole. A rat-tail file can be useful to refine the edges of your hole.
Use a smaller size drillbit than the item you want to insert into, so that when you are done and you slide your tube or probe ino the stopper, it will
be a snug fit (vacuum grease may be helpful to help inserting the tube).
I've done this many times and it works splendidly!
Robert
--- Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. - Frank Zappa ---
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gutter_ca
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I'm confused... If you don't know what chemicals to get, what do you need glassware for?
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fledarmus
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Quote: Originally posted by Arthur Dent  | The question of boring holes in stoppers is a good one. I have custom-bored holes of various sizes in all the type of stoppers, from plain cork
stoppers and black vulcanized rubber stoppers to the beige neoprene or green stoppers, all using my drill-press.
I wouldn't attempt drilling a hole into a stopper with a plain handheld drill, you really need a solid surface and a very straight axis to drill into
rubber. With a drill-press, use a wooden plank to put the stopper on and hold the stopper upside-down with a good pair of gardening suede gloves.
drill straight in the middle (or within 1/3 of the girth for multi-hole stoppers) and go all the way through down to the wood plank. If it's a big
hole, start with a smaller size pilot hole and then proceed with the final hole. A rat-tail file can be useful to refine the edges of your hole.
Use a smaller size drillbit than the item you want to insert into, so that when you are done and you slide your tube or probe ino the stopper, it will
be a snug fit (vacuum grease may be helpful to help inserting the tube).
I've done this many times and it works splendidly!
Robert |
The drill press method does work well, but I don't like the ragged holes that a twist drill leaves. A piece of steel tubing of the size hole you want,
sharpened from the inside to a knife edge and chucked into the drill press gives cleaner edges. Very low speed is preferable.
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bob800
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UN's bottles are overpriced. The only fairly priced bottles I've seen on the internet are from http://www.specialtybottle.com/ (I've ordered from them with no complaints).
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bwpatton1
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Hmm... Well I am just somewhat starting into this hobby and a great resource for me has been the Illustrated guide to home chemistry (google it). It
defines the basic requirements and gives nice guidelines to work by. I was on the same route as you about six months ago when I purchased this book
and read through the first few chapters. Whoa did it expand my knowledge of the subject.... It saved me from paying way to much for glassware and
equipment. United Nuclear is quite overpriced in my opinion. Some places to try are elementalscientific.net (they have nice chemical sets), cynmar.com
(no chemicals to individuals, great prices! Purchased quite a bit of chem equipment), sciencekit.com(no idea, heard it reccomended), and...several
others I can't remember. Just shop around for the best prices in a common location to save on shipping. I actually purchased all of my glassware on
this forum from Dr. Bob, that was an amazing deal.
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Steve_hi
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| Quote: |
Hmm... Well I am just somewhat starting into this hobby and a great resource for me has been the Illustrated guide to home chemistry (google it).
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Thats where Ive started too I listed all the places for the chemicals and glassware i've bought from in the forum of home chemistry
http://forums.homesciencelab.com/
Others posted where they buy from as well
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#maverick#
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I also made a fairly large purchase from dr bob. I would reccOmend him. He sells good quality stuff for cheap.
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sternman318
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Alrighty so, I have been shopping around and elemental scientific and boy does the $$$ start flying xD
they have pretty much everything I need, so thanks for the reccommendation everyone!
I am grabbing my flask, stoppers, tubing, a stir bar ( $5 for just a little one!), a crucible, some test tubes and a bottle.
I couldnt resist getting some chemicals though!
Looking to get:
4 Oz of NaOH
4Oz of NaSO3
4 Oz of NaI ( iodine is my favorite element  )
Are there any other 'staple' chemicals that aren't easy to acquire that I should consider getting? I know NaOH is easy to acquire, but I figure it is
a decent price ( $3) and is of high quality
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barley81
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Possibly:
Sodium nitrite
Potassium/sodium/ammonium dichromate/chromate - probably K dichromate
Potassium ferricyanide
Oxalic acid if you don't want to buy wood bleach
Potassium permanganate
Potassium bromide (although sodium bromide is available as HTH Brom Start for hot tubs)
Concentrated acids, peroxide, ammonia (for nitric acid and 30% peroxide you must pay hazmat)
Zinc metal, although you can get it from lantern batteries
Chrome alum
Sodium persulfate
Iron filings
Salts of transition metals, like cobalt, nickel, manganese, although these are cheaply obtained from
Seattle Pottery Supply. SPS has lots of cheap (but sometimes impure) chemicals.
Though KI has less iodine content per gram (or in this case, dollar's worth), consider buying it, as NaI is hygroscopic. Iodine is also my favorite
element!
Get some KOH too, it's generally more soluble in organic solvents and it does not have that pesky sodium flame color! It is more difficult to obtain
than NaOH. It also is only about 90% pure (water, K<sub>2</sub>CO<sub>3</sub>
I'm also having trouble deciding what to buy from them, but this is what I have decided to definitely buy/already have.
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Lambda-Eyde
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Sulfuric acid, nitric acid and hydrochloric acid are useful. A bunsen burner is handy, especially if you're into inorganic chemistry. Sodium or
potassium bromide is handy. Some alcohols if you're into organic.
This just in: 95,5 % of the world population lives outside the USA
Please drop by our IRC channel: #sciencemadness @ irc.efnet.org
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plante1999
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Even if yous are on inorganic you should have solvent , but not alcohols , I recommend specialy : CHCl3 , CCl4 , C2Cl4 , C6F6
If you have acess to C6Cl6 , get it and react it with NaF in presens of FeCl3 to make C6F6 , This is the best solvent you can find in inorganic
chemistry , I have 10ml of it , and it is so inert that I canot burn it react it or wath ever.
I never asked for this.
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bquirky
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i might be repeating what someone else has said but i have found drilling holes in rubber much easier if you freeze the rubber first and drill it
straight out of the freezer
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jon
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that's called flashing rubber stoppers it's better done with dry ice.
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cyanureeves
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i've made nitric acid with a hodgepodge of glassware,assorted tubing.leather,teflon tape and whatever it took to hold in nitric fumes. i assumed i
would automatically know how to use lab equipment if at hand and boy i was very wrong. i have had lab equipment for a while and never used it because
i had enough nitric made for aqua regia.i made nitric this weekend with my new equipment and got only about 25ml. all the nitric escaped somewhere and
it had me all scared for days thinking my nose was gonna fall off.i used vicks vapor rub for joint grease and it probably didnt hold. it is not as
easy as i figured but i can tell you right off that a good lab stand will be just as important.i probably have a nitrated rat or stud in my tool shed
right now for all i know.
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jon
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next time instead of distilling it just extract it out with dcm.
it will be fuming (100%) dilute it to 70%
so yeah you will need a fume cupboard.
if your working with aqua regia it's going to get nasty and kick off NO and NO2 gas you for sure will need a hood for that at least a gas mask and a
vent fan.
[Edited on 7-7-2011 by jon]
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cyanureeves
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jon i know this is a glassware post but,nitric with dcm? please,please i beg of thee show me how to do this. if this you say can be done i will not
hesitate to distill some more dcm from a paint stripper can as it was a piece of cake. how?how? i will use my glassware to make lemonade instead if i
can make nitric with dcm.
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cyanureeves
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thank you for the u2u jon. it was right here all along? and all that excalibur drama i just did.
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