Bruce passed away. He was a very nice man who was always friendly and helpful with any questions I had on chemistry and astronomy. A great loss to the community of people who truly love science.
Thanks for putting things in the right perspective. As I learn and build my first lab, I knew i would err, and I hoped it would be caution's side. I will fine tune now, and make adjustments. The MSDS I've noticed tend exaggerate some of the dangers. You're right about the muriatic acid. Never have used this product or had on hand. I had heard that if stored in the garage it might damage metal. I wanted to avoid possible harm to car and other metals.
Thank you Robert for your reply. I have two supply-house bought acids right now, and they are only 30 ml bottles of conc HCL & H2SO4. Before I ordered, I read ch. 4 from your book I found online, the MSDSs, and several forums. I decided to put the 30 ml HCL outside in an old, non-working BBQ, in a plastic tub with lid. The H2SO4 I keep in the garage, in a zip loc bag, which I then place inside an empty HDPE bottle.
Nice. Glad to see a proper home lab where someone actually knows what they are doing. I'm a chemist by trade, but would like to start my own home lab. Just don't have the room.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us Bob- I was really curious after scanning through the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments what your home lab looks like- pretty impressive.
I bought your book last year while I was building the lab. Now I have work bench, running water, some glass, brackets and clamps, and some reagents I bought on ebay. What I lack are solvent because it is very hard to buy on ebay and here in Portugal, I find only in companies such VWR, which is all high grade and very expensive. : S It was cool that Makershed sold to Europe, or that there was something on here: small quantities and cheap.
I found a local supplier of boston round glass storage bottles with great prices, better than i've seen anywhere online. They offer caps for them as well. Not sure which type to get for the stock solutions, the polyseal type with the cone, or the polypropylene cap which is apparently just the plastic cap with no cone structure underneath. The polyseal caps ($0.11463 each) are almost 3x more $ than the regular polyprop ones.
Was wondering what you do for storage of your conc. HCL & H2SO4 bottles, I've heard the HCL will fume and is difficult to contain, thus will react with moisture in the air, potentially forming a mist. Since H2SO4 is hygroscopic, it will pull in water from the air, reacting & producing heat. Was wondering if these bottles should be wrapped in a zip loc bag or put in a plastic bin for more containment?
Do you know what would be great? A series of videos on "scientific glass-blowing." Colleges and universities used to offer classes in that subject, but apparently, no longer. I guess they figure their graduates will all work for organizations that are well-funded and have no need of such talents. Although I'm sure there are some books out there, the only one I've found that treats the subject, is Strong's "Procedures in Experimental Physics," published in 1938.
This is my new channel now (previously scientificpublic). I plan to make videos and post them soon. Would like to give a tour of my lab as soon as I complete it.
I paid $0.37149 each for 4 oz. amber boston round, available by carton only (160 per carton). Came to $59.44 (after they rounded up to the nearest cent). The 16 oz. amber boston round came to $41.34 per carton ($0.68908 ea). The company is brad-pakdotcom. When I called, the customer service lady said to put my order in on their web site, print it out, then fax it in. Then go to their warehouse to pick up. That's what I did and am picking up this afternoon and paying in person.
Olá! Eu como disse lá em cima compro no ebay o que não arranjo nas drogarias, no AKI ou maxmat. Mas solventes orgânicos é mais difícil, por cá só se arranja nas empresas que vendem para os labs, que são muito caros e bons de mais para o que quero. É só pela piada de fazer ciência a sério em casa. Estou a pensar fazer vídeos tipo estes em português para estimular o pessoal a fazer ciência por terras lusas! :)
Maker Shed has little or nothing for the Home Chemist. Maybe you should work on that. What texts do you recommend? Recommend "Granddad's Wonderful Book of Chemistry" ? .....RVM45
I can only answer with my reasoning. Did you ever want to know 'what if'? Some people have no interest in anything except football or baseball, which is not a bad thing at all but rather pointless for me. I have a multitude of interests and hobbies, such as electronics, model railroading, basement chemistry, solar and wind power, leather work, firearms, amateur radio, amateur detective work, and this list goes on. Having a science lab is a constructive hobby, not some dumb sh*t you watch on TV
