So, if anyone is looking to set up a new lab, here is what you're going to need. This will be a thread for beginners looking to set up a new lab and want to know what they should spend their money on.
Where ever your lab is going to be located(your garage, a shed, your basement) it's going to need these things
1. A lab table. This is going to your main working area, and is important to have. Wood is recommended, it's cheap, you can make it yourself, and easy to repair. The table should be sit higher than an average food table, you don't want to be hunched over while you're working. Wood has no acid resistance, but can be coated with acid resistant materials, a glass sheet is probably cheapest but is fragile and slippery, maybe glass with a rub mat covering it.
2. Shelfs or Cabinets. These will store your glassware or chemicals. Wood is once again recommended, you can build them yourself. If you build them yourself it's recommended you create a lifted ridge or lip on the outside corners, this will keep your chemicals or glassware from falling and breaking on your floor.
3. Big white fans. The ones that plug into the wall and usually have 4 settings, 0, 1, 2, and 3. This will be mostly used for ventilation.
4. Fire extinguisher. Should be obvious why.
5. Fume hood, ghetto ones can be made without much trouble.
6. Rubber Gloves.
7. Safety goggles.
8. Hotplate.
9. Propane torch. Used for heating things quickly and at high temps.
10. Magnetic stirrer.
11. Vacuum pump or aspirator, a fridge compressor can be converted to a vacuum pump.
12. Fridge and Freezer, you will store volatile chemicals in here.
13. Lab stands. These are metal rods that stick up vertical and you use these to hold up flasks, condensers, hoses, fans, what ever you need. They are heavy iron base plates that have metal rods the screw into the base. Without these you're going to break some glassware.
14. Flask Clamps, these hold the flasks to the lab stands.
15. Rubber stoppers, all sizes. Not recommended that you use cork as a substitute.
16. Gas mask with filters.
17. Deep metal pan of some sort, you will use this for oil baths, aluminum is recommended as steel will interfere with magnetic stirring
18. Candy thermometer, this will monitor the oil bath temperature
19. Filter paper
20. Chemical resistant waste cans, you can't dump everything down the drain.
Now onto the glassware kit
1. Erlenmeyer flasks, 1000ml, 2000ml, 500ml, 250ml. Pyrex.
2. Separatory/addition funnel, larger is recommended, this is an important piece of glassware and ghetto substitutes usually suck. 24/40 drip tip joint recommended.
3. Beakers, 100ml-1000ml. Pyrex.
4. 1 neck round bottom flasks, 1000ml, 500ml
5. 2 neck round bottom flasks, 2000ml, 1000ml
6. 3 neck round bottom flasks, 500ml, 2000ml
7. Condensers. liebigs, reflux, different lengths.
8. Vigreux Columns, different lengths.
9. Thermometer.10. Thermometer holder.
11. 3 way distillation adapter.
12. Vacuum distillation adapter.
13. Claisen adapter.
14. Filter flask. 500ml or 1000ml
15. Glass Funnels, standard, long stem, and buchner filtration funnel.
16. Pyrex evap plates.
17. Jars, Mason jars work well most of the time.
all glassware should havestandard 24/40 ground glass joints.
Realizing this is a hefty left and is going to cost some coin, make a list of what you need most, order it. Keep doing this until you've got everything you need. These lists aren't exactly in order on importance, that is up to you and the situation you're in.
A note on buying glassware. You can just order off ebay or amazon, but this is cheap as it gets, and are often used when stated new. They may or may not have bubbles in the glass, and are more fragile than the name brands. However they do get the job done 90 percent of the time
If you have no money, the tried and true 5 finger discount method is widely available. Search on yellow pages for labs in your area, schools and universities usually have everything you need. Look at the burglary/heist thread in the bad ideas section.
as always, more is to come
