Chapter 3: Equipping a Home Chemistry Laboratory 41You’ll also need an assortment of items commonly found
around the house, including an abrasive (such as sandpaper,
emery board, or steel wool), aluminum foil, a 9V transistor
battery, cotton balls and swabs, foam cups, empty tin cans and
lids, empty soft drink bottles and caps, a stick of incense, strike-
anywhere matches, paper clips and rubber bands, paper towels,
pencils and marking pens of various colors and types, thread or
string, toothpicks or tongue depressors, some stiff wire (such as
a coat hanger), and so on.
Check out the current list of vendors at http://www.
homechemlab.com/sources.html before you order any
glassware, equipment, or chemicals.
MSCELLAI nEOUS EQUIPMEnT
(UN Coj k LLECTING)
Back in the mid-1960s, when I, a young teenager, was setting
up my first home chemistry lab, my mother got used to things
disappearing from her kitchen and laundry room. Now, 40 years
later, my wife wonders about similar mysterious disappearances.
There’s no doubt that building a home chem lab can cause a
Bermuda Triangle effect elsewhere in the house.
As you set up your own lab (and forever after) keep an eye
out for anything that might be useful in the lab. For example,
my chromatography jars are actually durable plastic one-quart
containers that originally contained wonton soup from take-out
Chinese food orders. My water bath began life as a Crock-Pot
slow cooker, and two of my white plastic reaction plates look
RLECE yC SodA BoTTLES
Soda bottles in 500 mL, 1-liter, 2-liter, and 3-liter
sizes are very useful around the lab, both as storage
containers (label them clearly!) and as the basis for
many kinds of ad hoc apparatus. With a 1- or 2-hole
rubber stopper and some tubing, you can turn a soda
bottle into a disposable, high-capacity gas-generating
bottle or gas-washing bottle. With some thin-wall plastic
tubing or metal tubing, you can even turn a soda bottle
into a very capable condenser for distillations.suspiciously like discarded ice cube trays. My first calorimeter
—since replaced with a store-bought model—consisted of
two large nested Styrofoam cups with a tight-fitting lid on the
inner one. (The straw hole in the lid works just as well for a
thermometer.) And so on.If you’re on a limited budget (or even if you’re not), collect
anything that looks like it might be useful, now or in the future.
Chances are, it will be. I have drawers full of such stuff, and
frequently end up using one thing or another as a field-expedient
substitute for something I’d otherwise have had to order and
await its arrival.woRk AREA
Give serious consideration to the best location for your home lab. Of course, you may
have to choose between a poor location and having no lab at all. In that case, do the best
you can with what you have to work with. Here are some things to think about when you
choose a location for your home lab.
Counter space
Even microscale experiments require a surprisingly large
amount of workspace. In addition to space for the experiment
setup itself, you’ll need space for your balance, your lab
notebook, temporary space for any chemicals that you are
using, and so on. Consider 10 ft^2 (1 meter^2 ) of counter or
table space as an absolute minimum—more is better. The
ideal setup is arranged like a photographic darkroom or galley
kitchen, with a wet side and a dry side. The wet side is used
for doing the actual experiments, and the dry side for storing
and weighing chemicals, recording observations in your lab
notebook, and so on.
Storage
It’s important to have secure storage space for your
equipment and chemicals—particularly those chemicals
that are toxic, flammable, or otherwise hazardous—and
that your lab storage space not be shared with general
household items, particularly food and beverages. Make
absolutely certain that children and pets cannot get to
dangerous equipment and chemicals. If you have only
part-time possession of your work area, store your
equipment and chemicals out of reach in Rubbermaid
tubs or similar containers.