Monday, May 11, 2009

More Inexpensive Lab Equipment

Here I build some very inexpensive lab equipment. Basically it was all free. You can't do any better than that.

In picture #7 I build flasks out of old light bulbs. Bend back the soft metal tip on the end of the bulb with a pair of pliers. Twist the metal piece so it breaks off. There is a small hole in the top of the bulb. Use a screwdriver to break the black substance away. Be careful to not break the bulb itself. If you have trouble breaking the black substance break it off with a pair of needle-nose pliers. Once the black substance is all broken away use a screwdriver to break the glass holding the filament. Shake out the bulb. Take some water and an old toothbrush and clean out the white film in the bulb. The metal screw top is sturdy enough to hold a cork or rubber stopper. And now we have a very inexpensive flask.

In picture #8 I build some wooden racks(again this is wood I found will walking around on garbage day). One is for test-tubes and the other lower profile one is used to hold many other items for easy access. The plastic dish soap bottles are thoroughly washed out and can hold regular water, distilled water or any other liquids you wish to dispense very easily. They have push down lids so if they are knocked over they will not spill.

7 comments:

Mackenzie said...

Lawrence, I love these light-bulb flasks. How do they compare to more expensive pyrex flasks? The obviously seem more fragile. But because they are lightbulbs, do they hold up to heat well? Are they easy to clean? Have you tried autoclaving them?

Cheers!
Mac

Lawrence said...

Hi Mac,

The light-bulb flasks are great. They can be heated, I heat them to boiling. But they are fragile. They are not made of thick glass like the pyrex, so if you drop them or heat and then place them in cold water they will break very easily. As for cleaning so far I have had no problems but then again I have collected a large supply of them. (Let family and friends know you want these, you will collect these very quickly) I have made them with the metal screw end left on and have removed that end on others, but I find if you keep the metal end on you can hold it better and you can place corks and stoppers in them. So far I have had no trouble sterilizing them in a pressure cooker (remember bulbs have the air removed from them, a vacuum when they are made). If you look at one of my new posts you will see I created a support stand for them that works great.

Thanks,

Lawrence

Anonymous said...

I think I might just try this out today! I'm also starting a blog but I don't really know how. Would you mind checking mine out and telling me what I could do better?

Coolsciencetech

http://coolsciencetech.blogspot.com

Lawrence said...

Hi Coolsciencetech,

In my blog I just write about what I like doing. I just felt the journey might be of interest to others so I put it into a blog. It was surprising to find so much interest in what I was doing.

I would do the same with your blog to. Just enjoy what you do.

Lawrence

Anonymous said...

I think about add this material in my RSS. Do u think its ok?

Anonymous said...

Good Article

Anonymous said...

Is anybody think same about it? Can we disscuse this?