Support Stand, Test Tubes and More

In picture #11 I quickly build this support stand from a curtain rod, some wood, coat hanger, clothespins and some screws. This support stand was built from a 10" x 6", 1" thick base of wood and a small 2" x 4" support. The rod is a curtain rod that slides into itself. I cut it down to the length I wanted it to open to. Picture #11b-c - Using a coat hanger I shaped a clamp or holder to fit the mouth end of my light bulb flask. Picture #11d - Using clothespins I make another clamp that can hold smaller objects such as glass tubes, funnel tubes or thermometer.

You can see in the pictures the flask and a thermometer being supported by this stand. It was very simple to make, it is adjustable, you can make it go higher or lower and best of all it is inexpensive. It worked very well. I intend to make some more, some smaller, some bigger and some with 2 or more rods attached to the base.

As stated before when you decide to build your own lab let family and friends know so they can collect items for you. In picture #12 you see a pile of tubes. The small ones are what some florists use for single flowers to keep them wet. The medium tubes are cigar tubes and the large ones held soap powder. All came from friends keeping these when they were done with them. Now all of these tubes are made of plastic but they are still good for mixing, centrifuging, and storing.

Also in this picture you see a couple of pieces of glass that I cut from larger glass plates. The larger one I use for chopping material up in my DNA extraction experiments. The smaller one covers my glass furniture coaster petri dish. These and others come from glass found in old thrown away picture frames that I found on garbage day.