The Dollar Stores

I have found many items from the Dollar Stores. Here is a few of the items.

Chemicals:

1) Salt
2) Sugar
3) Epsom Salts
4) Baking soda
5) Baking powder
6) Vinegar
7) Acetone (fingernail polish remover)
8) Moth Balls
9) Lemon Juice
10) Alcohol 50%
11) Hydrogen Peroxide 3%
12) Batteries
13) Glow in the dark bracelets
14) Drain Cleaner
15) Different types of soap (detergent, shampoo, dish, etc.)
16) Fishing weights (might be lead)
17) Aluminum foil

Supplies:

1) Glass bowls
2) Custard cups with lids
3) Measuring cups (plastic)
4) Coffee filters
5) Spice jars
6) Digital timers
7) Butter knifes (Spatula for chemicals)
8) Metal spoons
9) Hard cover lab books
10) Cutting boards
11) Storage jars
12) Tiny plastic shot glasses
13) Plastic animal containers (fish tanks, etc.)
14) Magnifying glass and lenses
15) Glass plates (from picture frames)
16) Plastic plates (from picture frames)
17) Parts and supply holders (plastic bins)
18) Plastic funnels
19) Marbles
20) Tape (masking, scotch, etc.)

I will continue to add to the list in the future.

Putting It Together

By now I have picked up a lot of items. I have built a 5 ft. x 2ft. work bench. (I will show you a diagram of the bench so you can put one together too) Underneath it I have placed an old night stand someone threw out. With other wood I built a book case and put shelves above the bench (these are made from bi-fold doors). I found 4 broken metal shelving units and made them into 2 full units.

All this was found while walking around my neighbourhood. I also found a couple of blenders. I want to turn one into a centrifuge. I will show pictures of this as I put it together.

Other things to collect: Jars and bottles, plastic, toys, milk and juice cartons (used for storage filing boxes), cardboard boxes, jugs, light bulbs(the old kind, these can used to make flasks and round bottom dishes), coat hangers, toothpicks, plastic tubing, soda straws, plastic squeeze bottles (dish washing soap), clothespins, plasticine, paper clips, foam meat trays, scotch tape, masking tape, duct tape, glass (from picture frames) and batteries (source of carbon rods and zinc and manganese dioxide). A lot of this I was able to collect from family and friends, some I picked up at the dollar store, which by the way has many items you can use in the lab.

Chemicals you can find at the Dollar Store, grocery store, drug store or hardware stores are:
Aluminum (foil), Ammonia (ammonium hydroxide), Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate),Borax (sodium borate), Bleach (Sodium hypochlorite), Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate), Glycerin (glycerol), Iron filings, Moth balls (naphthalene), Hydrogen peroxide, Plaster of Paris (calcium sulfate), Table salt (sodium chloride), Sugar (sucrose), Starch, Vinegar (acetic acid), citric acid, ascorbic acid, TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) and plain chemical batteries (carbon rods and zinc and manganese dioxide).

I stored many of my chemicals in spice jars, they are a good size and cheap to come by. Well now I have some lab equipment, chemicals, work space, books and odds and ends. Time to do some experiments.

Starting To Put It Together

By now I have picked up a lot of items. I have built a 5 ft. x 2ft. work bench. (I will show you a diagram of the bench so you can put one together too) Underneath it I have placed an old night stand someone threw out. With other wood I built a book case and put shelves above the bench (these are made from bi-fold doors). I found 4 broken metal shelving units and made them into 2 full units.

All this was found while walking around my neighbourhood. I also found a couple of blenders. I want to turn one into a centrifuge. I will show pictures of this as I put it together.

Other things to collect: Jars and bottles, plastic, toys, milk and juice cartons (used for storage filing boxes), cardboard boxes, jugs, light bulbs(the old kind, these can used to make flasks and round bottom dishes), coat hangers, toothpicks, plastic tubing, soda straws, plastic squeeze bottles (dish washing soap), clothespins, plasticine, paper clips, foam meat trays, scotch tape, masking tape, duct tape, glass (from picture frames) and batteries (source of carbon rods and zinc and manganese dioxide). A lot of this I was able to collect from family and friends, some I picked up at the dollar store, which by the way has many items you can use in the lab.

Chemicals you can find at the Dollar Store, grocery store, drug store or hardware stores are:
Aluminum (foil), Ammonia (ammonium hydroxide), Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate),Borax (sodium borate), Bleach (Sodium hypochlorite), Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate), Glycerin (glycerol), Iron filings, Moth balls (naphthalene), Hydrogen peroxide, Plaster of Paris (calcium sulfate), Table salt (sodium chloride), Sugar (sucrose), Starch, Vinegar (acetic acid), citric acid, ascorbic acid, TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) and plain chemical batteries (carbon rods and zinc and manganese dioxide).

I stored many of my chemicals in spice jars, they are a good size and cheap to come by. Well now I have some lab equipment, chemicals, work space, books and odds and ends. Time to do some experiments.

Where To Begin

As you begin to create your lab there certain things you should try to have on hand. Get a computer, printer and a scanner. This will allow you to photocopy and print articles and papers you get from books and magazines from the library. The library should become your best friend. They will have many of the older and newer books on hand. You can order from one library to be sent to the library closest to you. Libraries also have yearly sales on books, you can pick up some great buys there. Two of the books on my list I found at a library sale, The Amateur Biologist and Biotechnology Projects for Young Scientists, They cost $2.00 each. You should try to have an Internet connection if possible. There is plenty of help on the Internet. Just reading this blog you have to have access to the Internet. Under my Useful Links category the Constructing Inexpensive Lab Equipment link takes you to a pile of PDF files that can help you with the construction of many pieces of lab equipment for Biology, Chemistry and Physics. I recommend you print them out or store the PDF files for later use, you never know when a site will go down. Therefore print out anything you find on the Internet.

Let family and friends know you are creating a new hobby, they will be a great help. When I told my parents that I was building a home lab again they told me they had some of my old books from before. They are The Amateur Scientist, which must be the bible for amateur scientists (it is old 1960, I would really like to attempt some of the projects, except using the materials found today), Explorations In Chemistry (which is a great book on learning chemistry), The Living Laboratory 200 Experiments for Amateur Biologists (wonderful experiments in animal biology) and Microbe Hunters (an excellent account of the beginning of microbiology). You can find more info about these books in the categories section of my blog.

One thing I do recommend is you start to walk around your neighbourhood on garbage days, you won't believe what you can find. I have found lots of wood to build shelves and tables, desks, chairs, wire, lots of computers, printers, VCR's, DVD players and many other electronics. Most computers are old but can be used for experiments to build scientific equipment such as sensors, etc(you won't have to worry about damaging these older machines). I found an old laptop and some software on the Internet and turned it into an oscilloscope, something I always wanted to play with but could not afford.

I am now well on my way to put together a pretty good start to my lab.

More Chemistry Sets and Books

As you can see I did manage to get 2 more chemistry sets. The first is a Smithosian Microchemistry set. It has almost everything it came with in it. I found it at a yard sale and paid $5.00 for it. It only has a small amount of chemicals, as per microchemistry. The other one I found in an antique show at our mall. It is a Porter Chemcraft Chemistry set from the 1950's or 60's. It has most of its chemicals, test tubes, burner, scale, test tube racks, etc.

You can see on the right side bottom of the page 3 new categories 1)Books for Experimenting- This will cover books I find and can get my hands on, whether purchased or borrowed from the library. This will contain old books and hopefully many newer books that pertain to today's science. 2) Useful Links - will contain links I find useful in building my amateur's lab. 3) Historical Books - books about science and the scientist's work.

I will talk more about these books and links later.

Old Chemistry Sets

It has been a long time since I have written here. I began to look at ways of putting together a nice amateur lab to play with. I managed to find a couple of old chemistry sets. One on eBay. The Mr. Wizard Chemistry set. I had one when I was a kid many, many years ago. I always loved to watch his science shows and read some of his science books from our public library. I was quite surprised to find this kit. Now eBay maybe a good source for things but be careful. It is a nice kit, but shipping was expensive. The kit was $10.00, shipping ended up being $12.00. Still for $22.00 that is not bad, except when the kit arrived there wasn't to much of the chemicals left. I did get some glassware, flask, beaker, 8 test-tubes, test-tube stand, alcohol burner, balance, experiment book, etc.

The second one is a Merit chemistry set 50, I think this was a Salter chemistry set when I was younger. I found this at a flee market for $3.00 fully sealed. Now this was a great bargain, it came with 8 different chemicals, test-tubes, watch glass, glass and rubber tubing, etc.

You can see a picture of both sets at the side. So far I believe I am off to a good start on putting together my science lab.

Continued

About a year ago I picked up the book Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks. It was a wonderful read. It brought back memories of when I was younger and frequently stunk up my parents basement. I began to get the urge to begin experimenting again. Just after that I received another book called Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner. It talked about a biologist and his work on genetics and the fruit fly. I thought wow an amateur scientist should be able to do this in their own lab at home. I really like genetics, it seems so interesting.

So that is when I decided to try and build my own amateur science lab to play around in. I do not have alot of money so I had to be careful with what I went and bought. I began to search toy and department stores to see what was available in science kits. I figured it would be easier if I started out with a science or chemistry set and then added on to it myself. What a suprise I found. The chemistry sets were terrible, hardly any chemicals, no glassware, nothing. Microscopes were just as bad, cheap optics and made out of plastic. I could not believe how far we have regressed in our science teachings. So now I must build my lab another way.
So basically this is the story of how I will build my lab from what ever I could find to do my experiments. Basically the old fashion way as scientists back in the early times built most of thier own equipment. I will be keeping notes on what I find, where I find them, websites that help me, books and magazines that I come across and kits that are useful to the amateur scientist.

I hope others will follow my exploits and enjoy it as much as I will.

Build it Yourself Science Laboratory

I will use this blog site as a way to log my development of an amateur science laboratory. This site may help teachers and others to learn and teach about science. They can take some of the ideas and apply it for themselves.