My Lab Set Up - Advice, Critiques, Slaps Upside The Head If Neccessary

[KurtV989]

Hello Friends,

I have received the rest of the equipment needed to begin running my lab. It is set up in our basement, I've cordoned off a section and draped it with painters plastic, it is crude but will serve its purpose. I have:

• an empty beverage fridge that is presently sitting at about 19°F
• a 2024B-01 (circa 2001) Welch Vacuum Pump - not really sure how to use it yet...
• Beaker Set 5 Pcs (50ml 100ml 250ml 400ml 600 ml)
• Another two sets of beakers, 1k and 2k - they both broke in transit so still waiting on them but not essential to starting
• 2 100-2000rpm Lab Stirrers, 180W Heating Power 716℉ Stir Hotplate, 55 Inch
• 2000ml Heavy Wall Conical Separatory Funnel with 29/32 Joints and PTFE Stopcock - 2L
• 3 Neck Round Bottom Flask RBF, with 19/22 Center and Side Standard Taper Outer Joint (2000ML)
• A 24/40 Chemistry Glassware 32PCS Chemistry Lab Glassware Kit 250 1000ml for Distillations Separation Purification Synthesis - this set has the Vigreux, Allihn, Graham, and Liebig Condensers as well as another smaller separatory funnel and assorted 2 and 3 neck flasks
• Lab Vacuum Filtration Distillation Apparatus, 2000mL Filtering Flask, 300mL Graduated Funnel
• God Bless Online Gambling

BONUS: picked up a lightly used pressure cooker at a thrift store the other day.. Can I use it in my set up somehow?

As a warm up I'd like to synthesize my own Hydrochloric Acid, it seems like a good place to start. I have nitrile gloves and a fancy new full face respirator with appropriate charcoal filters.

I guess final FINAL piece of equipment I need is the fume hood for safety. I've purchased sheetrock that I will cut up and fashion in to a box painted with epoxy paint. I need PTFE tubing and some fans to move fumes out through the outside door staircase and those should be the absolute final pieces I 'think' I should need.

I'm open to any and all advice! but am particularly interested in what @HEISENBERG, @Frit Buchner, @G.Patton, @Madre and @WillD think about this set up.

I am hungry to COOK!!!

 

[KurtV989]

Here's the pump for anyone interested, I was told by the company it is definitely unique

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

You have a nice collection going. You are going to want Mma Buchner funnel. You'll find yourself using these multiple times a day and some pieces you have once a week. When you are getting stuff together, you are going to need little jars for little stuff you are distilling extracting ect. If they aren't glass you have to be careful because you'll pour some solvent into your old mayonnaise jar and it will run right on to the floor. Hope it wasn't acid. I hope it wasn't base. You might have 10 seconds to smuffle it. It could ignite. It could start fumigation you and eating a hole through the floor.
You should probably use glass. I bet you'll want an adapter or 3 so your glassware will all connect.metal kek clips, plastic ones turn to dust the first time you gas them. Any retorts/stands clamps vacuum line water pump.
That's a dandy of a 2 stage diaphragm pump I was oogling some similar ones on Amazon earlier, $175-$225 for a dumb named Chinese version

 

[KurtV989]

Good tips Frit! I've always been obsessed with glass and have been collecting pieces for years so feeling good about that. I'm of the mindset that it's better to have too much than find you're missing that one key item!

GREAT idea on the clips, what a mess that would have been.... I'm using This Site for hosing and basically everything needed not made of glass and holy shit! I made an order on a Monday at 3pm, it was in my hands at 10am the next morning. They seem to sell everything from filter pads to emergency eye wash stations and I highly suggest them for small things.

I'm relieved to hear praise for the pump, I was worried! no china crap here, this thing is heavy as hell, made of steel, and USA! It was $375 on ebay.

 

[miner21]

Props to getting set up man! Thats awesome!

 

[KurtV989]

Move Makin' Time!!

 

[miner21]

Do work man! I'm excited for you

 

[Metribolone]

I would recommend an inline duct/centrifugal fan for your fume hood, those ones that are used in indoor weed grows. You can also attach a carbon filter to it to reduce odors, and the suction would be nice and strong compared to computer fans.

 

[KurtV989]

SOOOO much better than computer fans! Surprisingly though they do not have cylindrical in-line air filters for odor. Would you mind terribly sir if I asked you to source your third image? Should be the last piece I need!

 

[Metribolone]

Mars hydro has 4-inch and 6-inch fan and filter kits. I don’t think you would be able to find an inline carbon filter on the website you linked. Check Amazon.

 

[KurtV989]

Perfect thanks so much!!!
McMaster has been very good for filters, tubing and other general lab equipment and their customer service is insane, I was answered within 20 minutes when I had a question at 3:45am, I'm always worried on Amazon I'm not getting exactly what is advertised which is pretty important when dealing with fumes lol but recommendations are powerful and I'll peruse there for the tubing too since it is 'very'($500-$700 for 6') expensive on the other site

 

[Metribolone]

I can see corrosion being an issue haha. The mars hydro is a hydroponic indoor growing company, I don’t think they make their filters to be corrosion resistant but you can always ask. Carbon filters a great for odors but idk how effective they will be for scrubbing chemicals and fumes or if it can stand up to it at all. I guess you could buy the fan and ducting, and make your own filter thing with hvac or laboratory filter box, and attach the ducting and fan to it.

 

[KurtV989]

I'm starting to think, fuck it, if a cheaper set up will work, I could buy a new set for each cook, might get expensive eventually but for starting out...

And since this is a learning experience and the universe decided to gift me casino money at the same time I was thinking of starting up, I'm gonna pull the trigger. Very much looking forward to posting pics of the set up!

 

[KurtV989]

Then he goes and changes it but it's ok I like this one too haha

 

[KurtV989]

P.S. I fucking love your avatar lol

 

[Metribolone]

Thanks lol. Some scammer tried to scam me but I am too smart for him, ever since he’s had a hard on to mess with me. He took my avatar and made a video with it and honestly I have no idea what his end goal was but he kept asking me “so? Are you mad?” When I wasn’t even angry just wondering where he found it from. He is truly a very smart individual. Anyway, I hope things go smoothly for you.

 

[KurtV989]

Holy shit that's awful! I was just scammed this past week myself friend. Since I am starting this business and since I am not able to legally possess a firearm (wife shit, complicated and definitely not recent crime reasons ((she was a kid once, did some dumb shit, now I can't get a firearm legally lol laws are great!)) so stupid) I tried purchasing from a market called 'courier market' stay away, first of all, I had $950 in Escrow and out of nowhere my settings changed and PGP was added, totally locked out. It's my theory now that that USED to be a real market and now is run by one douchebag pretending to be everyone. SO that hurt, lesson learned, can't buy a gun online in 2024 lol

 

[Metribolone]

Man that sucks. I hope my sarcasm got through on my previous reply. Dude is a grade A idiot. I don’t think he could successfully scam an elderly dementia patient.

also buying a gun online is not a good idea hahaha you live and you learn. (Arkansas and Mississippi don’t require a permit or background check to buy guns according to Google )

 

[KurtV989]

hmmm.... roadtrip?!

lol yeah those scammers man they are another breed of douchebag. My favorite are the 'I've got video of you masterbating and I'm gonna send it to everyone!' threats. Like, yup, I get horny like everybody else, the fuck do I care?!