Greetings fellow nerds.
This is part two of equipment for setting up an amateur lab.
If you haven't already seen part one, or would like a recap, go to the video description
for a link to it.
As usual i'm going to cover all kinds of equipment that you might need and let you decide which
ones are relevant to your particular lab.
In this video i'm going to focus on safety equipment.
So let's get started.
Now despite what modern culture, movies, games and television depict them as, lab coats are
not uniforms for scientists, they are protective safety equipment.
The idea is that if you get splattered with chemicals, blood, biological waste, or whatever
other unholy things you come across,
you can quickly take off your lab coat and whatever is on it.
Sometimes i wear mine, sometimes i don't, it depends really on how much danger i'm expecting
from my experiments.
You don't have to buy a lab coat if you're willing to discard your clothes in the event
of an accident.
Just that a lab coat is generally pretty cheap compared to clothes, easier to take on and
off,
and you're not walking around naked when you do take off your lab coat.
Cotton lab coats are generally thicker and offer better protection than polyester lab
coats.
So try and get cotton if you can.
Next piece of equipment is lab gloves.
When working with most things in the lab you'll need gloves.
Even if it's completely safe gloves are useful just to keep your hands clean.
I most commonly use these nitrile gloves although you have seen me use vinyl gloves as well.
Now gloves mostly protect you from water and aqueous chemistry and are resistant to non-aqueous
chemicals.
I must emphasize that last point again.
When dealing with non-aqueous chemicals like oils, organics or anything similar, gloves
do not protect you, all they do is buy you time.
If something spills on the gloves that is organic and toxic,
you need to take off the gloves immediately and replace them.
A great many people have been killed by toxic chemicals permeating through their gloves
because they thought the gloves would protect them indefinitely.
When i'm working with highly dangerous materials i go through a whole box of these per day.
So buy gloves in bulk and pay attention to what you are doing.
Different gloves are more resistant to different things so try and get the best gloves for
your work.
The internet is full of information about those resistances so i won't go through them
here.
I'll emphasize once again that gloves do not make you invulnerable to chemicals, they just
buy you time.
Lab stands and clamps are yet another annoying thing that you don't know you need until you
need them and forget to buy them when you don't need them.
They hold up glassware and whatever else you're doing.
I've seen so many of these selling for ludicrous prices so be sure to shop around.
You can even make your own lab stands with a solid wooden base and some metal bars you
can buy at a hardware store.
I recommend buying more clamps than you need because you never know what you're going to
do in the future.
Now if you work with a lot of corrosive chemicals like i do your clamps are going to inevitably
rust.
You can protect them somewhat with plastic conformal coating and greasing or oiling the
screw threads
but eventually they're going to seize up or break.
So consider clamps a consumable item rather than a permanent item.
Lab goggles are essential.
A blind experimenter is not a very good one.
Regular glasses are not enough as chemicals can splash all over your face and can still
get behind the glasses.
Wrap around goggles like these ones are what you want.
Have a couple on hand in case one gets too dirty or foggy.
I know they're annoying, uncomfortable, and leave pressure marks on your face.
Like seat belts you can go years, even decades, without ever having an accident.
But the one time you do need them is one time you have to have them on.
Unless your chemistry is absolutely and inherently safe, don't skimp out on the goggles.
Personally I like to use face shields as I find them more comfortable than goggles.
Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors as well as flammable gas detectors are highly recommended
if you're working with a lot of flames.
You can't always be certain what your chemistry is doing and how your open flames are behaving.
I prefer these plug-in ones as i can move them around the lab to better locations if
they're giving me too many false alarms.
But be aware that it's better to have a false alarm when there is no fire than no alarm
when there is a fire.
So do not put them where they can't detect your chemistry and are useless.
Now this one has a battery backup which in addition to making it more reliable
also makes it pretty useful in that i can move it right next to my chemistry if i want
extra sensitivity.
Sometimes i might intend to produce carbon monoxide or other gases and would like an
indication.
So these can be a useful scientific tool and not just for safety.
Although in that case i recommend getting two and putting the other one on safety duty
so you don't miss an actual alarm.
Now of course a smoke detector is of limited use without a fire extinguisher.
Hopefully you'll never need it but they are great for stopping a small fire from becoming
a big one.
Select one that can deal with chemical fires and not just oil fires.
And be sure to place them in an easy to access area.
Check the pressure regularly to make sure they're not leaking.
And don't accidentally cover them up with other lab equipment as the years progress.
Okay this is not a safety item but i'll put it in this video anyway.
A good variable power supply is a must if you're doing any sort of electrochemistry.
Batteries are too expensive if you're doing lots of electrochemical work and simple adapters
only give you a constant voltage.
A variable power supply is much more useful if you can get one that let's you control
both the maximum voltage and current.
This is because roughly electrochemical reactions require certain voltages to happen, and the
rate at which they occur is controlled by the current.
Of course of i'm grossly oversimplifying as the concentration of the solution
and the electrode surface area also play huge roles
but bottom line having a variable power supply is tremendously useful for electrochemistry.
Mine can produce 30 volts with a maximum current of 5 amps.
This is about average for benchtop power supplies.
Anyway for most chemistry 30 volts is just fine.
Now the one you see in the video cost me about a hundred dollars and to be honest,
this is ludicrously overpriced.
You can get away using just a power adapter and a step down DC-DC converter module off
ebay for a total of ten dollars or so.
Far cheaper and lighter than this overweight monstrosity.
Now there is a very advanced type of chemistry power supply called a potentiostat.
These connect to three electrodes and let you perform an even greater range of electroanalytical
experiments.
Unfortunately i don't have one yet to show you
but if you want to do professional level electrochemistry experiments this is the sort of power supply
you should be looking for.
Okay so we're done with this video.
A bit shorter than other videos but that's because i'm going to have the next lab equipment
entirely focused on glassware.
Once again if you have any suggestions for things i should feature in these lab videos,
please let me know in the comments.
Thanks for watching.