[mickal555]

Hi,

I'm thinking of setting up a lab seing as I'm collecting the elements. I'm hoping that I might be able to produce some, and do some experiments with others.

Unfourtunetly there doesn't seems to be anyway to do anything like this in australia(from what I can see) currency converrsions and shipping(for the few that do) add up to much... Even from ebay

I was woundering if anyone knew if we can(and what) get stuff(beakers,flasks,bensen burners, chemicals)  localy here in australia, most places I've asked say they don't sell to residental area's. (I'm in brissie by the way)

Many thanks

[Mitch]

Try talking to your school's chemistry teacher.

[mickal555]

Tried,

He said he vauled his job...

Apparently he can't do things like that. It's all regulated, and he's head of department too...

[Borek]

I don't think Mitch proposes to buy THROUGH your teacher, but he may be aware of other legal ways of acquiring glass and reagents.

[Donaldson Tan]

What about 2nd hand lab equipment?

[AfromOz]

Being a high school chemistry teacher, I have no problem obtaining stuff for my element collection

What do you want? We have recently obtained a stack of excess materials from other schools which are closing and have much material in excess. I am in Melbourne.

Also, I'm having trouble storing elemental bromine. I currently am using a glass flask and glass stopper surrounded by Parafilm. It's slowly getting through that. Suggestions?

Cheers,

A

[mike]

I'm having trouble storing elemental bromine. I currently am using a glass flask and glass stopper surrounded by Parafilm. It's slowly getting through that. Suggestions?

Hold your breath..

[AfromOz]

Nuh, that ^^ would lead to oxygen problems.

It's just getting its lid wrapped up in more and more Parafilm.

Cheers,

Adam

[Borek]

You should ask woelen, he got about half liter or so of bromine some time ago. See this thread.

[woelen]

I store the bromine in a bottle from a chemical company, with a sturdy plastic cap, with a teflon ring inside the cap. Using this bottle, the bromine is sealed quite well. No observable quantities are lost, but I can smell some of the bromine in the case, in which this bottle is stored. So, even with a real chemical storage bottle, a smellable quantity of bromine is lost.

[AfromOz]

Thanks for that.

I've read the thread. Seems an absolute pain to store.

What gets me is that we had a bottle sitting in the corrosives cupboard in a seemingly plain black plastic bottle with plastic lid doing nothing for years. I got the lab tech to get me some and she put it into a container with an aluminium lid.

BIG MISTAKE! We lost half of it as the bromine just ate it away.

The new Parafilm seems to last a couple of weeks (yes, I sniff around the bottle) before needing a new layer. I'll look into some Teflon tape.

Back to the original thread. I have had no problems with giving what I would term responsible students non-toxic elements. All they ever seem to want is Mg ribbon anyway.

I've given away small amounts of:

C, Mg, Al, Si, S, Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Sn, Sb, I, Pb and Bi with parental permission.

Reason? They just nick them anyway if they really want them.

That's a decent start to an element collection. Giving out equipment? Pretty much forget it!

Cheers,

Adam