Equipment

In this forum every piece of apparatus, devices, glassware, etc. can be discussed. Properties of the equipment, ways to make special equipment from standard products, creative use of standard products in a special way, all this kind of things can be discussed here. We do not appreciate threads with pointers to manufacturers of certain equipment, this is not meant to be a forum, filled with advertisements. There is no objection of mentioning a certain company, but it must be in the context of useful information about the device or apparatus being discussed. We would really love to see creative ideas of how the functionality of hard to obtain devices can be mimicked…

Not that I can contribute this, but I thought that it would be interesting to see the home/work labs that some of the people here use. It would help to see what other people in your field use and give you and idea of what you could use.

Does some one know a setup to turn socket current and voltage to 48 amps and 3 volts.I may not answer for up to a week,hurricane Ike:eek:

Hello, I have an Apple iPOD fourth generation bought new 10 or so years ago that plays music fine if it is plugged into the charger while playing and the new battery from DigiExpress in Pa. does fully charge up the battery.It's only good the for about one day. (After charging up ,iPOD is turned off and not used till next day.) DigiExpress says that being this is the 2nd battery I have sent for, if it still will only hold a charge for only one day,the trouble probably is in the electronics of my iPOD and NOT the battery. (I use the ipod for only 4 or 5 hrs.during the day charging goes on) What do you think and have any others had similar experiences with ol…

I understand the principles of AC and DC current. Fine. But somehow until now I never thought of the reasoning behind components specifically for either. What is the difference? Is it just that in AC components that current has to be able yo travel in both directions, and DC components current can only travel through one direction? Then in essence, wouldn't a DC switch, for example, be the same as an AC switch with two diodes facing the same direction in both input and output? I am probably mistaken in my reasoning but a little education here would help.

I am using an analogue ammeter to make current and voltage measurements. The analogue meter utilizes and electromagnet; it is not heat based. I am curious if their is a bandwidth for which this type of meter is accurate. I know that digital, hand- held multi-meters have bandwidths that are usually limited to between 40 Hz and 100Hz. David

This is a equipment made by me inorder to measure the turbity of the water this is made in a measuring jar and there will be a value corresponding to it, the point at which the marking disappear is noted and measured

Well, I am going to be buying lab equipment and such from United Nuclear soon. I will be buying the full glassware set, as well as the hardware set. I chose United Nuclear because they have very good prices. Anyways, I wanted a sort of Chemistry set, but I didn't want a childish one, with low quality equipment geared towards children, as well as the experiments are geared towards children, while also being ridiculously expensive. So I am just going to buy the glass and hardware from UN. But the thing is, they don't come with Chemicals like the kits do. Are there any packages of Chemicals that I could buy alone, without hardware? Or will I have to buy…

Hello. I am looking for a cheap (ideally lower two digit price) digital thermometer with two or more decimal places for Kelvin/Celsius. It would be nice if the temperature value could be displayed live as a line on a Windows PC or Android device. It is not about high-end lab technology, but rather "Ali"/"Ebay"-. The accuracy is also not primarily important, I am only concerned about fluctuations. And the thermal sensor should not measure the temperature of an object, but only its own (thermocouple) temperature (in a heat-insulating material that protects against drafts). For scales, one-thousandth of a gram is common even for cheap products. Is ther…

How does foot orthoses work?

I have just bought a burette, mostly so I can practice titration with water, but will hopefully move on to doing some science with this, it is a plastic 25ml. Before I start any hints / tips on keeping this in good condition, e.g make sure the tap stays working properly,. I have heard they can seize up, but not too sure. I am guessing cleaning should be a case of running water through. Thanks for any help I did search for this on the forum so will keep looking but any response should help others too. Regards Paul So from this is running a salt water solution through this better than perhaps, tap water or ideally de-ionised water. …

I think this would be the right place for this... Anyhoo, long time no see Science Forum I have a quick and simple question. When I was a kid, I had this laser gun keychain that took small button cells as its power source. In fact, it had 3 of them stacked on one another. I was wondering if say, each was 1v, does stacking them increase the output to 3v? Or does it just increase the lifespan of the powered object? Thanks

Suppose I want to run a normal low-voltage transformer in reverse -- i.e., running the line voltage through the secondary winding of a filament transformer. The load will generally be negligible, but maybe not. How can I determine whether the transformer can handle this? From the gauge and secondary rating I can make a guess how much current the winding is intended to handle, but I don't know if Ohm's law applies here. Example: For a 120VAC transformer with a secondary winding rated at 28VAC/2.8A, is the winding's impedance 10[math]\Omega[/math]? Thanks!

Hi folks, With the ubiquity and cheapness of web and other video cameras these days, and their usefulness for recording rapidly evolving events in the lab, I was wondering if there's any utilities to help use them in a lab setting. I'm thinking of software that makes it easy to obtain measurements from the recorded video, or from stills of that video. Examples might be measurements of time elapsed, measurements of angles, easy calibration of an image to a scale. Other things that might be useful would be direct control of gain on a webcam during the capture phase such that one could make estimates of relative intensity for flames, glows, or incandescence. Even if it …

I want to modify a webcam pro 9000 for microscopy using a Amscope compound mic. I've read a few articles online about it, but it looks a little outside of my technical know how - soldering, splicing wires, etc. Does anyone know of a good way to get really good video from a webcam through a microscope without spending too much?

I've found a brand new in box dc-dc converter. No description of input/output specs. Can't find anything searching web. It is manufactured by wilson microwave systems, inc, made in japan. Box and unit says it's a DC1000, D3000256 Anyone have any ideas on how I can identify specs?

You can make a lab in your home by taking shot glasses or very small glases that nobody drinks out of for containers. To get all the ingredients, well, experiment with the spices, oils and left over foods that lie around. They all react, imagine the medicines you could make with spices? Spices make the best medicine because they burn things like cells. If you were to experiment with a blood sample and take some tupperware containers - not as good but good enough - you could treat the infected blood, that nobody has anything better to do with, and add things to it. If you were to go to class and experiment there, you would be able to see if things work or not, and …

Does anyone know if methanol's a suitable cleaning solvent for cleaning lab glassware? Or would I be better off going for something more expensive like propanone or propan-2-ol? I know methanol's more toxic, but that shouldn't be a problem as long as the area's well-ventilated, right?

A compact disc has pits on its surface to represent the data bits. Is the optical surface of a CD smooth as a mirror when new and blank, before anything is recorded/'burned' ? Am after a small, light, thin, durable mirror if I can cut off from a new CD

other than using an aspirator or some expensive vacuum equipment, are there any ways to create a vacuum strong enough but not too strong to complete the distillation?

Our lab is experiencing a major issue with PCR results. We switched to a new lot of 96-well plates and suddenly started seeing rampant false signals causing QC failures. The specific product in question is the Agilent brand: Storage/reaction microplate, 96-well, polypropylene, 1 mL/round well, round bottoms, 32 mm height, irradiated. Part Number: 204357-100. Looking to see if any other lab out there is or has experienced a similar problem, especially specifically with this equipment.

I've been wanting for a while to try out extracting different scents from different plants but I'm lacking one crucial piece of apparatus, namely distillation set (or more precisely, the condenser part). They are available for purchase at very expensive prices so I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to make one that would work for my purpose... Considering other equipment, I have beakers, flasks, round bottom flasks, funnels, tubes, I have water and heat source etc... I was thinking of using polystyrene test tubes and then cutting and melting them such to make something that resembles a condenser, but before I go on with that I just wanted to see if anyone …

I want to make an Fourier Transform Spectrometer in the visible range. I am having problems with finding a proper linear stage. The wavelength range is 400-1100nm, which makes out the smallest resolution and accuracy should be better than 150nm. The wavelength resolution at 1100nm should be 1nm, which works out the track length to be greather than 2mm. The system f# makes that the mirror should be of 50mm size, which makes its weight to be 50g. I don't want to get into the argument that a dispersive system is better. I know that. Please help me find a component which will help me displace 50g weight at a resolution of <150nm for a total track length of >2mm. …

Hello people, I would like to create a simple Glovebox She not be super complicated... i just need to replace the air by a "pure air" without any dust.. or maybe you know where i can find one for a cheap price ? Thx to all

Hello guys, I modified my usb camera to work as a microscope yesterday evening. I was astounded at its magnification power and resolution. I used a cheap ~20$ camera with a resolution of 480x360 pixels. Nematodes are about an eigth of the width of the screen so about 60 pixels (equals about 6 cm) in length. If we assume a nematode is around 1.5 mm in length this would be a magnification of about 40x. I followed the instructions provided by the wiki entry of hackteria.org DIY_microscopy dissasembling the camera to its circuit board, flipping the lens for an even higher resolution, and mounting the modificated camera to a plastic frame. It is a fine apparatus which ca…