any amatuer chemists with labglass experiance? Please help..

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this may very well end up being a hail Mary post but perhaps a fellow Chemist here can answer this. I have progressed to the point in my work where the need for ground glass jointed lab ware is needed. Suffice to say this sort of lab glass is not cheap..thus I went in searching for a better price on the needed 24/40 jointed lab glass and I stumbled upon a a brand of lab glass called "Laboy".
UNFORTUNATELY it is of Chinese manufacture and thus I am wary.. . has anyone out there tried this glass? did it hold up well? is the quality good enough to work with strong bases and acids?

and has anyone else out there tried to teach themselves calculus? are there any self teaching books that stand out?


should anyone wonder what the goal of my work is ; it is in petroleum substitutes and the pursuit of economical carbon dioxide reduction..although I also do research into many Chemical engineering fields..extraction/refining/production methods and such.

From experience I can say that Pyrex lab glass(don't bother with consumer stuff, they changed the formula making it useless for chemistry) is all but inert, can handle a wide range of temperatures, and is reasonably inexpensive. My concern is in the description of your course of study. Glass has an unfortunate tendency to shatter that makes it less than ideal for petroleum research. Before you begin(or continue) I'd recommend investing in a hood to protect yourself. After all, it would be difficult to design the next great fuel substitute when you are blind and there's stubs where your hands used to be. As far as calculus, I'd find a grad student and ask them to tutor you. The concepts of calculus are very abstract and not easily learned solely from a book IMHO.

well..perhaps you are correct but few seems to take me very seriously without the clout and attendance of a large and prestigious university..yet I still try hmmm... anyway.
yes but the cost of Pyrex brand borosilicate labglass, let alone 24/40 jointed labglass with the brand name is painful to such as I; at least given the nature of the glass I need. test tubes are easy to pay fro but a Soxlhet apparatus gets pricey when one is buying single units instead of hundreds. Although I cannot refute the quality I also cannot afford the brand name . this Chinese brand claims to be hand blown with uniform thickness as well as being of a Pyrex( read ; true borosilicate)type of glass. here..I dunno if a newbie such as myself can use links but I will try.. here's an example http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... =WDVW&rd=1

perhaps I need not worry about brands but safety is my main concern.

sadly yes this is an eBay store but what can I do?

as for the course of study do note this is not( yet) related to my schooling. it is done from my home work station so it is more akin to a "obsessive hobby" poor words perhaps but I cannot find the right ones.. and yes there is a fume hood of sorts( it will keep me safe and vent any gases but it isn't top of the line) although I still dream of a fully equipped building..
hmmm hiring a grad student..I suppose cash will persuade them to teach me even if it is odd for a non university student to want to learn such.

I would personally recommend buying used 24/40 off of Ebay. I own several sets of 24/40, and 14/20 glassware that I purchased off of Ebay. The used stuff is still expensive, but is considerably cheaper then buying it new. Its nice to know that there are other people trying to do real chemistry outside of a university environment. Its a hard road and I would not be unusual if you meet considerable opposition along the way as I have.

Have you asked a nearby university if they had anything that needed to be "retired" so they could order new equipment?

I've used Pyrex, Bomex and some others. IIRC, Bomex is Chinese but I haven't had any problems with it. Looking at the Laboy website, I'm really not impressed. It's very cheaply and hastily done with a lot of problems and they don't even want to hire one person for a day's worth of work (or less) to fix the Chinglish/Engrish.

If we we're talking about your grades or your job, I'd pass on Laboy! Since this is just for fun and practice, I would go ahead and try just a few pieces before ordering a lot, but just be a little more careful of breaking something from thermal differences, etc. Check the tolerances and look carefully for defects before you get any particularly expensive parts. You might want to still go with something else for any critical components that could break or present hazards.

as strange and as forward as this may sound; it is my passion. any day I spend in the lab is a day I relish..not to mention the hours spent elsewhere in pursuit of my trade..
I know all too well the bull that an amateur chemist has to endure.. can't buy chemicals so I have to make them and while that is golden experience it is a hard way to get them.. thus the need for proper lab glass. for example: I can't distill nitric or sulfuric acid with rubber stoppers as the acids corrode them and even with out the loss of them the batch is ruined when such happens. but again my work is more to the petroleum/materials science so there is a very broad range there...

thanks for the warning though. I take my research very seriously and the last thing I need right now is another "pop N slosh" ( flask ruptures, imploded filter flasks , etc)

Not strange at all. I loved chemistry. While I made a lot of dumb mistakes (usually from kind of shutting down, not seeing the obvious), I almost always had the best % yield or purity in class.

If you ever want to post some of your procedures and results, I think they'd be pretty interesting

You or others here actually want to see some of my work? * deep bows* wow..while I am very very happy to see that I am a bit taken aback; it is very rare where I live to get any warm responses to home Chemical work. this is rather good news.. Ahem anyway my gushing aside what do you think of this maker?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-1000ml-Chem ... 2eb7537db2


or
http://www.unitedglasstech.com/

looks a bit hardier from my end but again I take my work very seriously and we both know the right tools can make a world of difference!

Made in the USA, that's great. That looks like a good price so you might ask the seller if it's really borosilicate. Still, if you're careful with it, it might last quite a while. Be sure not to scratch it, overheat (like boiling dry) and make sure the glass isn't strained between any two clamps (best to use just one for this reason).

And yes, there are good reasons for general disapproval of home chemistry. Just don't do anything illegal (a real chemist would never bother with certain popular illicit substances that any druggie could make with soda bottles) and follow proper safety procedures and you'll be fine (storage and separation of reagents, noting all hazards, proper gear, and following EPA disposal guidelines). Keep a proper lab notebook too. You never know when it might help in the future or look great at an interview.

But you probably know most of that, right? Just curious, how much formal chem education have you had? I've did a full year of college organic and inorganic plus honors study this last year. I'm a little rusty already, but feel free to ask me anything or PM if you start a cool thread.

In the words of my Lakota Medicine man mentor:" speed costs money; how fast do you wanna get there?" but in all seriousness I am due to start college in January if that help in answering your question. seems my biggest block is funding...eh join the club it seems.
I suppose some might not take me seriously since I am not in or associated with a major university but by this point that is nothing new. regardless I go on.