Australia's Science Forum

Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen to me too. I can just see their faces about the same height as the bunsen on the bench, with the tripod above and the conical flask on top. Agree with Jen2, plenty of other stuff to do without iviting disaster.

That is so cheap! Be interesting to see if they sell the fluid to go in it. Apparently the school has a machine but no fluid. Cheers

I think oven cleaner would be the only solution on the metal of the hotplates. If the burnt sugar is in a beaker, I soak them in NaOH solution and they come clean but you could hardly do that to the hotplates. I have often used stainless steel scourers to clean hotplates, but never 10 of them!

No, this is the responsibility of the Head Teacher. I just spend what I can, which in the past has been a reasonable budget, but now and next year will be very paltry.

to Jazz..I've got written down in my storage of chemical don'ts: Alcohols not near Glacial Acetic Acid. So I have my Acetic acid on a separate shelf in my acid bay.

HCl will fume all the time and therefore corrode. Can't stop it. I try to minimise the escape of the fumes by putting glad wrap around the cap and a plastic bag over the spout on the 20l drum. Stand your winchester bottles on ceramic dishes.

...phew Graham, that is a lot of effort. I must admit I would probably wrap up the stuff in newspaper and bin it for landfill, right or wrong!

Serrata used to get their rocks from Geological Specimen Supplies. It is just a matter of either dealing direct or through a retailer like Serrata.

Sorry...I just saw this post. The name I was given for rock supplies is John Hewitt, 363 Rowbotham Street Toowoombah, 4350, QLD. 074635 0280. I believe he bought the long standing business of Geological Specimen Supplies, that supplied lots of educational institutions, that was based at Turramurra i...

I agree with Lada. Ours is as old, but works. I have about 2cm of the powder covering the bottom of the winchester and filled with water. This would be at least 10 years old and still works.

Me too, fibreweb

Melting their electronic brains sounds good to me! Keep it up and good luck Smiley. Your're positive attitude and sense of humour will win out and beat the beasties.

Yes that was the brand of the old ones. And yes, I think I did buy the new one from Serrata, and they fitted into the old stand. Mind you I am talking over 13 years ago!

You might be best to replace the lot. When I replaced ours a long time ago, I vaguely remember the head teacher saying at the time that the effectiveness of the pressure in the tubes reduces over time. So better to get new ones all at once. That is providing that the ones you have left are all quite...

Only did some the other day. Pushed in 2 or 3 cms. Heated all together and squeezed with pliers. Are you using nicrome wire? Try a different sort of wire maybe if you think that may be the problem.

Thanks for the Youtube clip. It is definitely impressive, even sounds like a rattler. But much better on the film as I was thinking of the fumes and cleanup.

Well the chemical is very toxic as are most mercuy compounds. I wouldn't want to handle it either. Does the experiment need to be done for the syllabus? I doubt it. Therefore, suggest that an alternate experiment be done. Or is the teacher one of the mad professor types, that don't listen to reason?...

Yes...nothing changed. Any use of body products is a no go.

Do you mean the font size? I used to edit all labels, by right click, select all, copy and paste to a word document. Then you can do what you want.

I would be just making a fresh batch of NaOH. Its not like it is an expensive chemical really.