Chemical store Room

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kimmy
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School: Quirindi High School
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Chemical store Room

Post by kimmy »

Doing a big clean up in Chemical Store Room.
Making sure everything is in the correct order and on correct shelf/tray.

Just curious how everyone stores there chemicals and in what order do you have everything.

Mine are in there appropriate groups, I also have acids separate, and also a flammable cabinet. My dropper bottles are also all together along with solutions that are already made up.

Just wondering what everyone else does and how there store room is set our. Photos would be great.
We have the Gratnells Storage Frames and shelves which I think are great.

:coffee: :thumbup:
Merilyn1
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by Merilyn1 »

Separate your dangerous goods category ie oxidisers away from flammable. Corrosive acids away from corrosive bases. That sort of thing, but sounds like you're already there.
I then keep solids above liquids. So, for example, oxidiser solids are above the solutions. I also store the droppers in this area as well. Not all solutions are hazardous, so the storage of these doesn't need to follow any protocol, however, I usually keep them together in their original classification so I can easily find them. So 0.1M sodium hydroxide, is still stored with the corrosive bases.
My only deviation to this is I store all the dropper bottles of indicators together. None are incompatible but some are flammable. They are away from oxidisers and still kept in the locked chem store but are in small quantities. It's just easier to find them this way. Probably not entirely correct, but the auditor didn't say anything.
I'll take some photos later today and post. Not in that part of the college at the moment.
ottenc
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by ottenc »

Bump! I'd love to see some pictures of other peoples chem stores! Ours is mostly organised, but still ends up very cluttered and I can't always find what I'm looking for. I'd love to see if there's some fantastic organisation systems out there that I could copy :wink2:
I'd attach a picture of my current set up, but can't figure out how! :rolleyes:
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macca
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by macca »

This is a map of mine, attached. I'm lucky enough to have a separate chemical room for diluted chemicals.
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Last edited by macca on 02 May 2022, 14:32, edited 1 time in total.
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macca
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by macca »

Diluted chemical room
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ottenc
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by ottenc »

macca wrote: 02 May 2022, 14:27 This is a map of mine, attached. I'm lucky enough to have a separate chemical room for diluted chemicals.
I love your diluted chemical store. So empty and organised :clap3:

But I have to admit, just looking at the map of your general store makes my head spin. Is each section a shelf? How do you ever find anything :?
ottenc
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by ottenc »

Image

Finally figured out how to attach a picture! Not shown are my oxidising cabinet and flammables cabinet, which pretty much organise themselves. This is everything else, including all my dilutions, as well as random stuff like crushed chalk, sea sand, floor cleaner, etc. that teachers use for pracs. The small bottles and jars are the solids and solutions used for pracs, so if a teacher is running a prac with 8 groups, I can just grab 8 bottles of whatever they need. All of these are sorted in alphabetical order.

If anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them!
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macca
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by macca »

But I have to admit, just looking at the map of your general store makes my head spin. Is each section a shelf? How do you ever find anything :?
[/quote]

Yes each section is a shelf, it's habit now. Plus I have a copy of Register on the door, both in classification order and alphabetical. The last time I was audited they insisted I have alphabetical as well. :crazy:
Merilyn1
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by Merilyn1 »

ottenc wrote: 02 May 2022, 11:03 Bump! I'd love to see some pictures of other peoples chem stores! Ours is mostly organised, but still ends up very cluttered and I can't always find what I'm looking for. I'd love to see if there's some fantastic organisation systems out there that I could copy :wink2:
I'd attach a picture of my current set up, but can't figure out how! :rolleyes:
Had a look at your photo and would be trying really hard to remove anything that doesn't need to be in there. It looks like you have rock and mineral kits stored in there? Try to move them out. Do you have anywhere else to store the glassware? Once you are a bit more familiar with what is getting used, have a clean out and get rid of solutions that don't get used in a 12 month period. These things could all help with creating a bit more space. It is critical to have the chem store arranged so everything is accessible.

I would also get rid of the margarine and ice cream containers. Although the chemicals are directly stored in them, which is clearly against the law, just using these containers for storing bottles and jars of things is a bit of a grey area so I would get rid of them. Buying a heap of trays that all look the same will make it look a bit neater.

For the specimen jars of chemicals, I bought some trays from Bunnings (Boxsweden 20x14x7.5cm Crystal Storage Container) which easily hold 8 specimen jars - for us, that is a class set.

Chip away at it, you probably won't be able to get it all done in one week! But you will feel happier when it is easier to find things.
ottenc
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by ottenc »

Had a look at your photo and would be trying really hard to remove anything that doesn't need to be in there. It looks like you have rock and mineral kits stored in there? Try to move them out. Do you have anywhere else to store the glassware? Once you are a bit more familiar with what is getting used, have a clean out and get rid of solutions that don't get used in a 12 month period. These things could all help with creating a bit more space. It is critical to have the chem store arranged so everything is accessible.

I would also get rid of the margarine and ice cream containers. Although the chemicals are directly stored in them, which is clearly against the law, just using these containers for storing bottles and jars of things is a bit of a grey area so I would get rid of them. Buying a heap of trays that all look the same will make it look a bit neater.

For the specimen jars of chemicals, I bought some trays from Bunnings (Boxsweden 20x14x7.5cm Crystal Storage Container) which easily hold 8 specimen jars - for us, that is a class set.

Chip away at it, you probably won't be able to get it all done in one week! But you will feel happier when it is easier to find things.
Theres a heap of stuff I'd like to move out of there. But my predecessor hated throwing anything, so I'm having to clean up the main lab first to find space to fit anything. Thanks for the suggestion of the tubs. The clear tubs would be great. I'd love to do something like that, but as its my first year, I'm not sure how much of the budget I have to play with, so I'll probably have to wait and see how much is left towards the end of the year. It may take me a few years to get the whole store done :lol:
Merilyn1
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by Merilyn1 »

Yes, that photo does have that feel of not throwing anything out. Usually most schools will find a few extra dollars for WHS related issues if you don't have enough in your budget.
If you want any help or advice with budgets, happy for you to email me. I will PM my email address.
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Anna Z
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School: DET Secondary School
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by Anna Z »

I also had issues with a Chemstore inherited with a lot of 'stuff' that was not needed. It took me 2 years to get it cleaned out and slowly using school dollars. My first year I had a $2000 waste disposal bill. I hated it and there was noting I could do about it. It will NEVER get to that point again. 12 years of crap and really really nasty chemicals that had never been risk assessed let alone the msds read to see if they should be there. I even found about 3 bottles of stuff that you can only have under license.
jackcr03
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by jackcr03 »

Anna Z wrote: 14 May 2022, 08:53 I also had issues with a Chemstore inherited with a lot of 'stuff' that was not needed. It took me 2 years to get it cleaned out and slowly using school dollars. My first year I had a $2000 waste disposal bill. I hated it and there was noting I could do about it. It will NEVER get to that point again. 12 years of crap and really really nasty chemicals that had never been risk assessed let alone the msds read to see if they should be there. I even found about 3 bottles of stuff that you can only have under license.


Who did you use for the chemical waste disposal. I've requested a quote from Veolia (back in March 22) and have not had any responses. Just rang and they had closed the request! I am based in Newcastle.
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Anna Z
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by Anna Z »

I am in Vic, we use Cleanaway Daniels
Merilyn1
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by Merilyn1 »

We use Cleanway (not to be confused with CleanAway). Been easy to deal with.
jackcr03
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by jackcr03 »

Merilyn1 wrote: 25 Jul 2022, 14:54 We use Cleanway (not to be confused with CleanAway). Been easy to deal with.
Were they expensive? Got a ridiculous quote from Veolia (and they took 5 mths to even supply that quote).
Merilyn1
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by Merilyn1 »

jackcr03 wrote: 04 Aug 2022, 09:45
Merilyn1 wrote: 25 Jul 2022, 14:54 We use Cleanway (not to be confused with CleanAway). Been easy to deal with.
Were they expensive? Got a ridiculous quote from Veolia (and they took 5 mths to even supply that quote).
I'll PM you, so people don't look at this in 10 years time and complain about the price!
We don't pay for chemical waste out of our Science budget, comes out of waste disposal budget, so I deal with the people who are reasonably priced and pretty good to deal with. They weren't super quick getting a quote back to me but not five month wait!
labbassistant
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by labbassistant »

Hi all!

I've been organising our chemstore and was wondering if anyone else has Iron (II) chloride? It isn't listed in CSIS, and chemwatch has it as class 8 so that's where I'll be storing it, just wanted to confirm with others this is correct? It's not listed? And do you have it in your school?
bigmack
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by bigmack »

We don't have it but I would agree with class 8.
Ferrous Chloride.png
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Merilyn1
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Re: Chemical store Room

Post by Merilyn1 »

Riskassess says DGC 8 (corrosive) and it is strongly acidic. So corrosive acids. I store our's on a top shelf above liquids in the corrosive acids cupboard. The SDS should be your go to, but some of the incompatibility advice can be a bit cryptic.
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