Australia's Science Forum

I am at present relaying all the foam for the disillation set and extra we found heaps of glass ware
when we refurbished. I notice the last lot was cut roughly it didnt look the best to fit the different shapes of glass ware in Does any one have an idea how to cut or shape the foam. I would like to do a good job.
Lindy

We just have each set of equipment sitting in a photocopy paper box lid - no foam, nothing! Works for us though... They come out when needed and I take them straight to the benches. At the end of lessons, the equipment is all placed back in the lid and I take it to the prep room to clean up and dry (they usually come back pretty clean - sometimes what they are distilling burns in the flask but napisan generally fixes that...) and then back they go into the cupboard again. I stack 2 sets on top of each other and have a lid for 'spares' and when we run out of something I order a few more... We don't have many breakages, and certainly not from storage - most breakages happen during set-up and clean-up. I replace the box lids when they start to fall apart or look a bit weaker than they should...

Our distillation gear is in old drawers on the shelves in the chem store.
The round bottom flasks in one drawer,
Distilations columns in another
Condensers in another etc.
and I gather how many I need when I need them. As Rosalie said there are no breakage problems in storage, that occurs during use.

Wendy

Hey! My big opportunity to boast about how clever I am! (well, I thought it was clever, anyway). I made a "Hot Foam Knife" out of a block of wood (for the handle)( about 18mm x 50mm x 100mm), an old coat hanger, a length of NiChrome resistance wire and a screw. All items were from my equipment store. I drilled a hole length ways through the wooden block the diameter of the coathanger wire. I bent the coat hanger wire into a large arc, (the shape of a "pellican beak" - the bent wire keeps tension on the NiChrome wire)
One end of the Nichrome wire is attached to the end of the coathanger wire. The other end is attached to the screw, screwed into the wooden handle.
I attached the screw and the back end of the coathanger wire to a Lab Power supply set to about 6 volts and it worked a treat!!

A sharp "craft knife" also works well, but is nowhere as much fun!

regards
Ian

I know in the past a previous boss of mine used an electric carving knife to cut foam rubber. If you draw the shape of the glass piece on to the foam and then Saw it out using the carving knife it might work. I have used it for polystyrene before.

Have Fun
Lorrae

I use A4 or A3 boxes and sperate with bubble wrap. Works well. For the round bottom flasks I keep them in the boxes they came in.

Ian - have you thought to patent that??!! It looks heaps cool! It's a good thing you work in an environment that allows you to develop your inventing and engineering skills Shame I don't have the same way of thinking... So which bit does the cutting?

RosalieM wrote: I... So which bit does the cutting?

The thin bit of NiChrome wire gets VERY hot. (Its what the kids might use to make heating elements for heating water. You hold the "saw" like you would a fret saw in woodwork.
I think that similar things are commercially available from craft stores, but it's more fun to make it yourself. At only 6 volts, the risk is more in the hot wire than the electricity, still, I would not let anyone but myself use it. (especially the kids!!)

Ian

Unless there was a smarty pants who needed further "educating".