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Author: Subject: Homemade and Repurposed Lab Gear
Morgan
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Here's a fused quartz sphere repurposed into a feeder. It's nice in that after you tap it to get the solution all the way down it stops dripping yet continues to feed unlike most feeders that drip off and on. I have a pinhole in the top of a coke bottle and inverted it will drip constantly every few seconds. Somehow air skirts in around the tiny hole. It's curious how some shapes won't work and others with 10 times as big a hole do. The nature of surface tension, air bubbles, gravity, and partial vacuums makes for some challenging riddles on how liquids flow.
You can make reverse images with it or start a fire too, another use as a lens.

Morgan
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Yesterday I fiddled around in the garage and came across some magnet clamps purchased from Enco and thrift store stands bought a few years back. One stand was from a fireplace utensil set where a stoker, broom, shovel and tongs hung from. Another some lamp base or such and another mystery stand.

The other parts are an old curtain rod I had with a curl or hook at the end, some V-shaped fixture that held a light bulb, and odd little square beam clamps bought at a habitat for humanity store that accepts 1/4 20 screws in 3 places and a smaller screw in another plus some holes - maybe not all that useful here, but an afterthought.

The last parts are some fixtures or branch pole things for the magnet bases that are all iron or steel except for the knobs that sleeve over nuts underneath. In a way they are reminiscent of ring stand parts. Its curious how the outermost hole tightens first and then the inner, kind of unusual to get used to. The outermost holes are two sizes if you have rods/poles that match the diameters.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1084866-REG/platinum_...

This hodgepodge isn't all that great or ideal, but was a start cobbled together from dissimilar parts just to see what might evolve.
Now to find some fingers of some sort I guess ...

The small 3-legged stand is another object bought at the thrift store and an old ~12 inch diameter glass stoplight lens which is now a little bird bath.

[Edited on 21-9-2019 by Morgan]
earpain
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 Quote: Originally posted by yobbo II How would you know they are borosilicate? Yob

This is a question I have faced a lot in my days of DIY glasswork.
1. With tubing or bottles/flasks, if you hold the bottle up to the light above you, so that the walls of the bottle are seen along your line of sight, if you will see a green tint, it is soda-lime aka soft glass. If it still looks completely transparent with no color tint, it is likely boro.

Another test that is even more reliable:
Take two similar pieces of glass, one being the glass in question, the other being a piece that you know for sure is borosilicate. When i say similar I mean, ends are both rod with similar diameter, or ends are both tube(mouth) with similar diameter and similar thickness.

Rotate both over a propane/mapp gas or oxy/propane torch and fuse them together properly like you would normally when creating a weld.

If the mystery piece is not borosilicate, basically upon cooling EVERYTHING in or near the joint will crack, pretty dramatically.
wg48temp9
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 Quote: Originally posted by Morgan Here's a fused quartz sphere repurposed into a feeder. It's nice in that after you tap it to get the solution all the way down it stops dripping yet continues to feed unlike most feeders that drip off and on. I have a pinhole in the top of a coke bottle and inverted it will drip constantly every few seconds. Somehow air skirts in around the tiny hole. It's curious how some shapes won't work and others with 10 times as big a hole do. The nature of surface tension, air bubbles, gravity, and partial vacuums makes for some challenging riddles on how liquids flow. You can make reverse images with it or start a fire too, another use as a lens.

There should be a law about that, using a fused quartz flask as a bird feeder should be criminal especially for sm members LOL

i am wg48 but not on my usual pc hence the temp handle.
wg48temp9
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 Quote: Originally posted by earpain This is a question I have faced a lot in my days of DIY glasswork. 1. With tubing or bottles/flasks, if you hold the bottle up to the light above you, so that the walls of the bottle are seen along your line of sight, if you will see a green tint, it is soda-lime aka soft glass. If it still looks completely transparent with no color tint, it is likely boro.

I have re-purposed bulb growing glasses and coffee beakers because they looked looked clear with no green tint. I placed one of the bulb growing glasses containing a coolish solution on a temperature controlled hot plate (~80C) and it cracked across the base. That suggests its not boro.

A few days ago I purchased some glass coffee mugs from a charity shop. The first one I examined appeared clear but the second identical one had a very distinct green tint.

Expensive bottles of clear spirits tend to not to have significant green tints and decorative glass items tend to be clear almost no green tint.
You can probably be confident (>90%) that if there is a green tint its not boro. But if its clear its very weak evidence that it is boro.

i am wg48 but not on my usual pc hence the temp handle.
Morgan
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My repurposed synthetic ruby rod/hummingbird perch passed the test today. The rod is supported by 2 clear fused quartz tubes with blue silicone tubing and the male ruby-throated hummingbird is sipping from a borosilicate drinking straw. Only when he ruffles his feathers or the sun hits him just right can you see his iridescent ruby throat.
The perch was fashioned after seeing a simple design such as this. I happened to have an odd single red wooden ball in the garage which was fortuitous and the ruby rod bought on eBay years ago.
https://www.bestnest.com/bestnest/RTProduct.asp?SKU=SOE-SEHH...
https://www.sibleyguides.com/2011/09/the-basics-of-iridescen...

[Edited on 28-9-2019 by Morgan]
earpain
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Quote: Originally posted by wg48temp9
 Quote: Originally posted by earpain This is a question I have faced a lot in my days of DIY glasswork. 1. With tubing or bottles/flasks, if you hold the bottle up to the light above you, so that the walls of the bottle are seen along your line of sight, if you will see a green tint, it is soda-lime aka soft glass. If it still looks completely transparent with no color tint, it is likely boro.

I have re-purposed bulb growing glasses and coffee beakers because they looked looked clear with no green tint. I placed one of the bulb growing glasses containing a coolish solution on a temperature controlled hot plate (~80C) and it cracked across the base. That suggests its not boro.

A few days ago I purchased some glass coffee mugs from a charity shop. The first one I examined appeared clear but the second identical one had a very distinct green tint.

Expensive bottles of clear spirits tend to not to have significant green tints and decorative glass items tend to be clear almost no green tint.
You can probably be confident (>90%) that if there is a green tint its not boro. But if its clear its very weak evidence that it is boro.

Hmm, you may be indeed be correct, and I'll have to revise my system.
Candy thermometers. $3-$5 at the food store. There's no kitchen thermometer sold that has such a wide range of temps. I have bought them before, removed the metallic element fused to the glass on the bottom, along with the capillary tube that shows the temperature, and then worked the remaining wide, but very very thin walled tube.

If it is borosilicate, once I'm both flame working and turning it into various devices, or auxillary glassblowing devices(temporary handle, extension tube, etc.) - it is the WORST I've ever worked with. I have flameworked soft/flint glass more reliably than these thermometers.

I suppose there is an application in mind when a glassware is designed. All glass that is not quartz has something added to it mostly just to lower its working temperature, not everyone has Oxy-Acetylene or mega-kilns handy.

Perhaps the non-green tinted glass that cracked on you, cracked for reasons unrelated to what metals or salts were added to the glass 'stew'? Like with candy thermometers. Surely they must technically be borosilicate. Not sure why they are so finicky.
3 general types of clear glass(in terms of material):
soda-lime
borosilicate

And then there's a plethora of structural factors, and considerations for the items application. In general I would discourage chemists to repurpose or DIY glassware unless they also have some proper training in glasswork. Scientific glass is definitely the most versatile and robust.
wg48temp9
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Here is a pic of the two coffee glasses side by side. The green tint of the right hand one is distinct. Of cause although they looked identical and come with identical metal housings (removed for the pic) I am not certain they are. I also swapped the position of the glasses incase the green tint was from a nearby object.

This is weak evidence as I am assuming they are identical as they were purchased together. Apparently the the green color comes from iron impurities in the material used to make the glass. So these must have been made from different batches of material.

This particular green tint seems more emerald green than the dull green tint I usually see in bottle glass.

Here is a pic of two tall vases and a boro 2l measuring cylinder from Fisher Scientific (right lower). All three are about 0.8m tall. The left hand vase is dark with a hint of green, the top vase has a slight dull green tint and the boro cylinder is lighter with almost no color. I assume the vases are soda glass. All three appear clear when viewed from the side.

Sorry the pic is poor quality it was taken under fluorescent lighting in the bathroom having just rinsed off the dust.

PS I got lucky when I won the measuring cylinder on ebay no one else bid on it so it was very cheap. Its very impressive given it is almost a meter long. I am still trying to buy a stopper for it that does not cost more than I paid for it.

[Edited on 10/1/2019 by wg48temp9]

i am wg48 but not on my usual pc hence the temp handle.
Yttrium2
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Anyone know of where to find borosilicate bulbs/tubes?

Besides HID lighting -- for a diy flask
earpain
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 Quote: Originally posted by Yttrium2 Anyone know of where to find borosilicate bulbs/tubes? Besides HID lighting -- for a diy flask

Do NOT buy from Chemistry Equipment vendors.
Do not buy from coffee shops with their new boro glass straw trend(\$5 for 8in tube)