Australia's Science Forum

Missed my anniversary, 16th May 2006. This forum and you lot out there are what keeps a little sanity in my day. If I need cheering up I go to joke of the day or reread some of the posts in the staff tearoom and know that I am not alone in dealing with the day to day crises in lab land. If I need in...

I get most of my SDS from the ChemSupply website. It is quick and easy and most of my chemicals are sourced from there by the supplier that I use. Other easy sources for SDS are ThermoFisher Scientific and Sigma-Aldrich. Also Scharlau (lots of background writing on the printouts) and ScienceLab.com ...

My chemical register is set out on excel spreadsheet. Each class of chemical is set out on different spreadsheets. So Class 3 chemicals have a separate spreadsheet to Class 8 and so on. There is also a separate spreadsheet for the no class (nc) chemicals and separate spreadsheet for indicators. I do...

I have this listed in my favourites section and have no problems getting this site on screen. Other than that I can't help you. Have you tried adding it again to your favourites selection after getting it up on Google?

Being here in the Northern Territory I have used different suppliers from all round the country. It depends what you need to source and who specialises in what you might need. The Science Assist site has a comprehensive list of suppliers across the country and shows what they might supply. Check the...

Some parts of that site are accessible but if you start browsing there are a number of areas that come up with "ERROR". So if you require more access you would probably need to login. But for now there seems to be limited access just to chemical information with CSIS and that banned chemic...

I have just looked at this site and the banned chemical list that is there, and if you go to the bottom of that list (after Z) it says the list was last updated 0n the 19/2/2020. So I don't think it is dark ages stuff. Thanks for the link Mel. It will be quite useful. I've already put it on my favor...

Now if I had only gone to Science Assist to start with I wouldn't have spent so much time looking for info on EUD's. Cause there it was at the bottom of their response about potassium iodide, the very document that I thought I had been so clever to find on the internet. :coffee: Anyhow the informati...

Check this site out : EUD - Science Industry Australia. There is a document there that outlines chemicals and equipment and the requirement of EUD's for different categories. Cat 1 chemicals require an EUD for each purchase and can only be sold to 'account customers'. Cat 2 chemicals - if you are an...

It would have to be your administration (business manager) who would be responsible for providing an EUD if required. If you are ordering chemicals using a school order number I don't see why you would need to provide an EUD. Are you ordering from a different supplier than usual? Thirty odd years ag...

An ordinary glass trough will do. As long as the pieces of alkaline metal (sodium) are about rice grain size and you set up a safety screen for the teacher demonstration. We no longer have lithium metal in stock and in the thirty nine years I have been here I have never seen potassium metal being us...

Seems everyone is too busy to say hello or still adjusting from holiday mode. Anyhow welcome back to all you lab persons out there. Looking forward to sharing the ups and downs of lab life with you again, along with all the useful information that you lot have acquired and are prepared to share with...

Silver Nitrate has an indefinite shelf life according to a document on chemical shelf life which I have downloaded off the internet. I use this as a generalised guide for my chemical storage. I have some old stock of silver nitrate which I am still using. I am using the demineralised water that you ...

Are the red rubber teats available on the Westlab site not the right size for what you require? Seems only logical to check what our lab tech site benefactor has to offer.

Look online for Phillip Crisp who developed the Risk Assess program. You will find that he was very much involved with the CSIS but has obviously branched out to develop a program which is very relevant to lab technicians. I would suggest that the information in Risk Assess is far more up to date th...

Lab coats became an OH&S issue for us many years back so we got around the expense issue by buying second hand lab coats. They served the purpose. A number of the coats were from the food and hospitality area so they came with name tags and assorted logos but they kept the kids clean and safe fr...

Go to Science Assist. They have a document - Guidelines for best practice for Microbiology in Australian schools - with SOP's on handling a range of microbial growths etc. I have just had a quick browse through the document and it covers pretty much all that we have to deal with when students are do...

Yes I did check Science Assist for that information. I would probably use kerosene as a last resort if there was no other option until such time as a supply of paraffin was available. Question: I have paraffin (heavy) and paraffin (light). Does anyone know what the difference is? Have been reluctant...

Don't cut it up until you have liquid to store it under. Kerosene will work if you don't have any paraffin oil for storage. Once it is cut and exposed to air any moisture will make it burn violently. I would probably advise never to cut sodium into smaller pieces without storing straight away into t...

I just use the Meker burner as it is. Just sit it on a heat mat and rotate the glass rods over the top of the flame until it gets red hot and then gently roll it on the heat mat and try to squash the end a little while the glass is still pliable. Take extreme care when doing this as you don't want t...