Surplus Lab Equipment?

theunforgiv3n asks: "We have recently been doing some cool science experiments, in school. Being the geeky type, I am looking to recreate some of these at home. To do this, I am looking for a good place to order some surplus laboratory equipment like flasks, non-gas Bunsen burners, and tubing (glass and plastic). Price isn't a big issue but I don't really want to spend a lot of money on this. So tell me Slashdot, where do you order your science equipment?"

Comments

Beware Big Brother

[Spock the Baptist]

In my neck of the woods the drug task force is on the look out for folks ordering lab equipment. They tend to think that they're running a meth lab.

Re:Beware Big Brother

[El]

I assume this is part of the new Ashcroft "Use a chemistry set, go to jail!" initiative?

Re:Beware Big Brother

[Anonymous Coward]

Because, like it or not, he is the Cheif Law Enforcement Officer of the Federal Government. If ordering a Erlenmeyer gets a couple of Feds at your front door, it is ultimately Ashcroft behind it. If Janet Reno started it, who cares ? Ashcroft could have stopped it if he had an ounce of morality in his bible thumping ass. But we diselected Reno and her crew. There is no current problem that could not have been solved in the last three years (and that includes catching Osama and Jeff Skilling).

Scavengers

[Leffe]

You could always go scavenging, remember the MIT guy that built the fusion reactor, he found his plasma accelerator(or insert some other fancy tech stuff that is impossible to find while scavenging) while scavenging.

I found a DVD player by accident, yay! I haven't checked if it works yet though, it's quite dirty, smells strange and doesn't include any cables :/

Local University/National Laboratory

[muon1183]

I know that universities and labs are often looking to get rid of old equipment in order to make room for new equipment, so they often sell older stuff for very low prices, sometimes even free. For example, a couple of months ago, one of the national laboratories associated with my university was looking to get rid of some older equipment, which included a cray supercomputer (LN2 cooled, so you needed a ready supply) and several NMR setups. While these items were rather large (ie room-sized), I'm sure they were giving away smaller stuff too. Just check out your local university, especially any departments which have buildings being renovated or are otherwise moving.

Local Colleges?

[Eosha]

In my experience, the best way to get equiptment is to make friends with a college professor. Call it a mentorship, faculty advisor, whatever, but get to be their friend. At least at my school (Iowa State) there're many basement rooms stuffed floor to ceiling with old, used, perfectly serviceable stuff. If you're lucky, your professor friend will be happy to be looking the other direction when you find something you want. If you feel like being slightly more legal, you might ask the department if they'd be willing to sell some of the stuff to you.

eBay is your friend.

[rossifer]

Build yourself whatever you like from eBay purchases. What you'll find is usually either generic (new, cheap, microscopes from China) or not under warranty or damaged (get two and piece them together) but it's usually dirt cheap and functional. I built a rather nice darkroom for 33% of the price of new gear with eBay sourced items.

Be public about it and don't worry too much about Big Brother. Meth labs have a conspicuous smell and you're only likely to attract police attention if there is other evidence to tie you to a local drug trade.

If you are planning to make illegal substances, then the eBay purchases will be one more public record that will be used against you in court. But my advice assumes that you are what you say you are, so eBay should be a great resource for you.

Regards,
Ross