Lab Equipment Repair: Broken Stirrer Encoder Disc in Hotplate Stirrer

In this video i repair the broken stirrer in my hotplate stirrer. Turns out the encoder disk snapped so to "fix" it i just glued it back in place.

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[NurdRage]

Greetings fellow nerds. I've made a machine that lets you read this comment in my voice.

I'm thinking of changing up my format that if i have simple stuff, like fixing a hotplate and making sulfur dioxide, i post a few of them in separate videos at once rather than one long video. That way it's easier to search for on youtube. And by posting a couple at once, you get more value for your time. So today, it's broken stirrer repair and sulfur dioxide.

[DThorn]

Simple, straightforward, videos without a bunch of unnecessary build up are always appreciated.

[Leadvest]

I think it's important to show how easy it is to repair things once you understand their operation. I used to repair salvaged equipment, and most of the time cleaning and assembly is most of the work involved.

[MarinusMakesStuff]

Please make more of these videos. It is always better to inspire people to repair instead of throw away! :)

[KurtCollier]

there are entire channels dedicated to fixing/restoring broken and old gear. I am 100% confident that there is an audience for this content. As someone who likes those rebuilding/repairing channels to some degree- I really liked this video. I could see some folks considering this stuff as being boring or uninteresting, but I think it is a perfect video type to complement your current catalogue. If you restored an old rocking chair, that would be stupid- but you repaired one of the most common pieces of equipment that chemistry people deal with. Since a lot of chemists and chemistry interested people are not engineers or repair techs, this video could help a lot of folks out!

[waynecribbs]

Showing people how to fix their own stuff is extremely valuable! Please keep going!

[cavemaneca]

I love your dedication towards keeping these things running. I just wish more things we used these days could be repaired, and that more people cared to fix stuff instead of just buying a new one.

[npiper]

It's good to talk about these things. Setting up a lab isn't cheap and salvaging equipment is something that requires a fair bit of confidence, confidence that you can help with these videos.

[drussell_]

It is interesting even just to see the types of failures that occur in a certain piece of lab gear...
It is very helpful just to even see inside some of these things and understand the feature-set and build quality for some of us amateurs who are just looking to buy various basic gear, especially if it's your first stirring hotplate, for example, to help grok the differences between various available units... 😀
Thanks, man. Keep up the great work! 👍

[jasonpatterson]

Yes, it made sense and was a useful thing to show. It's not going to be on my NurdRage videos to rewatch 10 times list, but it's interesting to see how it works and how it went bad, as well as how easily it was fixed.

[rex-upln]

As a chemist who's also into electronics, it is rare to find a fellow chemist who can also fix their electronic lab equipment. Take my bow.

[roundsrapid]

Repair videos are always worthwhile. For all its negatives, teaching people how to fix things is one of the real positives of YouTube.

[TheDarkelvenangel]

Showing the repair no matter how simple is something that is helpful to those that might otherwise not even attempt it. Showing that the repair doesn't have to be perfect is also great to see.

[EdwinWiles]

For the amateur chemist with limited funds, knowing what you can and cannot do with less-than-perfect equipment is a must. Please produce more of these videos.

[truls]

i love simple lab equipmeent videos; most of us labrats are quite pragmatic, and fixing tiny tissues like this is always appreciated. I'd love more videos like this, with a deep dive in the simplicity of how regular lab tech works (ice machines, heaters, washing machines, autoclaves ect.).

[LordRaa]

I feel that this video was useful, as it shows the insides of a hot plate stirrer and how it functions., and when you've seen the inside of a device, you've got a better chance of diagnosing a fault with it.

[NotAPreppie]

Yes, please include more lab basics videos like these. They are incredibly useful to people just starting their careers.

I've been running my lab solo with a wide variety of instruments (GC, HPLC, combustion analyzers, etc) for 7 years now and when I describe my work to larval chemists (read: undergrads and early grad students) they are often surprised about how much I know how to do despite only having a BSc. I tell them that I'm perfectly happy to disassemble broken equipment because I can't break it any further and there's a non-zero chance I can make it work again. Disassemble and (sometimes) repair enough things and you start to get a really good general understanding of how things work. Getting comfortable with a screwdriver and a wrench is incredibly liberating and empowering.

[Mezuzah]

I work in a lab and never opened a hotplate/stirrer. I learned things and was entertained throughout. 10/10.

[blakewerner]

i enjoyed it, before i retired i spent much of my career either keeping lab equipment running, or making it. and i have to say that was a very clever solution to the problem. thank you

[charlessansom]

You asked if it was worth watching this video. Well yes, of course it is. It’s from videos like this that people are inspired to do it themselves when they can see that some things just aren’t that hard. I had a Cimarec Thermoline stirrer and a Cimarec Thermoline hot plate. Got these from a lab that shut down. Opening them up I saw that the frame was built to house all the components for a hot plate/stirrer. I took all the stirrer guts and installed them into the hot plate housing and the only modification was to the plastic faceplate where I had to drill a hole for the stirrer control. Videos like this were my inspiration to try it. You’ve worked on hot plates on this channel before and we’re successful with your repairs. Yes, we can do it. You help with that. You’ve inspired me to try things in chemistry I’d never have tried on my own. And you shown your failures too. That tells the rest of us that failure happens. Sometimes you just have to try again. And maybe even again. So you keep it up and I’ll guarantee we’ll watch, enjoy and learn from whatever you post.