Finding Chemicals And Labware | Home Lab Setup

Surprisingly, a lot of useful chemicals can be found at your everyday supermarket! And in this video, I'll be showing you a few of the most useful ones you can find.

I know this video is a bit different, but I figured it would still be worth posting, since a recent poll I did showed a lot of people wanted me to make a video on this topic. More videos to come soon, and of much better quality!

Where I get my glassware:

My hotplate/stirrer:

A few good distillation kits (bottom one is the one I own):

Some "honorable mention" chemicals that didn't make it into my video:

Magnesium - firestarters
Phosphorus - match striker pads (some workup may be required)
Nitrous oxide - empty whipped cream cans
Cyanuric acid - pool chlorine stabilizer
Sodium hydroxide - 100% lye crystal drain opener
Potassium chloride - non-sodium salt
Calcium chloride - "pickle crisp" granules
Sodium bicarbonate - baking soda
Acetylsalicylic acid - aspirin tablets (workup required)
Vanillin - vanilla extract (workup required)
Crude benzaldehyde - almond/cherry extract (workup required)
Sodium bisulfate - pool/pond pH increaser
Copper sulfate - root killer/fungicide (available at Home Depot and Lowes...maybe Walmart too)

[djdrack]

I should note that in the 60s There were plenty of chemical supply companies and even kids could buy any quantity of it: buying a small or large spice sized container of Thorium compounds, Mercury, etc.

I know this cuz I have a 'antique' collection from a guy that would also get his supplies from the same place and said he was always in line with kids. Being 60yrs old I was going to create a YT series showcasing the supplies and performing tests on them to see what ones have held up, which have degraded, etc.

[quanticthinking]

EU lawmakers figured sulfuric acid can be useful for making explosives so they decided to ban the sale of 10%< concentration to private customers. Battery acid is banned for normals here. There are workarounds but im sure someone ill intentioned will find it easy to just steal an old car battery. Adding that its somehow fairly trivial to concentrate and purify its just a pain to do regularly.. funny the price stayed the same for 1L bottle but it was 98% compared to 10% now..

[doogandoggin]

I'm 50 yo and just started exploring chemistry. It has always been a desire but I just always was to busy to dive in. I was thinking about setting up a small lab and this video was perfect. Thank you and I'll be watching more of you.

[barbedwireisgood]

Magnesium firestarters in the camping section have a block of solid magnesium and a rod of ferocerium metal as a source for rare earth metals.
In the cooking section there is alum, sodium chloride(probably want non iodised), potassium chloride (sodium free salt alternative) and potassium bitartrate (cream of tartar). Polyethylene glycol can be found in the pharmaceutical section. Sodium tetraborate can be found in the laundry section as Borax and makes a nice green color in the flame test(best result is with boric acid from roach killer and methanol from HEET, gives a perfectly green flame without the sodium ions). At the hardware store copper sulfate can be found as a root killer(fairly pure blue crystals that work great for electroplating) and potassium permangenate can be found in the water treatment section(fairly expensive here, about $15-30 a bottle).

[Stoneman]

Look out, mate. Apparently YouTube is on another vendetta against chemtubers, so stay safe and keep things as inert as possible for the sake of your channel.

[flyback_driver]

Not particularly chemistry related but when you talked about the batteries it reminded me. Some batteries have a solid carbon rod in the center. I don't know exactly what they would be called but I know they are never the alkaline batteries. They tend to be the cheapest ones as well. Handy if you are doing any projects with arcs.

[alexdinoman]

I go to lows all the time for the potassium Nitrate, Sugar rockets are so fun

[Enjoymentboy]

Nice tips. The only thing I would add is to stock up when you can as some of these can suddenly become very hard to find or the prices skyrocket without warning. I've dealt with that too many times. The key though is to do it in such a way as to not arouse suspicion. Last year I cleaned out my local hardware store of H2SO4 drain opener after I found out they were no longer going to carry it once their stock ran out. Every few days I was in there and grabbed 4 or 5 bottles at a time along with a bunch of plumbing fittings. I'd go back and return the fittings, get more bottles and more fittings and repeat the process. 20 or so litres later I had all of their stock and now I have enough to last me pretty much for the rest of my life. I only need it for making HNO3 so the hard part now is the nitrate salts. Luckily I found a GREAT cheap source for Magnesium Nitrate dirt cheap.

[konkelen]

I can only imagine how many alerts you set off with that purchase at Walmart. Without question, Walmart is watching your purchases now lol 😂

[xfir]

damn i wish i lived in the USA the number of chemicals you get in a freaking hypermarket is insane. I can't even get the most basic chemicals

[BigMyz]

Oxalic acid in (bartender friend or something similarly named) in the cleaning section.

Copper sulfate as root remover

Kmno4 as aquarium clear

Found 100% ISO at a plumbing supply store

Hexamine in camping section or Army surplus stores as Instant camping stoves/fuel

Oxone at Wallyworld as pool shock. (Currently on discount ad of since it’s not pool season

[TheOneAndOnlyNeuromod]

You can find brominating compounds in pool supply. A lot of hot tubs using bromine instead of chlorine for disinfection.

[chanheosican]

Hotplates are insanely expensive 400 to 900 dollars and I do need 1 more. I recommend getting good quality hotplates from a chemistry supplier.

[Grak]

If you work for a company that has any kind of analytics lab, go through anything they throw away. I’ve found broken stuff in the garbage that cost a fraction of its new purchase price to restore to working operation. A fluke temperature probe that just had battery corrosion was in the trash. Fixed it for the cost of a few paper towels and some DI water. New price: $350. Fischer Scientific stirring hotplate in the garbage needed a new control board but the model was obsolete. Found another broken one on EBay for $100 and swapped the boards. New, that plate was almost $600. Never underestimate a company’s willingness to throw away what could be fixed.

[williamackerson_chemist]

Great to see you and i have been essentially buying the exact same products for the last 8yr... i miss the days of buying a gallon of dcm/methanol from the hardware store, but i can still find toluene every once in a while. That acid is good but my all time favorite at least here in Florida was Liquid Lightning – it was 93% and crystal clear sulfuric acid, but i have to order it on ebay now

[chanheosican]

For the chemistry I recommend having a supplier I have a supplier prolab scientific. Ebay and Etsy workd well for me but Prolab is a good choice. Also pharmacy for alcohol is quite good choice.

[noelandrew]

sadly stores here in NZ are not as full of the fun stuff, sulfuric acid is rare and expensive

[jamaicanxhoney]

You are so dope sir . Thank you for the information you provided for us im taken chemistry in college this help 😅so much . Thank you an may god bless you ❤.

[uncle_thulhu]

Just to add to that, besides lithium metal from lithium batteries and MnO² from alkaline batteries, you can also get carbon rods for electrodes from carbon batteries.

[Venaber]

so much thanks for where we can find all