From: Josh Martin (martin.907@osu.edu)
Date: Wed Jan 23 2002 - 19:03:37 MST
I've been working towards building a lab in my basement for a while now.
Even more difficult in the transient life of a student apartment-renter.
I've found things that make it a lot cheaper and easier.
If you live near a large research university, go dumpster diving. I
make no claims as to the legality of this, but you can find good stuff
that labs are just throwing away. Even better, if you know someone in
one of the departments, you can have him or her watch out for stuff that
is getting tossed and let you rifle through it first.
I know this list usually has a bias against all things Scientific
American, but their "Amateur Scientist" CDROM really does have some
great stuff in it, especially from back before a lot of it was
less-than-legal. It contains all 72 years of the "Amateur Scientist"
section of SciAm. A lot of the articles describe make-able, serviceable
stuff, and many others contain ideas which can be bettered for your home
lab.
Beyond that, there are some really great books on making home
laboratories. Many of them are older, from when science seemed a little
more accessible to the average person, but they often have great ideas.
They're especially useful for the incidental stuff, like glassware and
small equipment, which can get you mired in trivia if you try to buy it
all.
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