"that hurts" was exactly the same I was about to write... I know that feel dude ...

most major fuckups happen when product is already made and pure for consumption, but one wants to tweak its appearance just a little bit more to get some "eye candy" like grow a crystal as large as possible...
Then one becomes sloppy with handling, no more chemicals (except one or two harmless solvents in minor amounts) or reactions involved, neither is safety gear,
and one is likely to be on some product at those times...
That really hurts so much to see the hard work spent on it for days or months get fucked up in only seconds.

But i have a funny story that once upon a time happened to me as i watched a base crystal forming in chloroform (never watch a crystal form especially when severely spun you could spent hours without a single move! ), and trying not to disturb it I breathed not really deep, standing really near to it, for like two hours (inhaled undoubtful a lot of yummy cancerogenic chloroform ).
When i stood up my circulatory system decided it doesnt want to get up yet, thank you CHCl3, so i walked right into a closed door and passed out maybe few seconds, because of I hit that door so hard found myself on the floor, crystals were ok me too but damned... breathing chloroform fumes was ever abused? I wouldt do it, especially not on purpose!

fresh I would stick to that glassware company for the rest of my life if that would ever happen to me! seems like some good quality stuff

the light switch sparking/iigniting anything

I know this one from thrift shopping with my ole man.  Mercury switches.  They're phasing them out so only going to find them in thrift shops or old buildings.  I thought he wanted them for the mercury but he explained they are sparkless.

Toadface now keeps a permanently open window, plus maskes sure the door is open slightly, so no fumes ever build up.....keeps a CO2 fire extinguisher within seconds reach in the ol' geezer's bedroom..


Any suggestions to this ol' amphibian elder-deity about preventing the light switch from sparking/iigniting anything and causing a localized Tunguska event, pressurized H2 etc....?

There''s an article that was scanned long ago that's been downloaded forty six times:

http://127.0.0.1/talk/index.php/topic,401.msg11671.html#msg11671

that should be studied thoroughly    There's more good advice in:

http://127.0.0.1/talk/index.php/topic,401.msg19883.html#msg19883

and links to some other material on Rhodium's page relevant to your question in:

http://127.0.0.1/talk/index.php/topic,401.msg22656.html#msg22656

Some more useful information is in the attached files    As always, the end results from the effort applied 

Last week I had quite a day in my lab. Started out with pouring the solvent/mix into my big separating funnel, stupidly forgot to close the key. I should've had a separate flask beneath it whilst doing this. I intended to use the same one. Solvent everywhere. 1/8 of the total solvent amount! The funnel is so big I had poured in quite an amount before it even started to come out. Knew right there that I should go back to bed, however, time waits for no man. So I pressured myself to continue. Ended up sending my vacuum receiver flying and demolishing two beakers (thankfully nothing in them). No ability to distill the solvent off, best solution was to waste all that solvent and evaporate. Live and learn I guess.

Knew right there that I should go back to bed, however, time waits for no man

lol yeah I think most wasps have felt this way and ignored it to their peril;)

 Who said sometthing like "folks never have enough time to do it right, but always have time to do it over" so true ime!

man, this flask was like a brother we had gone through so many amines together i loved him he was my preferred flask for everything in his size even if there were alternative ones... he really was a good boy,

man I know how you feel, the attatchment one gets to good equipment (and btw, that's a lovely "ode to erlymeyer" )

Don't stir a mixture of based mhrb and highly flammable naptha with an electric blender.

As a dumb ass friend found out.

In slow motion as it always happens I watched a spark flask inside the blender and a nice whoosh sound a split second later accompanied by a flaming mushroom cloud of naptha fumes. Holy shit took my eyebrows and eye lashes off as I was stood watching close by. What the fuck to do now?! Chuck it outside? Fuck knows!

Luckily a wet rag that was in the washing machine in the kitchen workspace was calmed placed over the 5litre tub, that had about a 2 foot flame protruding out of it whilst the rest of the household frantically tried to unlock the heavily fortified front door.

Now if that fucking bucket had of melted. God knows how that would of ended...


Same friend also knocked over 500ml of concentrated ammonia in a very small kitchen. It was like slow motion watching it hit the floor and then realising a gasp of air needed to be drawn in pretty damn quick followed by extensive holding of said breath and quick evacuation from kitchen.

It took about 2/3 hrs to clear that shit up and it was freezing outside too. The shit seeped into the living room and down the hallway. Totally fucked up our Friday night anyway hahaha.