The ridiculous cost of ST ground glass joints compared with simple fire-polished ends and stuff, on a low budget, with limited experience... makes no sense.
In the olden days chemists always had to put up with rubber joining thingies and stuff everywhere (although when i say olden days i mean like 80 years ago and longer) and although there is some issues of contamination from the slow decay of rubber, for simple beginning chemistry it makes a lot of sense to use the cheaper equipment. beginners often break things. To illustrate: an old-style liebig condenser with only a drip tip end and an open beaded rim edge on the other for stuffing a cork into it, 200mm long, costs about us$20. The same liebig with 24/40 joints costs about us$50. When you consider the cost of starting up and replacement, it is obvious that if you don't need vacuum bla bla bla, you don't need ground glass unless you feel confident you won't break it and not be able to replace it.
