Q&A for How to Build Your Own Chemistry Lab

Lab notebooks are super important because they are a permanent record of what you did in lab. It can also be important for intellectual property (IP) in the future, should you want to patent something. To start, purchase a lab notebook of your liking. I personally use one that has gridlines on it, which makes it easier to draw graphs. Books with page numbers are also a plus. You want to start each entry with the date and the name of the experiment. Try to summarize the goal of the experiment (why are you doing this?). What is your statement of purpose? What are your objectives? Next, you want to write a succinct description of the procedure you used for the experiment. I often write a very detailed procedure the first time I'm doing a particular experiment and then refer back to that page for repeated experiments. You want to write literally everything that happens. Did you make any mistakes? If you went back to this experiment 2 years later, could you make sense of what you did? Could someone else repeat the experiment from your notes? I often tape reagent labels into my book. Every graph I make on Excel, I print it out and tape it into my book. Sometimes I even draw the experimental setup. Include calculations, tables, conclusions, etc. Other tips: Use pen! Pencil can be erased, which could be a problem (see IP above). If you mess up something in your book, cross it out with a single line. Don't completely block it out, as you may need it later in some instances. Make sure you keep your book updated in a timely manner. Data and experiments can pile up and it'll be harder to remember details the longer you wait.

Unfortunately, lab equipment is expensive (even the cheaper things like pipette tips can really add up). Your best bet would be to buy the lowest grade materials you can find. You can also try to build your own equipment using tools and household items. However, low-grade and homemade equipment/materials may not be the safest to handle and may yield poor results.

Build a shed or buy one (building one is a lot cheaper if you know what you are doing).

You can use test tube holders and labeled drawers to keep things grouped together. For papers, you could have a file cabinet or paper holder to keep things neat.