Advice for community college chem.labs and pippetting pleasef

[piloting]

I've got to use a transfer bulb pippette for my labs and not even the rubber ones with the valves on the sides.They look like blue turkey basters with a shorter pipe/nozzle thingy on one end and kind of shaped like a hot air ballon.I'm really not good at it still (which will be very problematic) and even though I'm good enough now that I can get like halfway up a 10 ml pippete (he glass tube with the bulge in the middle) b/c I realize you've got to press the bulb b4 putting it on the pippete I find it really difficult to acctually get a solution past the marked line which is like 3/4 up the 10 ml transfer pippete.I remember that one of the first things they told us is "not to get a solution in the pippete bulb or you'll destroy it".How the heck would that destroy an empty air filled rubber bulb?.Would'nt a solution getting into the bulb be REALLY likely in a class of 1st semester/1 st year students with little to no experience with using lots of lab equipment frequently?.I'll admit that last weak when I tried practising pippeting with a straw I got water in it a few times and even though it sprayed out a bit of water when I squeezed it,it still worked fine.Is using one of those big plastic valve like ones a significant difference and/or easier?.I'd really appreciate any help.

[Jorriss]

...What do you want to know? What kind of pipettes are you guys using?

[mailedbypostman1]

You'd have to be more specific.

[coveredinbees]

Keep your chin up.

[Jorriss]

Are you actually a chemistry major? Dude, you may just have shitty pipettes. Those bulb/pump pipettes are notoriously crappy.

[mailedbypostman1]

Goddamn those bulbs.
If you've got worse ones than those though, I don't know what to tell you.

[piloting]

Are you actually a chemistry major? Dude, you may just have...pipettes. Those bulb/pump pipettes are notoriously crappy.

Nope.Just in a community college biotechnology technician program and have (hopefully:redface:) temporarily grown disillusioned with doing real chem labs.

[Jorriss]

Nope.Just in a community college biotechnology technician program and have (hopefully:redface:) temporarily grown disillusioned with doing real chem labs.
lol, don't worry, 'real' chem labs are not like that.

1) Most real labs do not use bulb pipettes. If you have any money, a lab will get electronic instrumentation, electric pipetters, electric titrators, electric everything.

2) Real labs train you explicitly.

I'm speaking partly out my ass based on what I've heard from friends. I'm not in a 'lab,' per se, my group is theory, but I have 'some' idea of what it's like in the real world.

The nice thing about community colleges is usually if you ask your professor for extra time in the lab or personal help, they'll help you. Talk to your professor or the lab techs.

[Sabrina_Fried]

bulb pipettes? wow. I hate those things. Mostly because i have been spoiled by micropipetters and those big plunger pipetters, whatever they are called.

Anyway, it IS a bad thing for you to draw up liquid up into the bulb because the bulbs are usually made of rubber or some similar material that is not chemically inert like the glass tubing. So, either the inside of the bulb reacts chemically with whatever you are pipetting and causes trouble, or because it is impossible to clean those bulbs out completely, you get cross-contamination when gunk from the bulb gets blown back into the glass tube.

And even if it is just water you are pipetting, remember that it takes a very long time for the inside of those bulbs to dry out completely and biology labs are typically NOT the most sterile places (especially in a college). Thus wet bulbs are an ideal growing site for all sorts of mold and fungus, etc that will love to contaminate anything else you pipette with those bulbs.

The bulbs are also very poor insulators, which can cause trouble if you are pipetting extremely hot liquids. Yes, I DO know this from experience.

The best advice I can give you is to take things slow. Draw your liquids up into the glass tube as slow as possible so that you can stop well before you risk fouling your bulb. And depending on what equipment you have available, and the precision requirements of your assignment, maybe use a bigger tube to give you some wiggle space (eg use a 10mL tube instead of a 5mL tube)

[Jer]

lol, don't worry, 'real' chem labs are not like that.

1) Most real labs do not use bulb pipettes. If you have any money, a lab will get electronic instrumentation, electric pipetters, electric titrators, electric everything.

2) Real labs train you explicitly.

I'm speaking partly out my ass based on what I've heard from friends. I'm not in a 'lab,' per se, my group is theory, but I have 'some' idea of what it's like in the real world.

The nice thing about community colleges is usually if you ask your professor for extra time in the lab or personal help, they'll help you. Talk to your professor or the lab techs.

That sounds nice.