I'll stick to keeping my art in its homes of glass and quartz.
Lol hyke. Thats the EXACT sort of motivation I have myself, for my own art. I do like mine to be USEFUL though (which isn't a criticism of you hyke) not at all. merely, my own preference.
I like my hobbies to produce something useful out of it, (and even better, to pay their way, a net monetary gain, rather than the hobby simply sucking down money, I like the way my own hobby while not always, to pay for itself at least. If there is a profit at the end, so much the better of course
But I do want it as much as possible to at least, pay for its own upkeep, I admit I could make more than I do, but I do so like the reward at the end of a long, potentially quite mentally and financially taxing project of being able to afford going on ebay, etc. and having the freedom not just to buy essentials (despite what people may say, yes, they are indeed essential!http://www.intensitysquared.com/Smileys/default/green.gif
But to be able to search around until I've found things I simply LIKE, such as say, treating myself to a new separatory funnel, or some new ultramicroscale glassware pieces, just to flick through whats on offer until I find something I can both use, and that I really really like, and want for myself.
The last time, I bought myself a Kipp gas generator, identical to the one in the picture here. It did cost me quite a bit, more than I'd spend on something noncritical otherwise
But having earned enough to pay for it, and some left over too, I went for the auction, and won
http://www.intensitysquared.com/Smileys/default/santa2.gifDespite being a somewhat old piece of equipment (I mean, from the date it was first invented, not the specific item I myself have, I don't know where or when it came from. They are outmoded in most commercial labs these days because people just buy pressurized gas bottles. Whilst I can buy SOME gases like that, many useful ones, chlorine cylinders, hydrogen sulfide, and hydrogen cyanide in particular, as well as SO2, I can't lay hold of, not for want of money, I just have nobody to buy them from, so I do things the old fashioned way (circa 1800s in origin)
and it works just the same way now as it would do then. (Kipp generators are for producing steady streams of gases on-tap, via a pressure equalization mechanism, turn the tap on, get gas, turn it off, stop getting gas. Main difference is that they don't come out dry, and as such, often need drying by the operator, assuming dry gas is actually a requirement of the user at the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kipp%27s_apparatusAnd it LOOKS great too, standing on the lab bench, its got to be about the most stylish and neat looking of all my equipment, maybe outmatched by my micro-scale equipment, because those are just cute (I.e things like tiny, tiny tiny little 5ml or even 2.5ml flasks, or the all-in-one 5ml pear-shaped two-neck flask with built in condenser and column, vacuum adaptor etc, although now the top inlet is damaged, because the fucking bastard pigs trashed the place, and I've simply never even SEEN such a piece again, anywhere. I can still use it for some things
but its irreplaceable, and absolutely heartbreaking to have it damaged like that
It isn't even the money, its that I can't even FIND another, let alone buy it, I have a hunch it may well have been something someone had made specially to order from a glassblower, although
I've kept the other broken bit in case I can ever get it repaired.
