Also second hand lab equipment. I was tired of my kitchen scale breaking and having annoying features like auto off after like 60 seconds. Got an ohaus lab scale off eBay for like $50, handles 18lbs, has a configuration menu with tons of options and features like count mode, sequential weight summing, and lets you set auto off for up to 30 minutes or completely disable auto off. Takes regular AAs or plugs into an outlet. I love it and it’s built like a tank.
Man, having worked in a couple research labs in a previous life, there’s no way I’d use a used lab scale for food. Especially when $50 will actually get you a pretty decent scale that has not been potentially used for weighing everything from diseased mice to stool samples to unidentified precipitates from a failed chemical reaction.
Since you’re here to type this, it was probably not used for anything too nasty, but I do not endorse that as a way to save a few bucks!
Idk worrying about a lab leak type pathogen scenario through an ebay sale seems far fetched to me. I picked one that looked lightly used and clean and wiped it down with disinfectant when I got it. The chance of a pathogen surviving that long doesn’t sound like a realistic concern. Most things it plausibly would have been exposed to, save for like highly radioactive dust getting lodged in its crevices, is easily handled with basic sanitation and hand washing. And it’s not like I’m putting food on the surface anyways.
Also second hand lab equipment. I was tired of my kitchen scale breaking and having annoying features like auto off after like 60 seconds. Got an ohaus lab scale off eBay for like $50, handles 18lbs, has a configuration menu with tons of options and features like count mode, sequential weight summing, and lets you set auto off for up to 30 minutes or completely disable auto off. Takes regular AAs or plugs into an outlet. I love it and it’s built like a tank.
Man, having worked in a couple research labs in a previous life, there’s no way I’d use a used lab scale for food. Especially when $50 will actually get you a pretty decent scale that has not been potentially used for weighing everything from diseased mice to stool samples to unidentified precipitates from a failed chemical reaction.
Since you’re here to type this, it was probably not used for anything too nasty, but I do not endorse that as a way to save a few bucks!
Idk worrying about a lab leak type pathogen scenario through an ebay sale seems far fetched to me. I picked one that looked lightly used and clean and wiped it down with disinfectant when I got it. The chance of a pathogen surviving that long doesn’t sound like a realistic concern. Most things it plausibly would have been exposed to, save for like highly radioactive dust getting lodged in its crevices, is easily handled with basic sanitation and hand washing. And it’s not like I’m putting food on the surface anyways.
Only thing I would be scared of is ethidium bromide on your food, but that probably wouldn’t be measured on a kg scale.
Yeah I think if I was gonna start using used lab equipment, a new autoclave would be my first purchase.
Salmonella recall? Nah, I’ve got a kitchen autoclave, I’ll be fine