# How to make your own Desiccator for $4, out of licorice



## Anonymous (Aug 22, 2010)

Hi Everyone,

I'm new here but while in college I worked in a soil & water lab with a man who was a brilliant chemist.
One day I had to do some cleaning in the lab and I had to move the desiccator to clean under it.

Unfortunately the bottom was quite a bit slipperier than I had anticipated and it promptly fell to the floor & broke.

Instead of being mad about me busting the labs only desiccator, he suddenly grew a big smile & he sent me to the store for licorice.

Specifically Redvines, in the 4lbs container.

You see Redvines have for the past several years come in a 4lb container, this container is airtight with a screw on lid.

Here is how we made the desiccator.

First off, pull out all of the licorice and either eat it or store it somewhere (The closer to Halloween, the easier it is to get rid of the candy).
The inside of the container is now rather sticky and needs to be cleaned & dried.
First clean with bleach then rinse with distilled water.
If there is any sticky/tacky stuff left inside try detergent and lastly lye. Do not use any abrasives.

Once cleaned and wiped completely dry, lay down some coffee filters and set the lid & the container on the coffee filters to dry (it helps if the container is upside down)

After drying for a day or two give it one more good wipe dry & then fill it 1/4 of the way with lye or silica gel (I recommend lye since it's easy to tell when the lye has been spent out)

Next use a plate (unglazed seems to work best), and place it on top of the lye.

Place the lid on top and secure it with a twist.

You now have your dessicator. Any time you need to dry something out just untwist the lid, stick the item on the drying plate and twist the lid back on. This makes it air tight and in a day or so your item(s) will be dry.

Enjoy!


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## pesco (Jul 18, 2011)

Great stuff,
I've been using similar setup to dessicate some tissue samples for microscopy analysis, but instead of lye (NaOH/KOH) I've been using dehydrated CuSO4 which is safer and easier to tell when its spent, but might need a bit more time than lye to dessicate sample.

Place some blue CuSO4*5H2O on a tray and bake it in the oven at more than 200C (but less than 600 C) till it turns pale grey or whitish.
Use as desiccant till it turns blue again.

Hydration/dehydration can be done indefinitely with no fumes, smells or other risks :mrgreen:


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## Anonymous (Jul 18, 2011)

Nice way to keep lead oxide dry too.Just place it in an open top vessel and place inside the desiccator.


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## Noxx (Jul 18, 2011)

pesco said:


> Place some blue CuSO4*5H2O on a tray and bake it in the oven at more than 200C (but less than 600 C) till it turns pale grey or whitish.
> Use as desiccant till it turns blue again.
> 
> Hydration/dehydration can be done indefinitely with no fumes, smells or other risks :mrgreen:



Same goes with CaCl2 I think.


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