How do you measure liquid dyes?

[mark mcfarlane]

What are people using to measure out small quantities of liquid dyes (e.g. Transtint) to mix sample batches?

A pipette? Eye Dropper?

If you are using a pipette, can you please share any specifics on make/model,... I tried finding a glass pipette like I used in Chemistry classes 40+ years ago,...

[Marc Jeske]

Disposable syringes from local Pharmacy, your Dr office, Veterinarian, most Farm Feed stores that have animal meds, etc.

Like more or less 20 cents to a buck each for big ones.

Insulin using diabetic friend ? just be aware the super fine needles may clog w any particulate.

Syringe properly chosen for the volume needed size will be most accurate.

The smaller the ID will give most accurate measurements.

Just wash out and re use many times.

Marc

[Marc Jeske]

https://www.amazon.com/Pack-syringe-...by+syringe+kit

[Wayne Lomman]

A pipette is good for this. Try home brew kit suppliers. They have things like this. Syringes are Ok but tend to lose the smooth action in a short time and that makes it hard to do drop by drop. Cheers

[Prashun Patel]

PM sent, Mark.
IMHO, disposable pipettes are best for these.
It will save you having to rinse the dye out in your sink. DAMHIK that rinsing dye in a sink is a bad idea...

If I making small batch, I will count the drops. If it's more than 5-6 drops, I weigh it with a digital scale.

[John TenEyck]

I normally count drops. I've made batches where I've counted several hundred drops. It's tedious, but is reproducible. If I have to make several large batches with that many drops, however, I count the first batch into a small graduated cylinder and then make the subsequent batches using that amount of ml.

For test specimens where I'm only adding 5 - 50 drops I always count drops.

John

[Steve Peterson]

In chemistry class, we made our own pipettes over a flame by stretching the soft glass. Break it in half and you get 2 pipettes. You have to calibrate each one by counting out a large enough number of drops that it can be weighed accurately. Then you know how much weight or volume is in each drop.

You might be able to get close enough by poking a hole in the top of one of the containers and weigh the drops. Use the same pin to poke holes in all of the containers.

[Robert Cherry]

I have a cheap set of graduated cylinders I bought on amazon-

Pixnor Measuring Cylinder Graduated Cylinder Lab Test Tube Set of 4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019W5T4CS..._fm6AAbQGESAXV

they work great for mixing dyes and certain adhesives as well.

[roger wiegand]

Among biologists anyway, the Pipetman is the gold standard. https://www.amazon.com/Gilson-Pipetm.../dp/B008TPW6RI

They come in different size ranges from 10 ul for pipetting fractions of a milliliter to the big one above that would probably be appropriate for most shop tasks involving very small volumes of liquid. Much more accurate for sub-ml volumes than a syringe or manual pipette. You can find used ones on Fleabay for reasonable prices, but I'd assume you'd need to invest in a new o-ring set for those.

We don't think anything about ridiculous overkill for the rest of our tools, why not volume measurement as well?

Actually for most anything where accuracy to 0.5 g is sufficient I weigh the components rather than measuring volumes. I've got a cheap electronic balance that seems reasonably accurate to 0.1g, one step up from a postage scale. It's way easier to weigh things like epoxy than to try to measure volumes of sticky liquids. The only irritation is making density corrections, not all of the manufacturers give you the weight ratios on the bottle. For most shop solvents like alcohols the density is close enough to 1 to not matter.