kan-sjalv.se · Sebastian Almberg, Falkenberg, Sweden
Five reference works on practical chemistry and materials. This one belongs open on the bench while your hands are dirty: look up the problem, get the answer, go back to work. All five rest on the same idea — that a single scale usually explains the whole subject, and that once you know where on the scale you are, you know what will work.
What is worth keeping at home of acids, alkalis, oxidants, solvents, surfactants and enzymes — what each one does, what it ruins, and what you can mix from them. With a register by stain, a mixing check and labels to print. Written for Sweden: prices, products and rules are Swedish.
The scale: pH. Acid dissolves the mineral, alkali dissolves the organic.
Electroplating in copper, nickel, zinc, tin and silver, anodising of aluminium, and interference colour on titanium where the voltage alone decides the shade. Baths, current density, troubleshooting, and a calculator that works out current and time from Faraday's law.
The scale: voltage. 20 volts gives blue, 40 gold, 75 green.
Why nothing sticks to polypropylene, and what to do about it. Cyanoacrylate, epoxy, polyurethane, MS polymer, silicone, anaerobic and UV adhesives, with a material matrix of what bonds to what and a troubleshooting section that starts at the fracture surface.
The scale: surface energy. Below 40 mN/m nothing sticks of its own accord.
Alloys from Field's metal at 62 degrees to brazing rod at 875. The flux classes and the question everybody gets wrong — which residues must be washed off and which must absolutely be left alone. Iron technique, SMD, desoldering and brazing.
The scale: melting point. The line between soft and hard falls at 450 °C.
An identification key that takes you from an unknown piece of plastic to the right name with four harmless tests: water, salt water, a drop of acetone and boiling water. Everything else follows from there — chemical resistance, bonding, welding and machining.
The scale: none — a key. Answer what you know, and the list narrows.
| If you | Go to |
|---|---|
| have a stain and do not know what it is | The register in Chemicals |
| are holding two bottles and wonder whether they may be mixed | The mixing check |
| want to know what is worth buying first | What to buy first |
| are about to bond two things and do not know which adhesive | The material matrix |
| have a glued joint that let go | Bonding's troubleshooting |
| have an unknown piece of plastic | The identification key |
| wonder whether a plastic takes a particular agent | Chemical resistance |
| have a solder joint that looks odd | Soldering's troubleshooting |
| wonder whether the flux residue has to come off | The washing section |
| are about to zinc-plate, nickel-plate or anodise | Plating's calculator |
| want to colour titanium without paint | The titanium section |
Corrections to matters of fact are listed here, because it matters when someone has read an earlier version. Plain typos and design changes are not.
8 August 2026 · The Bench Book opens
The Bench Book is notes that grew too long to keep in one's head. They were written for me in the first place, but they are free to use — and if they save someone else a ruined workpiece they were worth the trouble.
These pages do not track you. No analytics, no cookies, no external requests — not even the fonts are fetched from anywhere else. What is saved, such as the cupboard contents in Chemicals, stays in your own browser and is never sent anywhere.
All of it prints. Every document has a print design of its own where side panels and buttons disappear and the cards are not split in half. There are ready-made PDFs to download as well — the link sits at the foot of each document.
Corrections and additions are gratefully received. I am an engineer, not a chemist, and there are certainly things here a professional would put differently. Write to me at sebastian.almberg@gmail.com if something is wrong or missing — especially if you know the subject better than I do.