LAB/SCHOOL

Even before masks became a common sight, we sold a bunch of N95 particulate respirators because Surpies have a long history of woodworking, model building and DIY renovating. Contractors love these! These masks are from 3M, (we don't get 3M masks often) model #8511 with a cool-flow valve, and are for filtration of particulates. Cool-flow valve keeps your face cool and, perhaps more importantly, dry. You’ll get (10) per box, and yeah, they’re made in the USA. Date Code is 2025

Now for the 3M Specs

• NIOSH approved for at least 95 percent filtration efficiency against certain non-oil based particles 
• Features the 3M™ Cool Flow™ Valve 
• M-Noseclip adjusts easily for fewer pressure points and greater comfort 
• Braided headbands two-strap design with dual point attachment helps provide a secure seal 
• Spacious and durable Designed to increase comfort and wearability 
• Advanced Electret Media is designed for ease of breathing

One pen, ten colors. Develop complicated note-taking systems, or just send colorful hate mail with this 6-1/4" long ballpoint with cartridges in black, orange, dark green, purple, light green, red, brown, magenta, blue and aqua. Slide the button of the matching color to write, push the top down to release it. Assorted colored barrels.

Hang it all with this set of (10) magnetic hooks. The 1-3/16" long x 9/64" hooks screw into 1-3/8" dia magnetic bases with an approx 8-lb pull, which is heavier than most jackets and keys. Good for horizontal or vertical mounts, and dandy for adding hooks to gym or school lockers.

You can do both with this book—no writin’ required! It’s The Little Book of Mathematical Principles, Theories, & Things, which is a title we love, despite the Oxford comma. By math whiz, author and professor Robert Solomon, the paperback volume has (224) pages. Measures an easily totable 5-1/2" X 7", letting you peruse a lesson on Binary Numbers, The Golden Ratio, Logarithms, Chaos Theory, Russell’s Paradox, Fermat’s Last Theorem, or about 115 others, each (1) to (2) pages long, whenever you have a spare minute to learn.

To boldly write notes where no man (or not that many) have written notes before. Yes, Trekkie- Surpies, we have Star Trek notebooks! These really nice, (48)-page, cardboard-bound notebooks might not help you live long, or prosper, but they’re perfect for jotting down thoughts and to-do lists in the company of Trek images and ideas. You pick: the 3-1/2” x 5” Starfleet Medical Notebook in blue with spots for personal data including Serial No., Starship Posting and Commissioned Stardate, quotes from famous Trek doctors, and a fold-out back cover detailing diseases with drawings, and Starfleet medical milestones; the 5” x 7” Star Trek United Federation Captain’s Log with a date/location entry on each lined page and fold-out info on the back cover, including a warp-speed conversion table; or the 3-1/2” x 5” Star Trek Engineering notebook with a red cover, diagrams of a communicator, phaser and tricorder, grid pages, famous engineering quotes and room for your name, rank and serial number.

Colored pencils just make us happy—not sure why—and this (50)-pack is about as good a set as we’ve ever seen. Big surprise—they’re from Crayola®. Set includes pretty much every color you would ever want or need, in the classic round shape, 7” long. Nice cardboard box for organized storage, too. We can see your bird drawings and inspirational, colorful notes around the house already.

But maybe you don’t weigh enough? Make that, maybe you don’t weigh often enough. We’re talking about the precise weighing of substances topping out at 5000g, or 176 oz. Good for the lab or kitchen, this 7” x 5-1/2” digital scale has a stainless steel, brushed-aluminum top and a high-precision sensor. Stand stands about 1/4” high. Has a backlit LCD display, zero function, auto power-off, low battery indicator, overload indicator, g/ml/oz/lb’oz units, and it takes (2) “AAA” batteries, which you supply, along with whatever it is you’re weighing.

Stethos is Greek for chest. Indeed you can scope your stethos with this stethoscope, or your friend's or your dog's. But it works equally well for picking up any sound being transmitted through a solid medium. Listen to the air flowing through the heating ducts, the water in the pipes, the sounds of machinery, the termites munching on the floor joists!! The color does vary so we will select from what's currently available. We've had blue, teal, red, black, burgundy, green and purple, but there may be other colors yet to be seen! Not professional quality, but also not just a toy.

Our coolest ruler, hands down. It’s dark blue plastic, T-shaped, and packed with information. It’s an American Wire Gauge and a screw-size gauge. It measures UTS and ISO screw pitch, has SMD capacitor info, conversion scales, transistor and diode diagrams. It has a list of SI prefixes, digital logic gates, logic identities, electrical units and abbreviations, colors and wavelengths, transmission line equations, a protractor, a breadboard and tons more. If you’re not into that stuff, use it a 13”/33cm ruler. Measures 15" x 6-1/4” x 1/16" overall, and you might need a magnifier to read some of it. Made in the USA.

Can't beat a classic. These uncoated ceramic donut magnets have a 1-lb pull, which makes them dandy for classroom or refrigerator use. They measure 1-1/4" dia x 3/8" ID x 3/16" thick and are polarized on the faces. You get a wrapped roll of 29 donuts.

If you're devoted to explosions, and who isn't, you'll love the new expanded 2nd edition of William Gurstelle's Backyard Ballistics, now 25% longer, with 25% more ka-boomery. Still the go-to reference work for building rockets, cannons (carbide and potato), flingers, fire kites, electromagnetic pipe guns, tennis ball mortars, cleaner-bag balloons, ballistic pendula and petards. You simply can't have more fun with common household materials. The soft-cover, 210pp compendium includes detailed and illustrated instructions, parts lists and sensible ways not to be hoist on your own petard. Be careful out there.

Gel pens and mascara—the two causes of smear fear. Cure the first one with this pack of (20) gel highlighter markers. They’re not felt-tip highlighters, but a waxy, crayon-ish filler that lays down a day-glo translucent stripe. You advance it by twisting the top. Manufacturer says it won't dry out, smear or bleed through. You’ll get (10) neon yellow-chartreuse plus (2) each in pink, purple, blue, green and orange.

It’s a cornucopia of stencils. All shapes, no alphabets. You’ll get a profusion of (8) clear acrylic stencil sheets, including: a raft of ovals; a preponderance of squares; a farrago of circles, hexagons, pentagons and triangles; a collection of a bunch of shapes, including trapezoids; a roomful of interior design shapes; a melange of electronic symbols; and an assortment we can’t altogether identify, but might be for printed circuit design. All have mm rules along at least one edge.

Good things come in (2) different small packages. Our pocket microscopes are compact and perfect for a clear, close look at stamps, coins, flora, insects or assorted minutiae. The 30X version measures 5-3/4" x 1-5/8" x 3/4" in black plastic with a focus knob, on/off switch, small LED for illumination, and a vinyl carrying case. Requires (2) "AA"s. The 60X version is a microscopic 3-1/4" x 1-3/16" x 3/4" and has a built-in white LED illuminator powered by (3) coin-cell batteries that are included. Magnifies from 60-100X, with coarse- and fine-focus knobs, and has a vinyl carrying case.

Imagine how much more Hemingway could have written had he always had one of these handy flip-top notepads with him. Measures 6" tall x 3” wide  (the notebook, not Hemingway), and fits perfectly in your pocket, where the stiff paperboard covers and solid white spiral 5/8" rings will preserve your pithy observations (and grocery lists) for generations. A regular moveable feast, each pad has approx. (60) pages of ruled white paper. In green or pink covers, and we’ll channel Ernest to pick the bravest, truest color for you.

InkJoy is the Paper Mate® name for a particularly smooth ink, but it’s the medium 1mm points that make these so pleasant to write with. Measure 6” long with black ink and pocket-clip caps. Our each is a pack of (8) pens.

Our each is a package of (2) steel tech rulers. One is 6” x 1/32” for the first 2-1/2” then 1/64” for the next 1/2” then 1/16” for the last 3”. The other is 150mm x 0.5mm. Both have sliding markers/pocket clips, and both have mm:inch tables on the reverse side. You’ll need excellent eyesight.

Scientifically speaking. This 8-1/2" x 11" science reference notebook is three-hole punched for inclusion in a binder. From McGraw-Hill, it's heavily illustrated and filled with facts, illustrations and definitions about biology, geology, astronomy, physics and much more. Science! Surplus factor: some may have been packed before the cover ink was dry, leaving a slight speckled pattern that has no effect on the science inside—we checked. And Science is our middle name.