New Finds
Money Detector |
Remember UV light(radition) is dangerous. Do not look at it and use at your own risk. Understand all the precautions.
With the use of recycled and second-hand items I hope that individuals and teachers will use this blog to bring back the joys of doing science. Warning - I am not responsible for any damage or injuries obtained while using any information from this blog. This is for information purposes only.
Money Detector |
Remember UV light(radition) is dangerous. Do not look at it and use at your own risk. Understand all the precautions.
Most of these items can be found in dollar stores, department stores, pet stores, etc. They are very inexpensive and are great for fitting into Christmas stockings.
Tools Needed in Your Lab |
- Glass medicine droppers, comes with 1 straight and 1 curved tip.
- Clothes pins, they come in all sizes and materials.
- Hard plastic straws.
- Kitchen tongs. The one in the picture, I sprayed a rubber coating on the handle.
More Lab Items |
- Aquarium air stone.
- Aquarium flexible airline tubing.
- Tweezers.
- Lab journals.
This is just a small amount of items that they may want or need. It is always good to have many items on hand. As you walk through these stores just look around, you should be able to find other items they can use.
Dark-field microscopy is when the light from under the specimen is partially blocked. The light does not pass directly through the sample being studied. Instead light is reflected off the specimen, making it appear to be emitting light. Dark-field image may first appear to be a negative of a bright-field image. It works well with live organisms.
A simple method is to use a dime placed in the middle of your microscope filter just below the microscope condenser. I recommend putting the dime or dime sized stop(made of thin cardboard coloured black) on a clear piece of plastic to protect the filter from being scratched. If the clear plastic is rigid enough you can replace it for the filter all together. Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 1 |
Figure 2 |
Since I have access to a 3D printer I decided to 3d print them. As can be seen in figure 3, I 3D printed my stops to fit in place of my filter on the microscope. I printed 2 different size stoppers 8 mm and 15 mm.
Figure 3 |
In figure 4 this is a regular image, in figure 5 I use the 8 mm stop. You can see the difference between the 2. The 8 mm stop shows more detail than without any stop. With the 15 mm stop it darkens the field way to much. Figure 6.
Figure 4 |
Figure 5 |
Figure 6 |
A very simple and inexpensive addition to many microscopes.
Components for Power Supply |
Power Supply Working |
Can you believe it? I have just passed 100,000 page views. I know I can't. When I first started this blog, I thought no one would look at it. But surprisingly I have received comments and emails from around the world. I hope everyone has enjoy reading this blog as much as I have putting down my thoughts and doings.
It has been a busy couple of months. I do have many projects I have been working on and will be posting them over the next little while. So stay tuned!!
Thank you for reading my blog. I do hope to continue adding to it for a long time.
Lawrence
Image 3 |
Image 4 |
Using a Syringe Filter to Sterilize Media:
Syringe and Filter |
I picked up some syringe filters from Amazon figuring I could use a syringe to pass my media or water through the filter. As seen in photo the filter screws on to the top of syringe. This filter membrane has a pore size of .22 micrometers. This should easily sterilize the fluids.
Parts |
Thinking there must be an easier way to run the media or water through the filter I picked up a 12V DC DIY Peristaltic Liquid Pump from Amazon. As seen in this image as well as the pump I picked up air hose tubing and airline tubing connectors from a pet store. The connectors allows different sized tubing to fit together.
Fitting to hold filter |
I had a medical drop administration set I found at a flee market. This has the same type of connection as the syringe tip has, allowing the filter to screw on. As seen in the above image.
Unit put together |
In the final image you can see the whole unit put together. I am using a 12 volt wall adapter hooked up to the motor speed controller (previous project) to control the pump motor. The filter holder was made with a 1/4 inch dowel and clothes pin glued together.
I pump the fluids through the system slowly as to hopefully not cause a big mess if it ever backs up. I intend to mount the pump into a weighted box so I don't set it up when I need to use it.
I found this motor speed controller module at an electronics surplus store. This will allow me to build a controller module that I am able to control more than one devise by just plugging and unplugging each device.
A.C. Meter |
3) A electronic breadboard. To this I had to add the binding posts myself. Luckily I had some in my lab. The posts did not fit the holes. I did not want to buy any new ones so I designed and 3D printed fittings for the holes that the posts fit into. You can see the yellow fittings under the posts.
Breadboard |
For less than $30 I picked up some useful equipment for my lab.