3D Printing

Electrophoresis Chamber

Dremelfuge

Vessel Holders

3D Printing

3D printing is becoming more accessible to the average person. Maker spaces usually have one or two that would allow you to use. 3D printing is another good way to make lab equipment, here are a few items I have printed:

                   

In the top picture you will see a electrophoresis chamber made from a soap dish and 3D printed gel chamber and comb. I could have printed the whole chamber but I used a soap dish that I already had to save on plastic.

In the next picture I printed the dremelfuge which I have talked about in an earlier post. I printed both with chuck and with-out. So far I only used it with a drill. I still do not feel safe using it with a Dremel without enclosing it in some sort of housing to protect myself.

The last picture shows vessel holders for beakers, flasks and jars that I will attach to a shaker machine. I will talk about this in a later post.

You can find these items at :

http://www.thingiverse.com/

There are many other sites you can get 3D objects from.

Sterile Chamber

Baby Incubator Cover

I found this item, a baby incubator cover that was very inexpensive. I am using it to build a sterile chamber to do culturing in. It has plenty of room inside it and plenty of arm maneuverability to be comfortable to do projects in it.

I will mount it on a vinyl covered piece of plywood or press board. Add a fan that blows the air out and in through a Hepa filter. I will sterilize it with a Lysol/alcohol solution. This will keep the work area in a fairly stable environment, I won't be breathing over the work area or as I move sending dust and particles into the chamber. This should work better than the aquarium that was put together earlier.

I will keep post further as I finish it up.

Update Link

The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments:

http://chemistry.about.com/library/goldenchem.pdf

Building A Transfer Chamber

Building A Transfer Chamber

A sterile environment is needed when working with microbes and tissues. A sterile environment greatly reduces the chance of contamination by other microbes and materials in the air. Here I make a simple transfer chamber from an old aquarium, an fluorescent light, plastic and tape.

The plastic is cut a little larger than the opening of the aquarium. This allows the plastic to fold around the edges where it is taped to the aquarium. I tape the plastic only half way down the sides of the aquarium. This allows for my hands and arms to enter the chamber. The fluorescent light sits on top of the aquarium to allow me to see inside.

I sterilize the inside of the chamber by wiping down all surfaces with 70% alcohol or Lysol. This is a very simple transfer chamber and can be made very easily. I have seen it made from clear tote boxes, etc. It is not the best of chambers but it will help cut down on contamination. Later I will discuss building a much better one. Again this was built from everything I already had or found.

The top picture shows the chamber setup in my lab. It is placed on a metal shelve. The shelve above it holds the incubator and a storage of petri-dishes.

The middle picture shows it put together.

The bottom picture shows the parts used to build the chamber - aquarium, plastic, light and tape.