How to clean dirty pre-prepared permanent slides?

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Andy Ternay
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:33 am
Location: Dallas, TX

How to clean dirty pre-prepared permanent slides?

#1 Post by Andy Ternay » Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:48 am

To start out I purchased a set of pre-prepared permanent slides from Amazon with a basic selection of plants, fungi, animal samples. I have received them and they are filthy - fingerprints, wood splinters from the box, smudges, what appear to be oily smears ...

How may I clean them without damaging the specimens?

Thank you very much.

PeteM
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Location: N. California

Re: How to clean dirty pre-prepared permanent slides?

#2 Post by PeteM » Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:55 am

I use lens cleaner and lens tissues, taking care not to soak the edges of the cover slip.

"ROR" is one brand of decent lens cleaner. The "delicate task" Kimwipes would be fine for this. Both are available, affordably, on Amazon.

MicroBob
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Location: Northern Germany

Re: How to clean dirty pre-prepared permanent slides?

#3 Post by MicroBob » Fri Jan 10, 2020 8:06 am

Hi Andy,
med. petroleum ether is a nice cleaning fluid. It leaves not traces after wiping, cleans away general dirt and is comparatively mild towards plasics, mountants and lens cements.

Bob

Andy Ternay
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:33 am
Location: Dallas, TX

Re: How to clean dirty pre-prepared permanent slides?

#4 Post by Andy Ternay » Sat Jan 11, 2020 7:54 pm

Thank you very much! :D

Andy Ternay
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:33 am
Location: Dallas, TX

Re: How to clean dirty pre-prepared permanent slides?

#5 Post by Andy Ternay » Wed Jan 15, 2020 5:04 am

Wanted to circle back and say I went the ROR route - I was having a tough time determining if the petroleum ethers I could find were med. (medium?). The slides are now nice and clean. Now I just have to find time to actually look at them!!

MicroBob
Posts: 3154
Joined: Sun Dec 25, 2016 9:11 am
Location: Northern Germany

Re: How to clean dirty pre-prepared permanent slides?

#6 Post by MicroBob » Wed Jan 15, 2020 7:55 am

Andy Ternay wrote:
Wed Jan 15, 2020 5:04 am
determining if the petroleum ethers I could find were med. (medium?).
medical - this is quite pure and dries off without a trace.

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