Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

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hkv
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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#31 Post by hkv » Sat Aug 20, 2016 2:41 pm

Check ebay, usually you find both slips and glasses in auctions. I bought my brand new on ebay in a bulk box.
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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#32 Post by KurtM » Sat Aug 20, 2016 3:18 pm

hkv wrote:I use VWR slides and slips.
Radazz wrote:I've been using Boreal cover slips
Could you please say where you get your goods? Thank you.

EDIT: Ah, didn't see page 2. :P Ah well, not sure it matters. Like billbilt, I had excellent luck with Sail brand so naturally ordered more. The next box was disappointing. I too would like to find a reliable source, and at this point price is less of an object.
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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#33 Post by zzffnn » Sat Aug 20, 2016 4:32 pm

VWR caters mostly to professional/scientific users, so supposedly it should offer good quality/price ratio. I have not used that brand for the past 5 years though, so I cannot remember how good it was.

Very clean cover slips may be necessary, if you make permanent slides like John B, Rod and Kurt.

I currently use 1) Zeiss; 2) Amscope and 3) Premier. Clearness wise, 1 >2>3, gap between 1 and 2 is visably more than 2 and 3. The Zeiss is not that expensive, if you buy a big bulk and share with others. But even the Zeiss is not microscopically clean.

Please take my comments with a big grain of salt, since I don't make permanent mounted slides myself. I wipe cover slips with low lint cloth, only when I am using them for high NA darkfield (where dust/fibers may show up). I have broken less than 5 slips while wiping them, and not more (and I try to reuse cover slips). I don't usually clean cover slips for brightfield.

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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#34 Post by Radazz » Tue Aug 23, 2016 12:03 pm

Just tried some dark field, and I see scum on both my slides and coverslips.
Xylene works ok, but I'd rather find something less drastic.
Will get some white vinegar and try that.
Do you soak them?
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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#35 Post by Radazz » Wed Aug 24, 2016 7:18 pm

Just ordered 100 slips and 50 slides from eBay that specifically say pre-cleaned.
I'll let you know when they arrive if I have any luck with them, and post a link if that's kosher here.
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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#36 Post by Radazz » Fri Aug 26, 2016 9:15 pm

Well, got the "pre-cleaned" slides and cover slips from eBay, and knew things did not bode well when opening the package I found AmScope branded slides.

In darkfield, they look like a deep sky telescope. White dots and smears, no different from their non pre-cleaned slides. Cover slips look like they are covered with snow. Some sort of small crystals.

Alcohol does nothing,
Acetone does nothing,
Xylene cleans it, but I'd rather not use any more of that than I need for cleaning mounting medium.

Best luck so far scrubbing with distilled white vinegar.
Now trying soaking a few slides and slips in vinegar.

Will update...
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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#37 Post by mrsonchus » Fri Aug 26, 2016 9:43 pm

Radazz wrote:Well, got the "pre-cleaned" slides and cover slips from eBay, and knew things did not bode well when opening the package I found AmScope branded slides.

In darkfield, they look like a deep sky telescope. White dots and smears, no different from their non pre-cleaned slides. Cover slips look like they are covered with snow. Some sort of small crystals.

Alcohol does nothing,
Acetone does nothing,
Xylene cleans it, but I'd rather not use any more of that than I need for cleaning mounting medium.

Best luck so far scrubbing with distilled white vinegar.
Now trying soaking a few slides and slips in vinegar.

Will update...
Exactly the experience I have with every cover-slip pack I buy. Surprisingly I have recently found that running them under a tap (individually that is) and wiping with a pristine soft cotton 'drying-up cloth' as they're called in the UK (a tea-towel..) does the job - and I have 100% success with simple 'Fairy-Liquid' - 'washing-up liquid' used for hand-washing dishes etc. followed by the water and cloth-wipe.
Surprises me but this always works far better than OH (acidified or not) or even Histoclear then OH..... It's a real pain - oh I also keep a camera lens 'rocket puffer' handy to give each and every cover-slip a blast before use, even after cleaning...

I'm absolutely sick & tired of this silly problem - I'm waiting for an account approval to be granted to enable me to purchase from a VWR stockist in the UK, hopefully their cover-slips will be OK....

They're so ridiculously cheap at about <=£2 GBP per 100 that I'd gladly pay say £5 or £10 per 100 if they were guaranteed to be clean!!

Try the water & soap (I just use tap-water with success) my friend - it's the only thing that works 100% for me, but it's tedious! :(
:D :D :)
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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#38 Post by hkv » Sat Aug 27, 2016 8:30 am

John, if you want I can send you a box of VWR cover slips so you can check them out. No charge of course. I think I have 10 boxes and enough for a life time. I have indeed also seen tiny crystals on some of my slips which I assume are small glass particles left from the production. In practice they have never been an issue as DIC is very good att separating different focus planes. In darkfield I would expect they would be more of an issue.
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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#39 Post by mrsonchus » Sat Aug 27, 2016 1:08 pm

hkv wrote:John, if you want I can send you a box of VWR cover slips so you can check them out. No charge of course. I think I have 10 boxes and enough for a life time. I have indeed also seen tiny crystals on some of my slips which I assume are small glass particles left from the production. In practice they have never been an issue as DIC is very good att separating different focus planes. In darkfield I would expect they would be more of an issue.
That's a very kind offer my friend, and I'd like to accept. :) I'll 'pm' you old chap. :) Thank you. :D
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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#40 Post by zzffnn » Sat Aug 27, 2016 1:31 pm

mrsonchus wrote: Surprisingly I have recently found that running them under a tap (individually that is) and wiping with a pristine soft cotton 'drying-up cloth' as they're called in the UK (a tea-towel..) does the job - .........

If they were guaranteed to be clean!!
Water and wiping works well enough for my darkfield, with any brand of covet slips.

I suspect no cover slip is clean enough, unless one cleans it him/herself. My Zeiss / Scott cover slips are still not clean enough for darkfield. I still need to wipe them.

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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#41 Post by Radazz » Sun Aug 28, 2016 2:35 pm

Well, I got the very best results with both pre-cleaned labeled and not, by soaking in distilled white vinegar and rinsing in a distilled water bath.

A great deal of work, and a smell I thought I'd left behind with the wet darkroom.
Only really worth it for dark-field photography, I think.

Jim
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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#42 Post by mrsonchus » Sun Aug 28, 2016 4:25 pm

Radazz wrote:Well, I got the very best results with both pre-cleaned labeled and not, by soaking in distilled white vinegar and rinsing in a distilled water bath.

A great deal of work, and a smell I thought I'd left behind with the wet darkroom.
Only really worth it for dark-field photography, I think.

Jim
Hi Jim, how long in the white-vinegar? I've got some that I used before I 'invested in' some glacial-acetic-acid that I can try...
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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#43 Post by zzffnn » Sun Aug 28, 2016 6:14 pm

The pros use aqua regia, which requires a fume hood. I would think one would not need to bother with strong fuming acids, if vinegar comes anywhere close. I wonder how much better vinegar is, compared to water + wiping.

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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#44 Post by Radazz » Mon Aug 29, 2016 10:10 pm

i soaked them about 8 hours in the white vinegar, then held the slide or the slip with tweezers and swished it back and forth in distilled water. Pat with lens paper to dry.

Pain in the anal poor, but great for df photography.

Jim
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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#45 Post by mrsonchus » Mon Aug 29, 2016 10:17 pm

Radazz wrote:i soaked them about 8 hours in the white vinegar, then held the slide or the slip with tweezers and swished it back and forth in distilled water. Pat with lens paper to dry.

Pain in the anal poor, but great for df photography.

Jim
Hmm, I think I'll give this a try for batches of say 20 or so at a time. Thanks for the info. :)
John B

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Re: Reasonable Expectations for Cleanliness of New Materials

#46 Post by Yvan » Thu Nov 24, 2016 8:56 am

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