coverslip handling tool

[keithstout]

Hello. I've been away a while, at my scopes, busy diatom wrangling and mounting. I find the weakest part of my diatom mounting procedure is the final placement of the coverslip onto the pluerax. I've only done it a few times and am not comfortable with it.

I spent the day practicing the task. I tried a straight tweezer and then a curved, both 4 1/2" long. Holding the coverslip in a tweezer, I lower one edge of the coverslip onto the glass, then the opposite side, which is clamped by the tweezer. As the coverslip levels out on the pleurax, I have a very clumsy moment when I try to get the tweezer out. The coverslip often hangs up on the tweezer tip and drags out of place. I try various maneuvers of the tweezer, a twist or a turn to help the tweezer escape the coverslip, but my huge fingers bump into the mounting jig (which holds the slide still), making such maneuvering difficult and ineffective. My touch is horribly brutal, shaky, unfit for fine work like this.

I found this coverslip handling tool:
https://us.vwr.com/store/product/463612 ... industries

It's not illustrated well. But you affix a suction cup to the squeeze handle's nozzle. You squeeze the handle and suck the coverslip to the cup. Getting the coverslip positioned over your mountant, you then release the suction, which releases the slip. Hopefully, this tool makes a clean, easy release.

Does anybody use this tool? Can anybody tell me if they are helpful? Handy? If you have one, could you live without it? I'd be grateful foe any input.
Keith

[PeteM]

I use something very similar to handle lens elements. Same idea - vacuum piston and an assortment of small suction cup ends. The suction cups tend to grab clean glass - not sure a cover slip would cleanly release. Cheap enough (and handy enough for other purposes) you might give it a try? Worst case you might make a thin outer tube (fit over the suction cup) to assure an even release?

Mine has a red bulb and longer attachments. This one similar to your link, but a fraction of the cost: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JBWYYST/re ... NrPXRydWU=

[BramHuntingNematodes]

That's a neat looking thing I use cover glass forceps with the paddle tips bent at an angle and they work p good but this may have some promise

[keithstout]

Thanks for the link, Pete. I checked it out; I didn't know this little guy was out there.
Keith

[MichaelG.]

Similar tools are widely used for handling ‘Surface Mount Devices’

Try searching ebay for ‘smd suction tool’

prices, detail design, and quality are variable … but the concept is well-proven

MichaelG.

[Phill Brown]

Is it possible to try lowering the slide upside down onto the coverslip.
At moment of contact the coverslip should stay with the slide by surface tension.
If centering is important a spot of marker can be put on what will be the outsides and removed after things set.
It's only a serving suggestion as slides may be easier to handle than coverslips.

[Hobbyst46]

1. Definitely, lowering a slide onto the coverslip (diatoms on the CS face upwards) is easier than fiddling with the CS.
I place the tiny drop of Pleurax on the slide. Have a ready-made space with flat raised limiting bars (spaced ~7.6cm). Place the CS in the middle between the bars and lay down the slide onto the CS. There are other variations of this approach.
2. My experience with a cheap Chinese "vacuum pencil" for catching the CS by vacuum was really bad. Only cost ~6-7 USD but failed. After a few futile trials it flew to the waste basket.

[keithstout]

Hobbyst46:

Lowering the slide onto the cs means you must turn the assembly over. How do you prevent the cs from shifting? I'd think half way through the turnover, gravity would pull the cs down the slide.

[Hobbyst46]

Hobbyst46:
Lowering the slide onto the cs means you must turn the assembly over. How do you prevent the cs from shifting? I'd think half way through the turnover, gravity would pull the cs down the slide.

The slide is prepared and positioned with small paper clips - I learnt it from the great and enjoyable post by forum member rnabholz:
​viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3036&hilit=doing+diatoms&start=420 (see in particular post #479).
Details of protocol - fairly similar to other protocols, though not identical:

There is a 20x10x1 cm (approximately) flat smooth aluminum bar over the burner. No flame yet.
My diatom-loaded CS lies on a flat surface, on the bench, diatoms on the top surface.
I put Pleurax on a clean (not heated) slide and invert the slide onto the CS. Press very lightly with a Q-tip, or not at all.
The CS sticks to the slide. I then decorate the slide with two paper clips such that they serve as shallow spacers. Holding and moving the slide to and fro does not shift it relative to the slide- Pleurax is fairly viscous. The resin is not warm, so keeps its viscosity, well against gravity.
The spacers keep the CS (now attached to the bottom surface of the slide) a few millimeters above the metallic surface. It is hung beneath the slide.
Next, I lift the decorated slide with a pair of forceps or just with fingers and place it gently on the heater plate.
It happens that over-heating causes the solvent in the resin to boil and the CS (with diatoms) is launched and flies away from the slide, so that slide is lost. Because burner flames cannot be precisely controlled.

[GerryR]

Try one of these lens "suckers" used for camera lens repair. The kit comes with very small suction cups, which are perfect for coverslip holding and positioning:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175019537986?e ... Swrchg2UYJ


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