re-coversliping old slides or I love the smell of victory..

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neal Shields
Posts: 58
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2022 8:02 pm

re-coversliping old slides or I love the smell of victory..

#1 Post by neal Shields » Sat Jul 23, 2022 4:59 pm

I bought a set of 100 Histology slides on eBay. They are old and as a result are high quality thin sections, from a medical school.

However, several of the slides (disclosed) had media that was cracked so badly that you couldn't even see the tissue samples. One was a thin section embryo that had just enough of a window, in the cracked media, so that I could see that the tissue sample underneath was a master work of the art, with world class staining.

I consulted this forum and the internet. "Just remove the old cover slip and put a new one on". What could be simpler.

First soak the old slide in xylene.

According to the internet if you are are in the nosebleed seats and someone on the 50 yard line spills a teaspoon of xylene on a windy day, you're either dead on the spot or will grow a third eye. At 73, I could use a 3rd eye so I forged ahead. I did put the xylene in a glass jar, used forceps to take the slide in and out, put the glass jar in a plastic lidded container and used my upstairs outside front porch as my work bench.

It worked! I even reused the old cover slip which was slightly oversized and I only had normal sized new ones.

What did I learn. IT ISN'T WORTH IT!

Even though it is very hard to get thin sectioned (< 12µ) with anything but H&E stain, it still isn't (in my opinion) worth it, unless you have a laboratory set up for it and hundreds of slides to do at once.

These are samples of the before and after:

Before:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196001110 ... ed-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/196001110 ... ed-public/

After:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/196001110 ... ed-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/196001110 ... ed-public/

Hobbyst46
Posts: 4277
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2017 9:02 pm

Re: re-coversliping old slides or I love the smell of victory..

#2 Post by Hobbyst46 » Sat Jul 23, 2022 6:35 pm

To me (just me ?) the images of the renovated slides are very acceptable.
So, I am curious, why do you say that IT IS NOT WORTH IT ?

neal Shields
Posts: 58
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2022 8:02 pm

Re: re-coversliping old slides or I love the smell of victory..

#3 Post by neal Shields » Sun Jul 24, 2022 12:25 am

I think the renovated slide is close to as good as new and better than most new but it was a three day project with hazardous chemicals and several opportunities to screw up. When I went to put the new cover slip on, I didn't use enough mounting and had to slide it back to put more mounting on. I might have damaged the tissue. I don't think so but....

In any case, if you search hard enough you can find similar slides with good stain and reasonably thin sections for $15. If you don't have the chemicals and the mounting medium you are way over that before you start. That is why I say for one or two slides, no for lots yes.

Greg Howald
Posts: 1185
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2020 6:44 am

Re: re-coversliping old slides or I love the smell of victory..

#4 Post by Greg Howald » Sun Jul 24, 2022 4:06 am

You did well. Many of us would not even consider the time and extreme care required. Yet you were successful. Congratulations for :) your patience and determination .

Chas
Posts: 422
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2021 3:11 pm

Re: re-coversliping old slides or I love the smell of victory..

#5 Post by Chas » Sun Jul 24, 2022 8:53 am

Very impressive ! :-)

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