DIY lab equipment

[Lauren R]

What is the main lab equipment you use in a DIY lab? Like what do you feel is the best equipment to get first?  The closest community lab in the main city I'm aware of is 1 hour away -- depending on traffic!!  So I guess my only option is doing DIY Bio at home. 

[Dakota Hamill]

Thermal cycler, gel box with power supply, pipettes, UV light.  

You can do a lot with just that.  Microcentrifuge is helpful as well. 

PCR tubes and 1.5mL eppendorf tubes. 

On Sat, Apr 21, 2018, 8:54 PM Lauren R <tattere...@gmail.com> wrote:

What is the main lab equipment you use in a DIY lab? Like what do you feel is the best equipment to get first?  The closest community lab in the main city I'm aware of is 1 hour away -- depending on traffic!!  So I guess my only option is doing DIY Bio at home. 

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[Cory J. Geesaman]

My take would be figure out what you want to do and get the list of equipment required for it, buy what you don't have.  You can build up a decent lab over time that way.  Also go through places like eBay with a list of all the equipment you eventually want every few months and see if there's a good deal for anything, lots of times there will be a 2k+ piece of equipment going for a couple hundred bucks in working condition but it's very sporadic so you just have to watch and wait for something good.

[Lauren C]

I see. Good to know and thanks!

On Sat, Apr 21, 2018 at 5:56 PM, Dakota Hamill <dko...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thermal cycler, gel box with power supply, pipettes, UV light.  

You can do a lot with just that.  Microcentrifuge is helpful as well. 

PCR tubes and 1.5mL eppendorf tubes. 

On Sat, Apr 21, 2018, 8:54 PM Lauren R <tattere...@gmail.com> wrote:

What is the main lab equipment you use in a DIY lab? Like what do you feel is the best equipment to get first?  The closest community lab in the main city I'm aware of is 1 hour away -- depending on traffic!!  So I guess my only option is doing DIY Bio at home. 

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[Lauren R]

Ok, great to know and thanks!!

[Lauren R]

Good points!  That's true--you can build a lab that's not bad over time.  I'll keep an eye out and watch equip on eBay.  

[John Griessen]

On 04/21/2018 10:58 PM, Lauren R wrote:
> Good points!  That's true--you can build a lab that's not bad over time.  I'll keep an eye out and watch equip on eBay.

So now you're definitely in the weird category -- the other essential is that your lab either be all portable, (which surplus
equipment is not), or you need to start choosing a town to live in and control some dirt to have a lab on. If interested, contact
me about planning, pitfalls, learning to use gnucash to do accrual based manufacturing bookkeeping, etc. The going is definitely
getting weird, so we all might as well turn pro. (Like HST said)

--
John Griessen
industromatic.com Austin TX building lab gear for biologists

[John Griessen]

Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2018 09:44:32 -0400
From: Tom Knight

My email isn’t liked by the group, perhaps you could forward this.

Also, I forgot the centrifuge.
(10) Centrifuge. Eppendorf 5424 or 5418 are my current favorites. Both in current production, but available used. Consider a 5415,
but be aware that parts are no longer available.
$800-1000

> A minimal bench setup:
> (1) pipettors. Choose a brand and style and stick with it. You want to only have one type of tip in stock. Good brands are
> Eppendorf, Gilson, Rainin. Know the difference between LTS tips and other types. You need at least 1000ul, 200 ul, 20 ul. 2 ul
> is useful.
> $100 each
>
> (2) vortexer. Get an old, rusty, VWR Vortex Genie. They work better than most of the new ones.
> $100
>
> (3) little picofuge. Get a VWR Galaxy C1413 (really made by Tomy) with the 6-place tube holder.
> $100
>
> (4) Bunsen burner. Many choices, but the pro version is the Fireboy. Watch out, the CV360 butane tanks used by many of these are
> no longer made or available at reasonable prices. You want to use the Coleman propane camp tanks.
> $200-400
>
> (5) PCR machine. I’d get an old Biorad (really MJ) PTC-200 with a 96 well alpha block. Many other choices, this is mine.
> $800-2000
>
> (6) incubator Recycle an old hybridization oven. The Illumina ones often fail and can be fixed with a simple fan swap. Boekel
>  ones are inexpensive and work well, even with digital controls
> $100-300
>
> (7) Serological pipettor. I’d recommend a used Drummond (electric only!). May need to replace the battery. Easiest in the newer
> small sized ones with no bottom bulge.
> $100
>
> (8) Autoclave. Yamato SM-310 is great for a small lab.
> $1000-2000
>
> (9) Water bath. Use a kitchen Sous-Vide unit that has a pump and accurate temperature control. Amazon.

[Orkhan Karimov]

Thanks for the information John!

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[Jason Bobe]

John - I'll look into why TK's email is having problems. glad he found a work around. Can you message me the email he is sending from, so I can look into it?

On Sun, Apr 22, 2018 at 10:57 AM, John Griessen <jo...@industromatic.com> wrote:

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[Skyler Gordon]

In the old days, people would use temperature controlled water baths to do PCR. That was before the thermal cycler existed...

You can probably get old water baths for free or cheap online, as long as you’re committed to doing 10-30 thermal cycles by hand. You could also just use your stove and a pot.

-SG

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