Manufacturing Gel Boxes and Power Supplies

[Josiah Zayner]

Gel boxes can be made inexpensively even with platinum wire(found on eBay). I have made some for ~$10 in materials. The problem is manufacturing a number of them inexpensively and so that they don't leak. Again, I have built my own and it can be a pain in the ass.
Also, lately also I have been purchasing used functional power supplies off of eBay but would rather pay some to manufacture some fixed voltage power supplies.

Looking for a final costs of ~$15-$30 per gel box and don't know for the power supplies?

Anyone have experience doing this or thought about doing this on a scale of 10s or 100s?

This is for The ODIN and I am willing to pay money.

Thanks,
     Josiah Zayner, Ph.D.
     CEO, The ODIN
     http://www.the-odin.com

[Nathan McCorkle]

I never did it, but I have thought vacuum-forming would be a good way
to do quickly and with little labor.

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-Nathan

[Avery louie]

Hey Josiah,

I have beem working on this.  Lets talk!

--A

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[John Griessen]

On 05/18/2015 12:55 PM, Nathan McCorkle wrote:
> vacuum-forming would be a good way

+1

1. Instead of starting with sheet, and using big heaters, maybe
3D print, (fused plastic deposition) onto a mold, so one side would be smooth
even for fast flow rates with big nozzles. That would still have a big draft angle like vacuum formed parts
need, but not the big heaters. An extruder nozzle that is long-skinny would be needed for clearing the draft angle
if left vertical, or need more complex movement to extrude along a toolpath inside a tray
by tilting so the fat heater nozzle could clear the part. Long-skinny could freeze and clog, but
not if you keep your speed up... I'd go for speed and a quick change hot end nose that is narrow-deep,
rather than bog down in 3D toolpath design.

2. make your own filament by the tens of pounds from cheap-scrap/your-own-scrap
with setup like this: http://www.soliforum.com/topic/8876/pet-tglase-regrind

I"m thinking of getting one of these extruders to make filament even though I
don't want a FDM machine yet -- there are many FDM machine operators for hire in town here.

3. Or, if you want the usual batch sizes of 1000's, hire a standard vacuum former and use sheet
plastic as your input. I've been reading books on vac forming lately and it's still big, hot,
and for pretty thin sheet mostly.

4. Instead, what I' studying now is vac-from from regrind scrap -- using ABS as the
tooling to vac form against, and starting a product vac-form "blank" with
a "rough" FDM print via a 1.5mm or 2mm nozzle. Then you make a heating setup of ceramic IR heaters
surrounding your vac-form "blank", (mine are cylindric mostly, but shallow trays could work well also),
and use some genuine teflon fingers for it to sit on without sticking and take the heat like teflon,
and when the vac-form "blank" is "rubbery" move it to the vac form mold and seal and suck.


Proof of concept of using ABS as mold material: http://www.stratasys.com/resources/case-studies/commercial-products/whale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOKj6CsZ92M

[Jeswin]

The well combs....Why is there no standard for the box and comb dimensions? At one time I wanted combs and there were lots of boxes in the lab. But they're all different sizes and it's hard to find combs that matched or were in stock. So annoying.

I think I know what the responses/solutions are to this. I'm just pointing something out, that's all.

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In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas.
-Marco Antonio Dominis

[Maria Chavez]

Josiah,

If you are looking for a place that would make a specific component
for you, I talked with these folks quite a bit recently and they might
be what you are looking for:

http://www.seeedstudio.com/propagate/

-Maria

On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 10:45 AM, Josiah Zayner <josiah...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Nathan McCorkle]

On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 8:00 PM, Maria Chavez <ishy...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.seeedstudio.com/propagate/

For what it's worth, seeed responded to a request for which the
electronics schematics and layout existed and were open-source
(openBCI) with this, but never a follow-up afterward:
"Thank you so much for giving us suggestion! I have put them on my
notebook and will discuss with our EE to see if I can put them in OPL
v2."

I bet the bioinstrument market doesn't seem very attractive to them...
but it was an easy enough email to send.

[Maria Chavez]

Nathan - I've meet them in person and could give you the follow up
info it if helps. I know one person that has contacted with them for
small scale prototyping but otherwise not sure how good they are.
Thanks for the feedback because I was looking for a good pipeline to
recommend to folks who are working on projects who ask for
recommendations.

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[Patrik D'haeseleer]

On Monday, May 18, 2015 at 10:56:03 AM UTC-7, Nathan McCorkle wrote:

I never did it, but I have thought vacuum-forming would be a good way
to do quickly and with little labor.

I would be worried about any excess heat melting the thin vacuum form plastic. You're far better off just getting some cheap plastic containers at the dollar store. Last I looked they had some offers for 4-5 single use containers for a dollar - can't beat that! And the somewhat thicker plastic should hold up a bit longer if there's excessive heat...

Patrik

[Otto Heringer]

+1 for the vacuum forming idea

In what scale does vacuum forming worth to be used!? I don't know if any manufacturer (there's a lot of chinese manufacturers on internets) would produce 100's for a good cheap price - but there's always the old DIY option; I wonder how thick the reservoir walls could be in this homemade process.

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[John Griessen]

On 05/19/2015 09:38 AM, Otto Heringer wrote:
> there's always the old DIY option <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhajk_IDTUo>; I wonder how thick the reservoir walls could be
> in this homemade process.

I've been reading books on vac-forming and they "usually" stay with about 1mm max. That's for seed reasons
mostly. If you just let radiant heat soften a sheet for longer, thicker works. When the corners of a tray
are rounded and like a natural shape of a softened sheet of plastic pulled by vacuum or pushed by air,
the plastic need not be completely sagging under its weight before applying vac (and sometimes low pressure also).
The rubbery soft plastic will form into such a rounded shape. I think 2mm plastic would be a low risk experiment,
from what I've read.

[Otto Heringer]

The necessity of round corners might give a beautiful design for the electrophoresis reservoir

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[Nathan McCorkle]

On Tue, May 19, 2015 at 10:07 AM, Otto Heringer <ottowh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The necessity of round corners might give a beautiful design for the
> electrophoresis reservoir

A nice feature, but moreso the lack of hard corners will ease cleaning
and reduce contamination (though this is already minimal for something
like a gel box). Maybe they'd even help with the electrolyte flow in
the fluid?

[Otto Heringer]

FIY, I found this today while searching for a completely different subject:
http://public.iorodeo.com/docs/electrophoresis_power_supply/

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[Josiah Zayner]

That's awesome Otto. Thanks.

[Dakota Hamill]

Ive used an IO rodeo mini gel box for the past 2 years, it's been great for the price.  Welding it yourself sucks, get epoxy burns everywhere on the plastic and it looks bad, but it works.  Taping trays sucks though, I'd rather have a squeegie setup that allows for instant pours n turn n run.  The top wings on the tray that hold the combs broke to (our own welding job).  Uniform pieces you didn't have to weld together with a solvent would be sweet, but probably much more expensive.  Never used their power supply.

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[Pieter Waag]

Ive been using the IOrodeo setup for a long time, and it works like a charm. The power supply is based on the (famous) Nixie HV switching power supply, often found in DIY projects: http://www.desmith.net/NMdS/Electronics/NixiePSU.html

Instead of a power supply, connecting a bunch of 9V batteries in series works well too, especially when doing DNA work in the field