Steel nose poke reinforcements

[Claire Foldi]

Hi Lex, further to our conversation earlier, I wanted to mention that some of our rats have become experts at chewing through the nose poke ports (Multi Fusion PA12 prints from Shapeways). I had thought to modify the print design of the housing to remove the nose poke ports, print them separately in steel, and superglue them on... much like many of us are doing for the pellet magazine. However, I appreciate that steel so thick might not be secured easily with superglue. 

For an immediate fix, as suggested, I have ordered some stainless steel washers in a couple of different sizes to glue onto the front of the ports and hopefully prevent this annoying tendency. They are 1.5mm thick, which shouldn't be an issue for the rats, but maybe not an ideal fix if others are having the same issue with mice. 

If there is a wider desire to reinforce the nose poke ports, then perhaps we can discuss modifying the design of the housing to accommodate the washer thickness... will let you know how the testing goes!

/C

[Lex Kravitz]

Hi Claire! This issue has come up before and I have meant to look into it.  A simple solution may be to clue a metal washer to the front of each poke to protect them.  The diameter of the pokes is 22mm and the hole is 12mm, so one of these parts might work as a cheap fix:

https://www.mcmaster.com/94589A450/

https://www.mcmaster.com/98032A336/

I'll order both of these now to test them out now, I had meant to look into it but never did.  If anyone else has already done this please chime in!  Gluing a washer would add ~1.5mm in thickness to the front of each poke.  That may not be a big deal but we could modify the 3D design to pull back the pokes by this amount.  I'll give this a test as well and post back with photos! 

[Lex Kravitz]

The washers came today. The fit is great for either of the parts in the above link, see photos below for the steel washers.  I haven't tested them with mice but I have mice that are trained with FR1 so I'll see if adding washers interferes with anything.  For ~20 cents each this seems like a good solution to protect the pokes!

[Eric Zorrilla]

Hi Lex,

Did these interfere with operant responding in any way?  Is there a print file adapted for the thickness?

Thank you!

Eric

[Lex Kravitz]

Hey Eric!  We only made one and used it with mice.  It did not seem to interfere with operant pokes or behavior, the mouse did fine.  I'm attaching the STL if you want to give it a go, the editable TinkerCAD design is here. 

[Claire Foldi]

Hi All, 

We have been using the stainless steel washers glued onto the original nose port print files and have had no problems with rats or mice over the last few months. Highly recommend to prevent chewing of plastic!

/C

[Victor Cazares]

Same here! The washers have been highly effective and not interfered with responding. Highly recommend.

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