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Tek: Soma_seeker's home-made laminar flow hood for $180 (or less...)

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maybe you could share your design and enter it into tek comp, would be cool we only have 3 entries

if i get motivated, i will, but it would be just an idea.

bigred82, you know i have entered already with my heimia crystall tek...

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maybe you could share your design and enter it into tek comp, would be cool we only have 3 entries

What is the tek comp?

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The question is whether a fan will create turbulent or laminar air flow. If it's turbulent it may not matter that you're on the other end of the stream, contaminants could still potentially cross onto what you're working on.

I don't know either way and until I started looking things up just then I didn't know the meaning of laminar or paid much thought to whether or not streams of air directed at me from a fan could have eddies or be parallel streams.

I think the easiest answer will be to see how many contaminants you get.

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The question is whether a fan will create turbulent or laminar air flow. If it's turbulent it may not matter that you're on the other end of the stream, contaminants could still potentially cross onto what you're working on.

I don't know either way and until I started looking things up just then I didn't know the meaning of laminar or paid much thought to whether or not streams of air directed at me from a fan could have eddies or be parallel streams.

I think the easiest answer will be to see how many contaminants you get.

Yep, and based on my uncontaminated stacks of agar cultures and the 20 jars I've prepared via g2g I think it is doing its job quite well :)

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hi!

to whom it concerns.

i'm sorry for, what happend, in this thread, and how i can't let go of things, which i think need to be addressed.

you people might think, i'm just a cunt, but although i try to controll it, my OCD, combined with a panic dissorder, just produces at times those reactions.

i do take responsibilety for it, but seriously, it's part of my disorder.

this thing when it happens, often ruins my life, and on top of it i often get abuse for it, or people even say, my apology was not good enough.

anyway sorry for the sidetracking and the comotion i caused, (buuuut i am right, shut up now, the head voice rummbles)

but at least you get many views, hehehe.

sorry sablings, here some roses i picked today, out of my garden, please accept my apology.

post-70-0-52547600-1361843908_thumb.jpg

sab_sorry.JPG

sab_sorry.JPG

Edited by planthelper
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I wish the roses out the front of my place looked as good

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if i don't post pics of my prototype/ghetto predecesor to soma_seeker's flow box soon, someone bug me ok?

it's very similar with less work, i hacked up plastic tubs instead of constructing a frame. and yeah i know it's not technically laminar flow, but it works.

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Still keen to see some photos of your flow box endorfinder :)

Just wanted to report that this design has proved very useful for mycobags. I use the flow to fill the bags with a full plume of sterile air, after which I inoc them via g2g, agar wedge or LC. I then seal them using an impulse sealer in the sterile air-flow.

After preparing over 30 bags in this way I've had 2 or 3 contaminate with trichoderma. I'd obviously prefer 100% success, but I'm happy with 90% or better. Now that I have a reliable method for preparing mycobags (something which has always given me trouble in the past), I've all but given up preparing quart jars. My 23qt presto PC can hold 10 quart jars, or 4 mycobags with 3.5L of grain in each. This means that for each PC run I can prepare more than twice as much grain using mycobags rather than jars (based on the quart jars actually containing 650mL each).

504107736-thumb_2013-04-02_11.11.56.jpg

Edited by soma_seeker
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Just got in my HEPA filter and pre-filter!

Going to be constructing this soon!

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Just got in my HEPA filter and pre-filter!

Going to be constructing this soon!

Awesome!

Feel free to contact me if you want to verify anything. If not, make sure you let us know how it goes :)

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hi!

to whom it concerns.

i'm sorry for, what happend, in this thread, and how i can't let go of things, which i think need to be addressed.

you people might think, i'm just a cunt, but although i try to controll it, my OCD, combined with a panic dissorder, just produces at times those reactions.

i do take responsibilety for it, but seriously, it's part of my disorder.

this thing when it happens, often ruins my life, and on top of it i often get abuse for it, or people even say, my apology was not good enough.

anyway sorry for the sidetracking and the comotion i caused, (buuuut i am right, shut up now, the head voice rummbles)

but at least you get many views, hehehe.

sorry sablings, here some roses i picked today, out of my garden, please accept my apology.

attachicon.gifsab_sorry.JPG

don't stress. No one is perfect.

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btw, I found out what was really stressing me out with this thread.

the topic starter claims it's a laminar flow hood, which it clearly is not.

most people would not care about this, but I do.

and the reason for this is foremost, my dyslexia, hehehe.

I hope this side track, might help as well to get, an answer from the topic starter, if the system still runs contams free...

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Sorry guys, haven't been active for quite a while...

In response to your question, yes the unit has been quite effective in maintaining a low contamination rate for the majority of my work. Let me explain, I've continued to have low rates of contamination from;

1. All agar work. Germinating spores, strain selection, agar wedge to LC etc.

2. Syringe prep

3. Spawning colonised qrt jars to more qrt jars (I generally turn one into 8)

The one area that I have recently had more issues with however is spawning colonised qrt jars to myc bags of sterile grain. Considering that the level of air exposure (and hence likelihood for contamination) is significantly higher when working with bags than jars I guess I shouldn't be suprised that the contam rate here is higher. However, initially I didn't seem to have a problem so maybe my technique has laxed (probably likely after my initial successes), or I just had a bad recent run.

Regardless, I'm still happy with setup and don't feel the need to upgrade/change. If you don't play around with myc bags then my recent problems aren't even a potential issue for you, if you do, chances are you'll have better luck than my recent work :)

Best of luck!

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It's cool, I thought flow hood had a hood type thing like you'd use in a chemistry reaction to avoid gas build up. Nice to learn that these can be referred to as a laminar flow hood also. I've seen one in action but didn't realise it was just one of these. Good work.

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About the recent problems with bags, have you been using the same stock of bags? Maybe the bags are contaminated from storage? Just the first thing that came to mind when I read it. Perhaps I don't understand the use of bags fully yet. Good work on the flow hood, nice inspiration .

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A few control bags that aren't inoculated/GTG'd should give you an idea where your problems are coming from. If you PC a few bags of grain and then just let them sit, if they contaminate within about 10 days then you could have an issue with your grain or sterilisation technique. If they don't contaminate the problem is being introduced at inoculation time.

Excessive grain moisture levels can cause problems in bags too.

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This is exactly what I've been looking for. Gonna be building one of these once I'm back from vacation. Commerical flow hoods are just way too expensive for a hobby mycologist. Awesome stuff man! :lol:

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Im buying one of those hepa filters but ill use a different fan.

I really hope this works. Im having terrible luck with my still air box.

Anyone else build one with the linked filter and have good results?

 

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22 hours ago, drpotato said:

Im buying one of those hepa filters but ill use a different fan.

 

I really hope this works. Im having terrible luck with my still air box.

 

Anyone else build one with the linked filter and have good results?

 

 

Interested in hearing how you're using your still air box / how you've made it. I expect that if technique is your problem, using a laminar flow hood will not help you much.

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when i say bad luck i mean sometimes it works flawlessly, other times, horrible. Also i hate working in the SAB anyway

Its little things that can spoil everything, like a little slip or wrong movement and bam, everything is doomed.
I just really, really dont like the SAB. In a flowhood, im guaranteed a sterile environment, so as long as i follow common sense, like asuming anything certain things are potentially dirty, which are the only sources of contamination, then i should get by fairly contaminant free.

Still though, im moreso interested in hearing if anyone else has had much success?

 

-edit

 

I discovered that the filter recommended has 2 flaws.
1. Low surface area; its a shallow filter so will clog quickly

2. its H13 at best, according to the efficiency ratings, probably less, this is barely, but still is, considered acceptable.

So, a decent pre-filter is a MUST, but otherwise, theres no issue here, however i found i could get a 12x12" H14 hepa 9cm deep, for about the same price incl shipping.
As for a fan, im going with a cars aircon fan, cheaper and way more powerful. And tunable too since its DC

Edited by drpotato

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