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The Corroboree
Zen Peddler

Cheap Laminar Flowhood any good?

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If I understand right dust masks are intended to keep particles from being inhaled into one's lungs (with variable degrees of ineffectiveness until going to P100)

Surgical masks are used to catch exhaled particulates.

Absolutely.

But dust masks do stop most of the particles forcibly ejected onto the workspace when sneezing/ coughing

it's a ghetto tek, but this far out into the bush it's cheaper and more convenient to buy 5 dust masks for $5 as required than it is to buy a box of surgical masks and wait for them to turn up/ store them carefully

Have never had a problem with the dust masks for this purpose.

It's easy to track contamination down by it's pattern and timing. 90% of the contamination I've seen is operator error, the routine wearing of breath/sneeze containment is prophylactic is practically all cases I've seen except where the operator has a cold or cough.

Though many commercial TC labs do mandate the wearing of surgical masks when at the flow hood, I believe this is because it is difficult to supervise a larger number of staff whose skills levels vary widely and some of whom can do some pretty damn stupid things when you're not looking. It's also a great form of psychological reinforcement

The whole point of laminar flow is to blow all small particles back in the direction of the operator so they don't contaminate the work space.

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Well the cheapo arrived and ive put it together. To be honest it seems to work very well - flame tested the flow is very even and it was nice not to be working in a stupid glove box for once...

Ive set up my laundry as the clean room because the surfaces are all smooth and the top of my washing machine and drier is smooth and easily sterilised.

I did 30 transfers, 20 streaks and 50 clones all in a day out there after pouring all the agar earlier in the day. Went old school and used h202 on some but most clean.

Here is a pic of the set up from yesterday.

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Let us know how the cultures go. I want to see the success rate of your plates after using that thing.

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Yeah will report any contams as they happen :)

You better! Don't make me put those videos of you online! =P

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Yeah will report any contams as they happen :)

Please do! I've been looking at these for a while so will be interested to see how it goes.

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Where is your dryer vented? Do you wrap your plates with parafilm afterwards, or keep them in a sterile environment?

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If that things works, that's a decent price!

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Had an outbreak of bacteria in a few and cobweb in others. All of it seems to be growing from the wedges and not randomly from what you'd expect from airborne contams.

interestingly of 20 plates streaked with waterboy's print only one has any sign of contamination after 6 days...

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Have you tried doing any control plates where you just expose them to the flow and then seal them back up without inoculating it?

If the control plates don't contaminate, you will know its all good.

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It sounds like you scored a bargain.

I think a lot of people would be happy to pay that much to ditch the glovebox. Your productivity should skyrocket and make the hobby much more enjoyable. I gave up mycology because of the mental torment inflicted by that fucking box.

Thanks for the updates.

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Well after about 600 transfers, clones and spore streaks I've had almost a complete absence of airborne contaminants. I think his other stuff is all overpriced but the flow hood is awesome.

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I had a dream last night I saw one in the workshop at work and was in two minds as to steal it.

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Zen Peddler ..how do you work with the hood...do you just spray everything down, place it in front of the hood then turn the thing on for a pre determined amount of time before doing any work?

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Zen Peddler ..how do you work with the hood...do you just spray everything down, place it in front of the hood then turn the thing on for a pre determined amount of time before doing any work?

I have a small flow hood. I clean the room with bleach and then I leave the hood running for a while whilst I shower and do what I have to do. To make the expensive HEPA filter last longer I bought a furnace filter and stuck it over the air intake to use as a prefilter.

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Exactly the same with me bar the type of prefilter.

Man, go onto Amazon or Ebay and buy some furnace filters to use as a prefilter. If you can find something just as good at a cheaper price here then do that. To quote RR

"Use the highest quality furnace filter you can get because it will save the expensive HEPA filter. I use the super allergen, 1 X 20, by cutting the packaging so I'm using only half of it at a time.

My flowhood is nearly 12 years old, runs several hours per day and is on the original filter. I've probably changed the prefilter 100 times."

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