Home made gems don't "invert"

[Paul N Hengen]

Duncan at genesys.demon.co.uk writes:

> jow at helix.nih.gov writes:
>
>> He said for best results make the molten wax 10%
>> mineral oil.  I haven't tried this yet. Duncan Clark's problem may be
>> beads that are too small, but it might be that the 10% mineral oil would
>> take care of the problem without increasing the volume.  
>
> I tried beads of 50ul and 100ul using a positive displacement autopippetor 
> with a syringe. The molten mix was pipetted onto aluminium foil to get it 
> to set quickly as beads. Commercial pellet makers drip the molten wax onto a 
> moving flat stainless conveyor belt....

A while back someone mentioned that placing the molten wax into individual
wells of a microtiter plate gave uniformity to the shape of the pellets. I
guess the conical or round bottom type would be best. Let them cool, then
snap the whole plate upside down onto the lab bench to dislodge the gems.
OOPS! Did I say "gems"? Sorry ;-)

-Paul.

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* Paul N. Hengen, Ph.D.                           /--------------------------/*
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