Hmm. I haven't used it for DNA extraction, but the Wig-L-Bug
sounds on the same lines -- stainless steel "tube" with cap
and stainless steel beads. We use it to grind up paint chips,
often in potassium bromide for FT-IR analysis. It's
reasonably well-made, but there are a few parts that just
wear out quickly (arms on the shaker) -- but they are
cheap and easy to replace. Most paint chips are ground up
in a minute or two, even epoxies and such. It works quite well
for our applications. It's made by the folks at Crescent Dental.
I have found them to be knowledgeable and helpful.
I don't know why someone would want to use glass beads --
sounds pretty ineffective.
http://www.dentalxchange.com/crescent/
-Tom Schwerdt (Only dabbling in Maize, paint chemist during
the week)
Http://www.paintlab.com
Philip W Becraft wrote:
>> I've used a system where tissue, sand and liquid N2 are added to a conical
> tube. A glass rod is inserted and the tube is placed on a vortexer. For
> hundreds of samples it beats a mortar and pestle but I don't think it will
> solve your problem.
>> I wasted some money on a thing called a bead beater. Basically an expensive
> paint shaker for 2 ml tubes. We found that leaving the tube half empty and
> using zirconium beads instead of glass helped a lot. Still, we don't use
> the thing.
