[Noisebridge-discuss] Shaker/Incubator: May I get some help with mechanical construction

[Sean Cusack]

Yo -

So, are you thinking of an orbital shaker? If you absolutely need to stick
with the mason jar size, I think thats about all you can do, though there
are a lot of other options that are really simple and cheap if you can move
down to centrifuge tube (~25-50mL size). This video has a good many of
them...and some absolutely 80s-tastic bg music. Bust out the spandex:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fleRRlwOS_w (on a side note, you can buy from
Daigger without having a corporate account!)

A few other ideas/suggestions for you from a guy who works as a bench
chemist in biotech:

I know its not as sexy as doing the hardware hacking, but you could just buy
a shaker table. Some are relatively cheap - when bio companies go under,
zany vulture companies come in and buy out all their shit at super discount
prices. There are a bunch that are local, but the place where I work
generally finds a bunch of stuff at Alliance in Santa Rosa (delivery is
included, but you do need to get over there to check the stuff out since
some may be really crapped up). They've got some shakers they are trying to
unload:
http://www.aaisolutions.com/products-lab-instrument-biotech-scientific-chromatography/index.cfm?SV=&Cat=Shaker

Additionally, DoveBid is used nation wide as sort of the eBay for technical
stuff. They also have a lot of complete shakers as well as components that
could make your hacking together of your own shaker much much much simpler:
http://www.go-dove.com/search/searchresults.asp?Query=shaker

Note that a large number of shakers can be purchased with heating blocks or
water baths internal to the unit so you incubation needs are simply and
cleanly taken care of. If you're going to build one, I would probably
suggest using something like a peltier heater since it will probably be
simple to implement and even simpler to control. A lot of places that build
incubators use that tech anyways.

One random question - have you thought about sterility?? If you're going to
try and grow some bugs at home you will undoubtedly contaminate pretty much
every other crop you make with some random bacteria and totally hose your
experiment. You probably want to consider hacking together some sort of "bio
area" that has a germicidal lamp in it so you can nuke those little
bacterial bastards: http://www.topbulb.com/find/germicidal.asp

Hope that helps -
Sean

On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 7:26 PM, Glen Jarvis <glen at glenjarvis.com> wrote:

> I'm working on building a shaker/incubator for e. coli and any samples. I'm
> okay at digital hardware; I make my living at software; and I can get by on
> some things. But, I'm pretty crap at mechanical stuff. I should have
> listened more to my dad when he was building things [but I was playing with
> my commodore instead] :(
>
> I need to make a shaker/incubator. I see it as just a wheel with a metal
> plate on top of it that moves in a circular plane, but doesn't spin (I'm
> doing a crap job of describing this - those that have seen a shaker, could
> you help me explain?)
>
> I'd like it to have a small hood so that I can keep the inside a fixed
> temperature. Ideally this would be:
> * Take up the smallest amount of physical space possible (i.e., not too
> much desk space, etc. since home labs are small)
> * Be able to fit a few flasks inside.. a good rule of thumb, if an average
> size mason jar will fit (maybe two), that's awesome)
> * Cheap.. cheap.. cheap..
>
> I need to be able to heat the internal space. I imagine the power for the
> machine will be external AC controlled by a Relay from a boarduino with a
> thermister (I have this part done except for finding a relay). There will be
> two controls - the amount of shake and temperature.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there a typical type of
> container/enclosure that you can think of that can be repurposed? I thought
> of a yogurt maker that I can sit on something that 'shakes/spins/moves side
> to side'
>
> Or, even better, anyone know where I can get a freebie incubator that I can
> use?
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> Glen
> --
> Whatever you can do or imagine, begin it;
> boldness has beauty, magic, and power in it.
>
> -- Goethe
>
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>
>
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