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> -----Original Message----- > On Behalf Of Edward Snell > Sent: 04 May 2006 20:45 > <snip/> > examine the shippers at the other end. Washing crystals in > liquid nitrogen at the beamline removes most of the problems > but it is an extra step that eats into data collection time. Enter the IceGonne: Brymill is your friend, check out www.brymill.com. Undying gratitude to James Holton for this pointer, it's increased our (manual) screening throughput at the beamline by (probably) 30%: a 3-5 second blast leaves the loop clean as a vicar's sermon, it's easy and robust -- every beamline and lab should have one. AND: it's the COOLEST toy.... What works for us: - Use without any of the special nozzles they supply. - Make sure it's full enough and has good pressure (e.g. shake it). It has to spray lN2, else you merely disrupt the cold stream and thaw the crystal. - Spray jet at crystal perpendicular to cryo stream, from 1-3cm outside stream. - Don't immediately blast the lN2 jet straight at crystal; instead, point it outside cryo stream, then sweep it towards crystal. - If the frozen drop looks loose in the loop, consider gentler alternatives. But that's pretty rare. Also, for the mitegen micromounts, spray from the side or top, else you could break it. [Btw, yes, we *have* tried everything else: - pouring lN2 (hard to aim); - artist's brush (too many bristles, indiscriminate, can block cryo stream) - human hair (tricky, needs a long breath, hair must be clean...) ]
