One thing you can try is to place modeling clay at the base of the pin. Add some mother liquor to a quartz capillary (1-2mm should work) and under a microscope carefully cover the loop with the capillary, pressing it into the clay to seal the crystal in a closed system. As long as you move or divert the cold stream, you should be ok. I actually collected a full dataset off one precious crystal this way at room temperature, and it diffracted to >2.2 Å.
Good luck. Bryan From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On Behalf Of Ed Pozharski Sent: Monday, July 07, 2014 12:58 PM To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] emergency substitute for RT loop cover? Try to put your crystal into oil drop? Sent on a Sprint Samsung Galaxy S® III -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confidentiality Notice: This message is private and may contain confidential and proprietary information. If you have received this message in error, please notify us and remove it from your system and note that you must not copy, distribute or take any action in reliance on it. Any unauthorized use or disclosure of the contents of this message is not permitted and may be unlawful. -------- Original message -------- From: Frank von Delft Date:07/07/2014 12:32 PM (GMT-05:00) To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK<mailto:CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK> Subject: [ccp4bb] emergency substitute for RT loop cover? Hi all Pretend you were stuck having to do RT data collection but without access to either Mitegen MicroRT Capillaries or the more old-fashioned quartz capillaries, to pop over the loop. Anybody have suggestions of alternative ways of doing this? I do want to use loops (I never learnt how to suck up crystals in capillaries). I have access to a passably stocked biochemistry teaching lab, and could at a pinch go rifle some more advanced research labs. (No, I'm not at home ;) Thanks! phx