Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Step 2Safety.
Given that centrifuges spin at tens of thousands times per minute, they can be exceedingly dangerous.
Blender
Even though the rotor has no cutting edges, sticking your finger in it at speed would be equivalent to sticking it directly into an industrial blender.
To prevent this happening, my microfuge has no off-switch.
Instead, its lid is held on by three separate bolts, all of which need to be screwed down before the microfuge will work, and as soon as they are slackened the power is cut to the rotor. The length of the bolts mean that, by the time you have gotten them all unscrewed, the rotor will have slowed to a safe speed.
Bomb
Under the extreme forces involved, centrifuges don't just break, they catastrophically fail. They come apart with the energy (and reportedly the sound) of a small explosion, complete with shrapnel.
For this reason, my microfuge has tough walls, which appear to contain fibrous reinforcement.
Larger centrifuges presumably have tougher reinforcement.
Pager Motor
Pager motors vibrate because they spin an un-balanced weight.
If you do not balance the load on the rotor, the whole centrifuge will vibrate alarmingly, dancing about the place like a thing possessed. If allowed to carry on, there is the risk of bending the rotor, leading to catastrophic failure.
To prevent this, my centrifuge seems to have a rotor that is much more massive than the tubes, and so is harder to put off-balance. However, you should always use paired microfuge tubes, each filled with the same load (that is, the same amount of the same stuff), to reduce the risk. There are enough spaces in the rotor to take up to eight tubes - when I use more than two tubes, I use four or eight at once.
On top of all this, remember that the centrifuge is an electrical device, and most of the samples I plan on testing will be water-based. Vulnerable points are where the power lead plugs into the microfuge, and the wall-wart itself.
Blender
Even though the rotor has no cutting edges, sticking your finger in it at speed would be equivalent to sticking it directly into an industrial blender.
To prevent this happening, my microfuge has no off-switch.
Instead, its lid is held on by three separate bolts, all of which need to be screwed down before the microfuge will work, and as soon as they are slackened the power is cut to the rotor. The length of the bolts mean that, by the time you have gotten them all unscrewed, the rotor will have slowed to a safe speed.
Bomb
Under the extreme forces involved, centrifuges don't just break, they catastrophically fail. They come apart with the energy (and reportedly the sound) of a small explosion, complete with shrapnel.
For this reason, my microfuge has tough walls, which appear to contain fibrous reinforcement.
Larger centrifuges presumably have tougher reinforcement.
Pager Motor
Pager motors vibrate because they spin an un-balanced weight.
If you do not balance the load on the rotor, the whole centrifuge will vibrate alarmingly, dancing about the place like a thing possessed. If allowed to carry on, there is the risk of bending the rotor, leading to catastrophic failure.
To prevent this, my centrifuge seems to have a rotor that is much more massive than the tubes, and so is harder to put off-balance. However, you should always use paired microfuge tubes, each filled with the same load (that is, the same amount of the same stuff), to reduce the risk. There are enough spaces in the rotor to take up to eight tubes - when I use more than two tubes, I use four or eight at once.
On top of all this, remember that the centrifuge is an electrical device, and most of the samples I plan on testing will be water-based. Vulnerable points are where the power lead plugs into the microfuge, and the wall-wart itself.
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
 |
Add Comment
|
