To all confocal users,
 
In reply to Michael Stanley, who asks about eliminating building vibration
from confocal systems. A very cheap and effective method is to mount the
microscope and scan head on a bike tube!
 
We have a BioRad MRC600 used on a Zeiss inverted microscope, all of which is
mounted on a large metal plate (supplied by BioRad), I have simply placed a
bike tube (a standard 20 inch tube) under the plate. The tube is inflated to
a firm, but not hard pressure - and has now held it's air for several weeks!
The vibration is very effectively removed using the tube but one problem is
that the whole set up is far to easy to move. To dampen the movement without
upsetting the vibration absorption characteristics I have used a couple of
squash balls under the front part of the metal plate. This provides good
stability when using the microscope. Squash balls alone also dampen
vibration, but under the weight of the microscope they lose their
'squashiness' only after a couple of weeks and then allow vibrations to be
transmitted to the microscope.
 
With the bike tube set up we can use a 100x objective with the scanner set
to zoom 10 without any detectable vibration (without the tube we could not
zoom past about zoom 2 without hitting vibration problems!).
 
Go buy a bike tube and give it a try - you haven't got much to lose if you
don't like it!
 
Good luck, Alan Hibbs
 
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Dr. Alan R. Hibbs                              FAX: 07 362 0104
Queensland Institute of Medical Research     Phone: 07 362 0416
PO Royal Brisbane Hospital                   email: [log in to unmask]
Herston, Brisbane, Qld., 4029
AUSTRALIA
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