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Hi Jerry,


On 6/5/2013 12:45 AM, Paul Herzmark wrote:
>
> Drill a hole and glue on your cover slip. Easy!
>
> Paul Herzmark
I agree with Paul's suggestion. Tip: to avoid cracking the dish, use a 
sharp bit and a wooden backing. Hold or clamp the dish firmly to the 
wood. Drill through the dish and into the wood.

>
>
> On Tue, Jun 4, 2013 at 7:10 PM, jerry sedgewick <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>> I recall having tried to cut through a plastic culture dish and it wasn't
>> easy.  I'm wondering if any of you have ever tried this and have had
>> success at cutting through this sort of dish.  How did you do it while
>> retaining smooth edges?

Other things I've tried in the past to cut plastic with decent success 
(though not specifically culture dishes, and usually with worse results 
than drilling):

a) dremel tool with a rotary cutting blade (use a relatively slow speed 
to avoid melting the plastic as you cut. The edge can be smoothed 
somewhat (if needed) by very carefully and sparingly running a flame 
over it (obviously you should work in a fume hood, away from any 
flammable materials/solvents, and be extremely careful). Alternatively, 
you can sand the edges with a very fine-grit sandpaper, and then clean 
the dish well to remove any dust.

b) a hot blade. In the past I've used an xacto blade attached to a 
soldering iron (I believe you can buy these; otherwise you'll have to 
cobble something together to attach the blade). This works fairly well, 
as long as the iron is fairly powerful and can transfer quite a bit of 
heat to the blade. In a pinch I have used a hot wire, but with worse 
results.

c) if you have an appropriate metal shape (e.g. a square pipe) of the 
size and shape you want to cut out, you can carefully heat the end (hold 
it with a pliers) to very high temperature and then press it through the 
plastic.