Richard Jennings wrote:
 
>I have to agree with Ed.  Keep in mind that we are a scientific lab with
>tons of things at our disposal (optical tables, lasers, etc..) but we found
>almost everything we needed to make our own confocal was already in the lab.
>We bought a couple of long working distance microscope objectives ~ US$2k
>ea. and with a little bit of tinkering had a CLSM inside of a month. It is
>definitely something a grad student could do over the summer.
>
>I think I should show the guys I work for these postings and tell them I
>saved them $246k ;-)
>
 
Could you please tell us the lateral and axial resolution you achieved?
 
I might also ask whether you would plan to market a microscope using lasers
and optical tables that you 'found' at Lawrence Livermore?  The people
you work for would certainly be interested in that!   :-)   If you costed
the items you've used that were already in the lab - and your time (3 months
salary for a graduate, you say) - you might just find you haven't saved
them quite as much as you think!
 
                                        Guy Cox