Narishige micromanipulator

mtuell · Post by **mtuell** » Mon May 15, 2017 9:15 pm

Some months ago, I got a 1-axis Narishige, and finally took the time to mount it on a Diaphot. I think I should stiffen up the mount a bit, but it essentially works as envisioned.

On the top left, you can see the zig-zag bracket that bolts to the top of the arm and the Narishige bolts to the bottom bit. There are slots in the stage for front-back, and (inaccessable) slots on the top of the arm for left-right.

It then holds a glass tube that I bent to get to the top of the well slide. So far, so good... now, the question is how to get a good needle point without taking dozens of tries, wasting glass? Below is a picture of the "needle" tip, which inadvertently, but fortuitously, I guess, bent down just at the tip as I was pulling the hot tubing. In this picture (2x PlanApo BF), you can see that I cleared away most of the junk and gathered up 7 or 8 amoeba shells. It works better than poking around by hand.... but I'm sure I can do better. Thoughts?

I also see that the tubing closed up at the end. Is there a good way to prevent this, other than blowing air through from the far end, which results in a pretty poor tip?

This isn't nearly as fancy as Beasty's rig, but hopefully it will come in handy for something!

Thanks!
Mike

Smokedaddy · Post by **Smokedaddy** » Mon May 15, 2017 10:18 pm

I must of missed Beasty's rig. Just curious, why does it have to be glass? Could you buy and adapt a 34 gauge nanoneedle (0.1842 mm) or Acupuncture needle? Would that be to large?

-JW:

Beatsy · Post by **Beatsy** » Tue May 16, 2017 2:05 am

You did incredibly well to shepherd any diatoms at all with that tip! Your needle point needs to be orders of magnitude smaller. Here's a post I did that shows some points relative to each other http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... ght=needle

I'm afraid needle pulling (by hand) is a black art and there is no alternative to pulling 10 to get a few good 'uns. It's a real "practice makes (less im-) perfect" task. I followed a guide I found online, but can't find it now. Will post the link later if it turns up.

I never improved on this technique over time - though my "keeper rate" has improved from about 1 in 20 to something like 1 in 5 these days. But you do get frustrating patches where nothing will pull right. Just put it away and have another go another day - and make as many as you can when it's going right.

Edit: it has to be glass because glass can hold a finer point or edge than any metal. I don't know the physics behind that though.

Edit 2: Here's the link to needle-making (bottom of the page) https://www.diatomsireland.com/microman ... nd-holder/

Alan Wood · Post by **Alan Wood** » Tue May 16, 2017 4:05 am

At a Quekett/PMS meeting at Langton Matravers last year, Klaus Kemp explained to my wife how he makes his very fine glass needles. He heats the glass and draws it out very fine. Then he repeats the process, heating the fine glass needle and drawing it out again. I find it very difficult to see his needles, they are so fine.

Here are 2 photos of his micromanipulator:

Alan Wood

Eddie · Post by **Eddie** » Tue May 16, 2017 6:29 am

This is my primary platform and micro-manipulator. A B&L Stereo Zoom 7 on a R2 base with both transmitted and reflected light and stand alone Prior micro-manipulator. The needles are drawn from glass capillary tubes and mounted in a 21 gauge hypodermic needle. It does take some time, practice and skill drawing the needles out. I think you do want to close up the end of the needle or it will constantly draw in fluid via capillary action I have my slides 'riding' on a 3"x6" glass plate, which is moved my hand. Pictures below of the B&L with the second photo showing the needle in relationship to diatoms. The total mag is 105X.

Eddie · Post by **Eddie** » Tue May 16, 2017 6:44 am

And a little low res clip on the needle and micro-manipulator in action picking diatoms to a storage slide from a high debris field strew slide:
https://youtu.be/0YIsCopRwLI

Beatsy · Post by **Beatsy** » Tue May 16, 2017 7:33 am

Eddie wrote:And a little low res clip on the needle and micro-manipulator in action picking diatoms to a storage slide from a high debris field strew slide:
https://youtu.be/0YIsCopRwLI

Haha, nice vid. I was almost glad to see you get a couple of "sticky" diatoms eventually! They were being extremely well behaved at the start

Eddie · Post by **Eddie** » Tue May 16, 2017 7:52 am

Ahh, yes. A good lesson in getting a 'sticky' diatom off the needle. First try touching to slide, next try rubbing on another diatom and third, take it back to the strew slide and let the debris help dislodge it and then pick it up on a different area.

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Tue May 16, 2017 9:52 am

I'm missing what the MM is doing, based on a Prior thing I have, which looks something like yours but would be too coarse I think.
Are you turning knobs to move the needle in the video, or just putting a little pressure on it?

If I can find mine

I'll take a snap.

mtuell · Post by **mtuell** » Tue May 16, 2017 9:54 am

I wanted to share a link to an interesting article that James sent me.

http://thickobjects.org/category/micromanipproject/

I'll actually read it tonight. Looks good!

Mike

Eddie · Post by **Eddie** » Tue May 16, 2017 1:20 pm

ChrisR wrote:I'm missing what the MM is doing, based on a Prior thing I have, which looks something like yours but would be too coarse I think.
Are you turning knobs to move the needle in the video, or just putting a little pressure on it?

Yes, I move the glass plate with my left hand and with the right I control the micro-manipulator, mostly just the up and down motion using the large knob, but by applying pressure on the knob, you have control of the needle's finer movement 360 degrees.

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Wed May 17, 2017 4:20 am

Looks like this one?

I found a different make one, in the same sock drawer.

Leitz - Has anyone used one of those?
(There's another, somewhere. Too many sock drawers.)

Quekett member P.S. has a very nice homespun diatom fiddler. I'll prod him..