Soooo…I dragged home a Beckman J-6B centrifuge from the junkyard, and to my surprise it powered up and got cold.
However, it has no rotor in it, and when I ask it to spin up it does so only for a few seconds.
I think this is the correct response to being asked to spin empty…
Certainly the newer fuges will perform this way if you ask them to start without a rotor.
Fine manual mentions no such magic.
Just wondering if anyone out there has a J-6B and could pull the rotor and confirm for me?
Or maybe there’s someone in Eugene who can loan me a Beckmann rotor for an hr or two?!?
@Waxplug1?!?
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Not totally helpful but the fisher sci fuge i just picked up wouldnt spin unless i picked the right rotor part number and entered it into the smart little pid.
I’m pretty sure that little mixup is why i got it so cheap.
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This is what I got…will it help?
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That depends.
Which model fuge is it in?
What I need to know is what happens when you take the rotor OUT and ask the fuge to spin.
The digital ones spin up, throw an error, then spin down. The analog ones don’t say anything about that behavior and Beckman isn’t being helpful (they want to sell me something first).
Usually (and I have no experience with your fuge specifically) there’s a disk on the bottom of the rotor that has white and black radial lines which allow the optical sensor to detect the rotor speed. Without the feedback, the fuge probably shuts down lest it accidentally put the rotor overspeed.
Edit: where the hell did you find a pick-n-pull with refrigerated centrifuges lol? I wish they had that stuff at my junkyard
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No sensor that I can see.
Yeah, I’m aware of those. Which is why I figured it wouldn’t spin at all without a rotor. There is another one with a carbon fiber rotor stuck in it that I might have to go back and poke at tomorrow. It apparently fell off a truck on to its side over a year ago, when it arrived at its current location (still on its side in the rain), so I didn’t look too hard at it today.
The one I dragged home has had the top of the spindle removed, and gives the impression that this might have been done to remove a stuck rotor…
The pieces are all there. Just not completely assembled.
While asking the all knowing one what sort of behavior to expect, I ran into one with a 6l swinging bucket rotor for $6k.
Don’t want to spring for a rotor unless I’ve got a reasonable expectation of success. Feels like I might have…
Time to at least price out a rotor.
@Waxplug1 no way your close enough to be offering to loan me that rotor?
Yeah these rotors are outrageously expensive. Every once in a while there’s a deal on fleabay because the vendor doesn’t really know what they’re selling but then you always run the “pre-perforated fragmentation device” gamble.
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indeed!!
loaded with glass and light hydrocarbons…what could possibly go wrong?
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Certain high tech gov surplus items can be dangerous.
Those large volume centrifuges, J-6B , as a rule come from blood banks .or hospital applications. (I hope you got one from somewhere else). The rotor and buckets will cost a fortune if they did not come with it. The main problem with the blood units …is contamination with blood products. In the case of blood, Hep B and HepC are notable…hep B…can last in fuge for over a year…
First off, it should come with a decontamination certificate. if not,
Total glove work…soak chamber…and anywhere that can or may have been splashed with hospital grade decontamination liquid.
When you feel that you can pour water inside and then remove a glass to drink it …you’re good to go. But the decontamination fluids themselves are dangerous, and they have to be extensively washed out as well. Otherwise, deep 6 it at metal recycler.
You just do not want to bring one home with out knowledge of its history. They can be scarry items.
stay safe
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valid points indeed (see pricing on used rotor above for instance 
)
not certain where the waste stream actually originates in this case, but it reads like a university based on the age and condition of the instrumentation that I see show up. there may be an intermediate accumulator involved which would skew that perspective.
no sign or radioactive or biohazard labeling anywhere, or that any such labels have been removed. I realize that doesn’t mean a whole lot…but it’s what I’ve got on this one.
Tell me again what we are looking at here?
The numbers I need to query the all knowing one are out of frame.
Because the 600ml buckets are great, but if this fuge actually runs, it will take six 1l baskets.
But until I know it runs, convincing the boss to drop $10k on a brand new rotor is unlikely…
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Nothing on its history.
It was thoroughly cleaned with 10% bleach then 95% ethanol. A year ago.
It will get another round if I retrieve it from storage.
If I go with a new rotor and use the OEM bucket lids, would you feel comfortable vaporizing the product?
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I think I am following you here.
The buckets actually hold Plastic inserts with covers (I think)…
so the product would be on the inside …only possible contamination
would be outside. One other possibility would be to put it out side…
put some paraformaldehyde in an open container…put that container on
a hot plate…all inside (take rotor off if necessary…and turn hot plate on to med…or so…
close lid on chord best you can…the vapor of formaldehyde generated …will penetrate…
everywhere as well. But you are probably good to go as is…can you get some of that
cleaner they clean colonoscopes with : Ortho-phthalaldehyde (OPA) was tested against a range of organisms including glutaraldehyde-resistant mycobacteria, Bacillus subtilis spores and …
that is another liquid phase aldehyde approach…
you can autoclave the rotor and metal holders…as well.
those are work horses…ie the centrifuges.
thank you.
yep. but rather than just go with fingers crossed…
I believe there is a port for vaccum. I could probably swap that hot plate for a boiling flask in a mantle with a hose plumbed into the bowl via said port. might need to shim the lid open just a smidge so as not to pressurize the contraption.
no?
sounds good…or just a solution of gutaraldehyde?
the vacuum port is probable fine…but one whiff of that
hot formaldehyde gas…will do damage to lungs and everything living…CARE.
are you running the HS 3000 quad head…has a limit of about 3-4K rpm?
is this a jar tek diamond cleaning…or are you actually spinning down precipitated material?
there is currently a rc 5c plus for sale in Arkansas on GSA auctions…if you guy need any parts.
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essentially.
although I solved my “shatter” issue.
There are other solutions I’m looking at, but six 1kg buckets would get the job done at about the rate I currently need.
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It would be the perfect scale!!
I see you need a false bottom? to collect the sauce.?
for the bucket insert?
3-d print in stainless …a false bottom collection cup
or a milled delrin false bottom ring about 1/2 in wide?
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milled delrin false bottom ring about 1/2 in wide?
$$$$$$$$$$$
an exact amount of beach sand?
