More traditional uses of fire in the lab...

Disclaimer: No Fossils Were Prepared in the Following Blog Post


This was an exceptionally busy week in the lab, and the only time we touched fossils was to get them out of our way. The first major phase in the lab renovation began on Monday, with half of the room being repainted. Some big cabinets with not much in them were taken off the walls, large cracks in the masonry were sealed up, and all of the existing airlines were removed, more on those soon. The walls were then given a fresh couple of coats of white semi-gloss enamel, which really makes it a whole new room.

This project was in preparation for the main event of August, replacing the compressed air delivery system. The existing airlines were composed of black pipe, galvanized, copper, brass, and maybe PVC. The compressor and tank is outside the building in 100 degree heat for most of the day, passes through the wall into a 70ish degree room, and immediately begins condensing tons of moisture in the airline. We drain about half a cup or more of water out of the tank each day, and about the same out of the water trap inside the lab. The mix of metals in the system ensures quite a bit of corrosion in the parts, most every fitting has some form of rust inside of it. The air tools have recently begun clogging at a high frequency requiring complete breakdown for cleaning several times a week.

So, the fun stuff.

With the help of the very able and German Sebastian Egberts, I've spent the last half of this week installing a completely copper air system. While I was shuttling back and forth between two Home Depots and one Lowe's buying up every fitting they had in stock, Sebastian measured and cut the copper pipe and soldered the quick connect fittings into place. After two full days of work, we have the system nearly complete and leak free, another post will follow up in detail the process of getting the system in place, with, yes, more pictures of fire in the lab.

These folks get points for creativity

http://psychoceramic.com/

Let me stand next to your fire....

In tribute to the 40th Anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, and by request of Casey Holliday, this post will deal with a method developed by Holliday and Brown in 1999 at the Walt Disney World Animal Kingdom Fossil Preparation Field Station. The "Pyro Preparation" method is specifically used to facilitate safe removal of plaster and burlap field jackets from very delicate specimens. The technique was created to deal with vertebrae of Rapetosaurus krausei where much of the matrix had been removed in the field, followed by application of a thick (~2-3 cm) and tightly conforming plaster jacket. Removal of the field jacket in the lab by traditional means was impossible without significant damage to or destruction of the fossil material, as the vertebrae were poorly mineralized and subject to substantial weathering before discovery. This condition resulted in extremely crumbly bone that was very difficult to consolidate with the jacket in place. The field jacket was tightly wrapped around the neural spines and left transverse processes of several articulated vertebra, with little to no matrix buffer between the bone and jacket. The mechanical lock created by the conforming plaster exerted considerable leverage on the bases of the spines, and attempts at removing the plaster with a razor blade and Stryker cast cutting saw resulted in much breakage and grinding of elements. In desperation we decided to try fire as an option. First, the plaster is gently scored with a razor blade to expose the underlying burlap, then a volatile solvent (in this case acetone) is applied to the burlap. When ignited, most or all of the burlap burns up, allowing the next layer of plaster to be crumbled and scratched away (Fig 1). Before being applied to the fossil, this technique was attempted with the experiementers hand slipped between the jacket and matrix, to ensure that temperatures inside the block would not be high enough to cause damage through thermal shock or scortching. After several layers of burlap were burned away, the jacket was pliable enough to remove by slowly peeling it away, while applying consolidant to the freshly exposed and friable fossil surfaces.

Cool old Carl Zeiss microscope

I found this old critter here at VPL, a Carl Zeiss Jena microscope. The right eyetube is also stamped with a Bausch and Lomb Optical, Rochester, New York logo. The last photo is after cleaning, the brass and nickle plated elements look great after a little bit of elbow grease, the would probably look even better with a lot of elbow grease.

Current lab renovation projects

So, I guess if one is going to start a blog, they must occasionally post to it. This is just about the last thing I remember to do, since I'm not yet in the habit.

There are two projects dominating my time right now, designing new work surfaces and planning for the re-plumbing of the compressed air line. I'll go into greater detail on both soon as the projects come together, both are a lot of fun, and both will be something I have to live with for quite a while, so I want to get them right. The tables are almost out of my hands, I'll be placing the final order for the tabletops tomorrow or Monday, and my sketches have been handed over to the fabricator in our facilities department to start construction on the bases.

I'm also working on cleaning up a fume hood that I rescued from the UT Surplus warehouse that will serve for a few years until it is upgraded. Pictures of that process will follow in future posts as well.

Oh yeah

Don't let this happen either.

Hey, That Ain't Gatorade!

Have you seen a situation like this before? Sure, it is very convenient, and cheap, to store lab chemicals in food containers. But it's not cool. For one, the turpentine in that coffee can isn't much use now that the volatiles have all evaporated out. Then, what the hell is the white powder all over the mayo jar of xylene? I don't think it is mayo. I think this kind of storage is against the law, though I can't find a reference immediately, but it certainly violates both recommended practice (see NIOSH/CDC guide) and common sense.

The Grolsch bottle in the background full of acetone reminds me of a story from a few years back, a friend was working on his boat, and pouring waste epoxy into a nearby empty beer bottle. A few minutes later, when reaching for his bottle full of beer, he grabbed the one with epoxy in it. One short trip to the emergency room later and a cheap and handy way to dispose of a chemical becomes neither cheap or handy. A final example before I go. One prolific collector that I know loves to store thick solution adhesives (i.e. Vinac B-15) in little Visine eyewash bottles. Well, sure, they work well for dispensing adhesive cleanly and one drop at a time. But in the field, have you ever gotten dust or dirt in your eye, and wished for eyewash? Does a foreign object in the eye blur your vision? Might you consolidate your eye closed? So much for getting the red out.

Be Cool. Only store chemicals in properly labeled containers not intended for food use.