[Histonet] RE: Plexiglas humidity chambers

[Reynolds,Donna M]

     We are a research lab and still do all our staining by hand. Just prefer it that way.
   Our carpenter shop makes ours. We determine size by how many slides we want to stain at one time. We have chambers that will hold 5, 30, 40, 60 slides.
We make the Plexiglas  box out of black Plexiglas so it can be used for  fluorescent or DAB labeling.  Chambers are  2  inches deep, 12 ½ " wide and length determined by how many slides we want it to hold. A piece of plexi 1" wide is glued to bottom standing on its side 1 inches from the side of chamber and  ¼ " from the end of chamber. Then a lid is made with a small ridge of plexi on edges so that it will fit inside the bottom of the chamber to holds it in place when moving chamber. Then we take a thinner Plexiglas 2 ¼ inch wide and a little shorter than the internal width of chamber, glue a ¾ inch wide plexi to one side of it.  Slides can then be taped to the plexi "stick" at the label end of slide with a good strong tape. Our "sticks" will hold 10 slides across them. When you are washing you can pick up the "stick" with the slides on it and wash 1 to 10 slides at a time.
Hope this makes sense. We love this system for doing our IHC by hand.
Donna Reynolds HT (ASCP) Chief Histo Tech
Core IHC Lab
Dept. Cancer Biology,
713-792-8106