Tag: construction

Specifications for new lab space

The Diesel2p.

Setting up some new lab space? Need some plans and specifications for renovations? Here are some notes that are relevant for setting up rooms for 2-photon microscopes and/or electrophysiology to be used with animals. If your target is something different from that, then maybe there are at least…



Headplate designs

Multiphoton imaging with micron resolution in living animals can be challenging because they…



LabMaker – a retail source for some open source projects

LabMaker sells parts, kits, and assemblies for open source neuroscience tools, including the UCLA MiniScope and Crystal Skull “coverslips”.



Uniqb – construction system

Tibbo, whose microcontrollers were just mentioned here, also sells a construction system called Uniqb. It’s a bit like MakerBeam (it and another system, OpenBeam, are available on Amazon).

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Notes from Austin Blanco

Our friend Christian Wilms tipped us to Austin Blanco’s blog, which has some posts you all might be interested in:

Characterizing unknown optical components
A few notes on Arduinos, their timers, and using them with…



Drop-in cage system from Newport

Newport has expanded their cage system offerings. We’ve teased them in the past, but this looks nice. Thorlabs has a few components that can be dropped into a completed cage system,…



MISUMI for customized parts

When fabricating custom parts, starting from raw materials gives you flexibility. However, it is time consuming and design changes can mean starting from scratch. It’s faster if you can find some part off the shelf to modify….



Optomechanics and microscopy technical notes – many items

Vojnovic’s group at Oxford has dozens of technical notes. Most are concise, and include software code, if applicable. SolidWorks files and PCB files are available on request.

Here are a few examples:

A motorized 4-way optical…



Cardboard for prototyping

Anonymous tipster Alfred shared this snapshot of a ThorLabs Quick Bites box repurposed as a project box.

Cardboard isn’t a bad thing to prototype things up with, for example:
Google’s stereoscopic goggles
Relatedly, here’s a microscope…



Unusual breadboards from Vere

Vere is a smaller company that Newport, Thorlabs, or TMC. But they’re worth checking out for optical tables, breadboards, beam stops, dumps, enclosures, and whatnot. They have some interesting items.



Lightglass Optics – used optomechanics

Lightglass Optics sells surplus optomechanics and other related optics. They have a lot of Newport products, and small amounts of products from Thorlabs, OptoSigma, New Focus, and Line Tool.

For example, here’s an Newport X-Y stage…



Open source turbidostat, syringe pump, and more

Jacob Forstater (UNC-Chapel Hill, Physics) shared this tip: The Klavins lab is sharing their materials for this open source turbidostat. The wiki offers detailed plans and well-document construction. Even if you don’t need a turbidostat,…



Custom enclosures, great and small

A friend recently asked me about custom enclosures. I thought they wanted something small for electronics, and there are a couple of previous Labrigger posts that could be helpful.

eMachineShop does stuff like this…



Over 100 DIY pieces of lab equipment

Labrigger previously mentioned this contest. All of the 173 projects are online for your perusal. See if any of them inspire you.



Sourcing small parts

When McMaster-Carr doesn’t carry the tiny parts you’re looking for, where can you go?

There used to be a company called Small Parts, and their catalog was great because everything in it was small. That…