Biology Forum › Community › General Discussion › Stuck dessicator lid
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- August 3, 2010 at 1:26 am #13618
megan28ParticipantI am trying to get into our dessicator to retrieve a sample but the lid is stuck badly. I don’t think its been open for years! Any hints for how to get it open?
- August 3, 2010 at 11:26 pm #100770canalonParticipant
Force, patience and anger… I sympathize. Probably heating the sides where the 2 parts meet might help make the grease a bit more fluid and help sliding the thing apart, but I am not sure if it will work.
Having had a fight a few years ago with a nasty dessicator (two people were needed for convincing, and we were thinking of using a hammer at that point) I would be interested if anyone had a foolproof way to deal with those… Good luck - November 17, 2011 at 9:10 pm #108215harr0028Participant
I have used a heat gun and a lot of patience. After 10-15 minutes, the lid slides right off.
- November 18, 2011 at 5:47 pm #108231jonmoultonParticipant
You might try dripping a bit of machine oil into the seam so it can penetrate the grease. Having some shorter hydrocarbons diffused into the grease should loosen its grip. Let it penetrate for a few hours, the diffusion likely won’t be fast though the grease. Hexane would be a reasonable alternative to machine oil.
- November 23, 2011 at 1:24 pm #108334DocWillowParticipantquote jonmoulton:You might try dripping a bit of machine oil into the seam so it can penetrate the grease. Having some shorter hydrocarbons diffused into the grease should loosen its grip. Let it penetrate for a few hours, the diffusion likely won’t be fast though the grease. Hexane would be a reasonable alternative to machine oil.
this is such a great advice ! thank you so much for sharing….
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