Biology Forum Community General Discussion Stuck dessicator lid

5 voices
4 replies
  • Author
    Posts
    • #13618
      megan28
      Participant

      I 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?

    • #100770
      canalon
      Participant

      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

    • #108215
      harr0028
      Participant

      I have used a heat gun and a lot of patience. After 10-15 minutes, the lid slides right off.

    • #108231
      jonmoulton
      Participant

      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.

    • #108334
      DocWillow
      Participant
      quote 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….

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

Members