Rotnpins said:

Very awesome information on plins nektar61 and nichrome. I've got a Tidal Wave plate that is knotting up nicely, so hopefully I'll have my first plins soon. I found your guys posts very helpful.

I was using a torch but recently got an alcohol burner. I've noticed that both leave a black "soot" on the blade.. I was wiping it off with an alcohol swab at first,  but I have a feeling this is counter productive since flame sterilizing is supposed to be better than isopropyl.. is the soot something I need to worry about? Or do I need to change my technique somehow?

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Rotnpins said:

Very awesome information on plins nektar61 and nichrome. I've got a Tidal Wave plate that is knotting up nicely, so hopefully I'll have my first plins soon. I found your guys posts very helpful.

I was using a torch but recently got an alcohol burner. I've noticed that both leave a black "soot" on the blade.. I was wiping it off with an alcohol swab at first,  but I have a feeling this is counter productive since flame sterilizing is supposed to be better than isopropyl.. is the soot something I need to worry about? Or do I need to change my technique somehow?

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Nichrome said:

Opening them up brings in fresh air, rich with brand new oxygen. A fresh supply of oxygen allows for faster metabolism.

Sometimes opening up the plate and exchanging the air can trigger pinning too. A neat trick if you hunt plate pins or want to see traits in an unknown culture like cap color or shape.

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Rotnpins said:

Very awesome information on plins nektar61 and nichrome. I've got a Tidal Wave plate that is knotting up nicely, so hopefully I'll have my first plins soon. I found your guys posts very helpful.

I was using a torch but recently got an alcohol burner. I've noticed that both leave a black "soot" on the blade.. I was wiping it off with an alcohol swab at first,  but I have a feeling this is counter productive since flame sterilizing is supposed to be better than isopropyl.. is the soot something I need to worry about? Or do I need to change my technique somehow?

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Rotnpins said:

Yes. That was the type of torch I was using... idk, I liked the idea of the flame staying lit the whole time.

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nektar61 said:

Rotnpins said:

Yes. That was the type of torch I was using... idk, I liked the idea of the flame staying lit the whole time.

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I don't keep it lit all the time. Seems dangerous. If you knock it over, could quickly start a fire.

Or if it running continuously stresses the cheap design and makes it explode.

I just use it when I need to flame something. It's not hard to use with one hand.

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Yeah.. idk.. that's really the main reason I switched to an alcohol burner something about continually touching something outside my SAB makes me cringe... at least with the burner I can just move one hand out of my SAB and then right back in without touching anything.

I know the goal is to never have your hand move or hover above your plate,  but even so, I still try and keep my hands as sanitary as possible the whole time.... even if I wipe the torch handle down first, I still feel like it's going to screw everything up..

Honestly, my sterile technique is probably one of the things I'm "best at".. I don't mean that as a boast,.. it still has room for improvement, but I'm already really OCD and every tiny thing I do that could be a contam vector gives me the "cringe" feeling


Edit: thinking about using one of these... I saw a SAB video where the person used one of these and left it lit

Rotnpins said:

Yup, you sure can

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