lmh wrote:
oh yes, PeterApps, vespel graphite ferules. There is nothing like trying to thread a bit of black-coloured column through a small black hole in the middle of a small black ferule, when you've only got a foot of column to manipulate and it's fixed in a dark GC oven with no lighting available beyond a gloomy ceiling light that points in the wrong direction. And of course wearing gloves while you're at it. All we really need to make it completely impossible is black gloves to match.
My other favourite job used to be setting up the electrospray needle on the old DecaXP Thermo ion-trap. It was originally a piece of silica capillary threaded down a stainless steel tube. The coating on the capillary would tend to creep and become longer than the silica itself when running acetonitrile, so the engineers' advice was to burn off a few mm of the coating. This then means that you have an almost invisible capillary in an unlit, gloomy spray-chamber, and then you have to set it about 1mm inside the stainless steel - so you have to position something you can't see somewhere where it isn't visible anyway, and then guess how far it moves when you do up the fitting.
On those vespel ferules, I just keep poking until I hit the hole. lol
The other thing I have trouble with is trying to insert a syringe cleaning wire into the orifice of an ABI3200 LCMSMS to open it up without having to vent and clean it. Silver wire, silver cone, and it faces away at a 90degree angle from where you are standing.
As for the safety glasses, our company mandated we use the regular OSHA safety glasses with side shields if we have prescription glasses, like those protect you from spills. They are fine when you are using a grinder in a shop, but no at all good for splashed liquids. I just use a full face shield when working with hazardous liquids, better protection all around.
It is really sad when it is all required when working in a lab that only runs drinking water volatiles analysis