[3dem] Problems blotting the liquid ethane

[Eduardo Sanz-Garcia]

Hi all,

I am having real problems to blot successfully the liquid ethane from my 
samples after freezing.
I am using a vitrobot for freezing. This is very neat because makes 
everything automatic except the blotting of the liquid ethane.
I know that I should see a drop of ethane in the filter paper, but this 
step has been very irregular for me (very few times I see filter paper wet).

Do you have any suggestion for me?

Does the speed of the process affect (remove the sample from the ethane, 
blot and put in the cryo box) the rate of success?
Could be that the temperature around the filter paper is too low 
(nitrogen temperature) and that the ethane solidifies before touching 
the filter paper?
For how long should I precool the filter paper?

Thank you very much.