[3dem] Film magazine in the FEI Titan microscope

[Bob Grassucci]

Hi Joaquin,
If the plate camera is the same as they have used before with the 
tecnais then I would guess you need to degass the camera itself.  Put it 
in a dessicator for 1-2 days so that the plastic casing of the camera 
itself can release any residual contaminants that the microscope vacuum 
system seems to be choking on.  I suspect this since this is the first 
time you use the cameras.  You should also make a point of storing the 
cameras under vacuum to maintain the cleanliness.  Hope that helps.
Regards,
Bob

Joaquin Ortega wrote:
> Dear 3DEM community,
>
> We recently got our FEI Titan microscope installed. Yesterday, we  put 
> the film magazine in the microscope for the first time and encounter 
> the problem that the microscope was not able to reach enough vacuum to 
> be operational. After 4 hours wait the vacuum system quit and vented 
> the projection camera.
>
> Thinking that the film may be still a bit wet (after 2 days in the 
> desiccator!), we put an empty magazine with no film on it and also in 
> this case the microscope did not recover the vacuum either. When we 
> removed the film magazine from the projection camera the microscope 
> reached operational vacuum in 30 minutes.
>
> We also tried to put only either the upper or lower part of the 
> magazine inside the projection chamber to test whether the magazine 
> may be creating a leak in the piston that drives the cassette plate in 
> and out of the screen. In all these cases the microscope did not 
> recover vacuum.
>
> I was wondering whether any of the Titan or FEI microscopes users in 
> the community encounter a similar problem and have any suggestion on 
> how to solve the issue.
>
> Thanks for your help
>
>
> Joaquin Ortega. Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> 1200 Main Street West
> Health Sciences Centre. Room 4H24
> Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences
> McMaster University
> Hamilton. ON Canada L8N3Z5
>
> phone: 905-525 9140 x22703.
> fax: 905-522 9033.
> e-mail: ortegaj at mcmaster.ca
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> 3dem at ncmir.ucsd.edu
> https://mail.ncmir.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/3dem


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