Hi Rosie (and all)
My complements to those of you making your own squares, but for the
lazy among us, buying them ready to go is nice.
Replicatech is also out of business here in the US, but I noticed
recently that good old Sigma sells replica plating blocks and velvets.
I have never tried the sigma ones (still have a nice stock left from
Replicatech) but they are reasonbly priced
Z36,340-5 package of 6" (152mm) square velveteens 36 for $52.65
found under replica plater in the techware section.
Michael
In article <6tn3mn$df8$1 at nnrp1.dejanews.com>
redfield at my-dejanews.com writes:
> Hi Rafael,
>> Getting good velvet for replica plating is tricky. I don't know of a
> commercial supplier of ready-cut velvet for replica plating, but here's what
> I've learned while trying to get good velvets for my lab.
>> First, you don't need molecular biology-grade velvet from a commercial
> supplier. It's easy to cut velvet up into squares. Just cut the squares a
> bit bigger than the dimensions you want, because the edges will fray over
> time, as they're repeatedly used and washed. You can use pinking shears (ask
> your mother if you don't know what these are) to minimize fraying.
>> The best fabric to use is upholstery velvet. Velvet for clothing usually has
> pile that's too long, and is likely to be nylon or silk, not cotton.
> Velveteen for clothing has short pile, but usually the pile is thin and
> coarse. Upholstery velvet usually has lovely short dense cotton pile.
>> The problem with upholstery velvet is that modern supplies have usually been
> pretreated with a stain repellant coating. This makes the velvet also repel
> water, and so it repels the liquid that inevitably oozes from the agar
> surface when the velvet is pressed to it. If this liquid isn't absorbed by
> the velvet, it forms a liquid film that smears the colonies (you can see this
> happening as you lift the velvet from the plate). You can pretest any velvet
> you are considering by squirting a drop of water onto it. If the drop just
> sits there, don't buy the velvet. The stain repellant coating can't be
> removed by laundering or dry cleaning. Only buy velvet that immediately
> absorbs the drop of water.
>> Best sources of velvet: -upholstery shops with old stocks of velvet.
> -old velvet curtains (one pair could provide enough
> velvet for all the microbial genetics labs in Europe).
>> Good luck,
>> Rosie
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__________________________________________________________
Michael Benedik
Department of Biology and Biochemistry
University of Houston Tel: 713-743-8377
3201 Cullen Boulevard, HSC 402 Fax: 713-743-8351
Houston, TX 77204-5934 email: benedik at uh.edu
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