  
Acheron (Acheron)
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 03:47 am: | 
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A friend of mine thought this up, it's an addition to the polyfill tek that can be used anywhere polyfill can be applied (ie: grain jars, liquid mycelium jars, ect.)
I'll start out by showing a standard polyfill lid. Any contaminants are filtered out by the fiber, and the polyfill provides the ventilation necessary for good growth. It's a great design, but IMO, can be improved in two areas. First, the fiberous top of the polyfill jar is very hard to clean, and any dirt or dust that lands on it will just be stuck in it. The second point is that polyfill tends to "puff up" on the jar, which creates airspace between the actual lid and the ball of polyfill. In order to be filtered best, air must travel through a decent amount of fiber, and air that passes through the sides can bypass much of that fiber. I'll try to illustrate my point using red(unfiltered) lines and blue(filtered) lines to show how air is cleaned as it passes through
The air around the sides IS filtered (mainly by the fiber in the actual hole), but not as well as the air that passes through the top.
Polyfill-bubble filters improve on this by forcing the air to be filtered more thouroughly, and by giving us a smooth surface that is easy to clean (plus they look cool ).
You will need...
-Polyfill (one bag costs about 3 bucks at walmart and is ALOT of polyfill)
-Adhesive bandage tape. I used 3M Durapore tape, should be available at any pharmacy section of a store
-Scissors
-Jar lid with a pencil sized hole in it. I used a canning quart jar lid. Preferably drill the hole, but I didn't have a drill, so I hammered nails into it until it was about right, you don't need to be exact. If you hammer the hole, be sure to come in from the top, or else there will be metal pieces sticking up that will catch on the polyfill when you pull it through
1) First, make a normal polyfill lid, don't go overboard on the polyfill, you won't need that much. Get a decent sized chunk of it out, fold it over once or twice, and pull it though until it feels well wedged in there. Then use your scissors to trim off most of the part hanging on the bottom, otherwise pieces of grain tend to get stuck on them.
2) Now, cut off a strip of the tape that is about 1.5 inches or so longer than the diamater of your jar. Attach the tape over the top of the polyfill, making sure to compress the polfill decently. Try to make sure that there is no polyfill on the 4 corners where the tape will acually attach to the jar, or else this will lessen the effectiveness of the adhesive.
3) Now trim off the excess tape hanging over the edge of the jar, and attach the jar lid as you would normally. If your tape wasn't attached that well, the band lid will hold it on fine, so your OK.
4) Innoculate through the top. This is easiest with pointed syringes (much better than blunt imo, for any application)
You now have a lid that can be wiped off with lysol or alcohol, and the tape holds the polyfill down to ensure complete air filtration. These jars are also easier to cover with foil, and the low profile helps when you've got a crowded incubator.
-Acheron |
? ? ? (Killdannow)
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 04:55 am: |
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Good work man!
Id say someone should do control batches, and test this- but theres prolly way too many variables to even test its effectiveness. |
Hippie3 (Admin)
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 11:11 am: |
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yup, been taping down my polyfil for awhile now, but to have it wrote up and illustrated and explained so nicely will surely help many others.
thx for sharing.
archive material.
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Hippie3 (Admin)
| | Posted on Friday, November 22, 2002 - 01:48 am: |
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btw, you can use narrow strips of duct tape to do this both above and under the lid, helps in liquid culture to reduce splashing onto dangling polyfil. |
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