17 replies to this topic

[auto325107]

I am in dire need of some help. You see, I was not planning on starting my grow today, but I had some extra time and money, so I went out and bought all of the supplies. My order of 10 syringes had just come in from www.printerfillingstation.com or something like that, so I figured I could start everything up.

I knew that the syringes were for printer use, but I heard you could sterilize them in a PC (brand new PC from walmart $40 down the drain) . Well I put all 10 of them in there and filled it up about 1 inch with water. I then put the rocker thing on the top and left it until it did a gradual rocking. I came back an hour and a half later. I smelt a really funny smell and I thought they might be burned. Well I immediately put cold water on it to release the pressure lock and opened it up. The plastic had melted and dried all over the bottom. I took a knife to it and its hard as a rock and doesnt look like it'll be coming off anytime soon. This is really dissappointing, considering I'm almost broke and $40 is a lot of money.

Now the thing is, that also means I have no syringes. Sort of. You see, I happen to also have a lot of 10cc syringes with a needle about a cm. long. I guess this is far too short. I also forgot to put in one printer syringe with full needle into the PC. I was playing around with it and sucked in some air with it, so it's probally dirty now. Anyway I can use it? Maybe just the needle? BTW, There are no supply stores near where I live so I guess I'm out of luck.

And the worst part is I'm going on vacation. I had been planning to innoculate so that they would be fully colonized for when I got back two weeks later. I only have prints, and prints were very difficult to acquire. If these prints dry out, i'm pretty much screwed. They are on foil, and prtty fresh, so I don't know about their life expectancy.

Well, anyway I can salvage my project? Today is tuesday and I leave for my vacation on saturday. Please help. Thanks

Cliff notes:
1. Melted syringes in PC
2. brand new PC messed up with plastic all over bottom
3. No syringes now except for 1 unsterile
4. Worried about prints on foil turning bad
5. Project salvageable?

EDIT: I forgot to put in 1 syringe with full needle, but I sucked in air already so its probally dirty, can I just use the needle or is that dirty too?

[I_am_me]

You can use rodgers boiling water method to sterylize your last syringe. If you are doing pf style jars you can use a pan with a good fitting lid to sterilize your jars. Just place them in the pot with water about half way up the half pint jars, bring the water to a boil, place the lid on the pot, reduce heat to medium and allow to boil for 1 hour. After an hour turn off the heat but let the jars cool in the pot. Remove them when the pot is cool to the touch and proceed as normal.

PCs are no required and 1 10cc syringe can do as many jars as you want 10 at a time, you just have to keep repeating the cleaning steps rodger suggested and use the one syringe over and over.

PCs aren't required for pf jars.

[Lazlo]

Far more, not that it matters now. PC's with a rocker type of weight for psi regualtion require quite a bunch of water for a 90 minute run. I had those POS Presto's with the rocker weights (the ones that literally rock back and forth to maintain 15psi) and they'd eat up 1/2 of the pot of H20 almost for a 90-120 minute run. Further more! Never leave a pressure cooker unattended. You can score a top notch All American pc on ebay for pennies on the dollar to replace the 1 you lost.

[bipolar]

I bought a mirro 8qt and it has a pressure jiggler that can be set to 5-10-15 psi. Before use for this hobby, I put a quart and a half of water in and turned the burner on high. Put the lid on with the jiggler on. When the jiggler starts rocking turn the heat down to med. Let it cook this way for at least 10 mins to stablize. If the jiggler just rocks barely leave it there. If not turn the heat down another notch, and wait 10 mins. When you get to a heat setting that just rocks the jiggler and still barely audibly lets out steam, then you know what setting to use from now on. It does not have to be noisy. Never lost all my water even at 90 mins for wbs. This has worked for me time and time again. I'd love to have a bigger All American, but I'm poor and my 40 dollar one works fine for my use. Also if you absolutely want to pc your syringes, wrap them in aluminum foil and set them on top of a coupla empty jars an pc for 20 mins. Rodgers method works fine for me though.
Put some water in your pc and bring it to a boil without the top on. Try scraping the plastic off. If that doesn't work I don't know what else to do but I'd be trying something cause I just can't afford to throw away 40 bucks. Good Luck!

[mike illogical]

Acetone may help remove the plastic if reboiling doesn't loosen it up first, acetone will melt or at least soften most plastics, but make sure you wear gloves when handling and try not to breathe to much. Also do not I repeat do not try to heat the acetone with your pressure cooker. ( just in case you didn't already know) ;) If your spores are fresh, drying them out won't hurt anything thats how prints are stored, you just have to let them rehydrate for 24 hrs when you put them in your syringe. All is not lost its just a pain of a mess, you should be able to clean it up.

[auto325107]

UPDATE! I was looking around my old pots and pans, and actually found an old pressure cooker with jiggler (same $40 ish model type) that my ex girlfriend had left in my house years back. I can't believe it, its like karma is for once on my side.

Anyway so, I tried rodger's boiling tek for sterilizing my single syringe and I'm just gonna try and work with that.
One thing though; why would I have to resterilize it after innoculating 10 jars? I realize I would run out of suspension by then, but couldn't I just reflame the needle and I just fill it back up? I guess it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to resterilize it all.

[kinetic]

I'm too lazy to boil water usually, I fill the syringe up and microwave it for a few minutes... start for 2 mins, then add minutes if you still have water in the syring. I do this once or twice. Make sure to remove the needle first, I just flame the needle. I may boil them all together at some point, but for now no probs :)

[Hippie3]

the problem here was letting the pc run dry, apparently.
i just wrap my empty syringes in tinfoil and toss them in the
pc when i do jars/bags.
never had any melt.

[max]

You left unattended for an hour and a half? I hope you're not a babysitter!

You still have one syringe, clean it and use it, shouldn't be a problem. Exposing things to the air we live in and breathe everyday DOES NOT mean instant contamination! And I don't know what your worry is about your prints on foil. The edges are folded over, right? Should be fine....

[I_am_me]

Also its not a good idea to put cold water on the pc. That can warp the metal making it useless or dangerous as well.

[I_am_me]

Yes, he said he had put cold water ON the pc to cool it down.

Danger there is.

Heh.

[Lazlo]

If that were a cast pc, i'd bet it would've cracked from that. His must've been stainless.

[auto325107]

yes, it was stainless. I *think* the directions said you could in an emergency to quickly release pressure and disengage the pressure lock. So I did that and that's when I saw the plastic all over the bottom.

I'm going to go ahead and do some jars anyway with my single syringe. I REALLY hope they don't come out contaminated. Thanks everyone for all your input, really appreciated.

[synth]

idk, whenever using a pc for cooking food or otherwise, i always let most or all of the pressure escape and then take it to the sink and run cold water over it for a few minutes. never a problem for me in any situation...

maybe my pc is super quality =]