Our living room Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)

[bruceberadino]

where did you find that thing?

[andydiscovery]

@SCIFIaction - have you serviced the pumps yet? You should really change the oils yearly - the rotary pump is simple, just like a car, the turbo pump a little more work as you have to remove it.

To remove the turbo you need to pull the cover off, remove either the electron optics or vac control board and then undo the turbo to rotary pump hose, electrical connector and finally the 3 or 4 clamps that physically holt the turbo to the bellows on the base of the column.

[andydiscovery]

@daithmac23 - Cambridge Instruments went on to become Leo Electron Microscopy in the 90's - who were then bought out by Zeiss later on.

To the comment about the stage/stepper motors - it already has motors on the XYZ axis it doesn't have T & R motor drives though.

[daithimac23]

Its a Cambridge Instruments 240. The company went on to become Zeiss.

[ayuen08]

As an advice, wear gloves when you put your sample into the chamber. You don't want to contaminate your sample with the oil in your fingers, which also makes pumping to vacuum more of a challenge for the system.

[Nomoreidsleft]

Good for you! So daddy can afford a SEM.

[SCIFIaction]

@Nomoreidsleft Ha we got this for around the same price as a plasma. We don't have cable either.

[Trauncher]

@Nomoreidsleft they aren't that expensive. labs dot cm has a number of them for under 10 grand.

[Trauncher]

Respond to this video... labx dt calm sorry.

[TheHouseBlog]

Thanks for sharing this, it's pretty damn cool!

[nemesisgeek]

Your aperture isn't aligned right - at 2:57 the image is shifting up and down as you focus.

Nice piece of hardware and certainly beats the light microscope I have in my living room lab. Definitely looking forward to getting one of my own (though I doubt I'll be able to afford one nearly as nice as the Zeiss Supra 55 at school...)

[SCIFIaction]

@nemesisgeek Ha thanks! It's nice to hear from other enthusiasts

[nemesisgeek]

@SCIFIaction Two-stage vacuum system - rotary vane plus turbopump?

Whats the make and model? Looked like a Jeol at first but on second glance i'm having doubts.

One nice thing the Supra has that yours doesn't seem to have is an IR tv camera inside the chamber, so you can see the stage position relative to the objective. Very nice for avoiding (expensive) crashes of the sample into the lens!

Also, have you considered setting up stepper motors and a joystick on the stage position screws?

[ellion0815]

that looks like your just one nuclear accident away from becoming a super villain

[SCIFIaction]

@ellion0815 Имейте в свой​собственный бизнес у меня будет все КГБ на вас, как водка на льду

[ellion0815]

@SCIFIaction :)

[atenrok]

@SCIFIaction "goggle translate" is funny.

[krazieboyj]

Methlab

[SCIFIaction]

@krazieboyj most definitely

[krazieboyj]

@SCIFIaction indeed



[ObiTrev]

Whats that song?

[codyb123ify41]

OK so SCIFIaction i have known that they are a lot of work and Ive been working with microscopes since i was 5 years old. And even the used ones are a lot of money like on eBay Ive seen one only one that was almost $89,000. And i will only have enough money to get a special professional research light microscope-$879.and almost $5000 worth of equipment and accessories for it and almost an extra $300,000 to get my home lab built. So as you see I'm in a big pickle.

[thewii552]

how expensive was that?

[hitachi088]

@thewii552

looks like 5000$ US +++ to me.

[codyb123ify41]

SCIFIaction I just have 2 questions, where did you get the scanning electron microscope and how much was it. Because I have looked and looked and looked but the y are usually over $50,000.

[SCIFIaction]

@codyb123ify41 - We got our used from a friend whos been running them for years. If you look really hard you can find a usable one (used) for way under 50 big ones. Check your local colleges if you really want to try one out. They're a lot of work!

[pcorf]

But yeah, pretty impressive. Must have cost at least $10,000.

[SCIFIaction]

@pcorf Thanks- we found a good deal. If you really look you can find them everywhere.

[pcorf]

All non metallic samples must be gold plated before you can put it into the vacuum and operate.

[SCIFIaction]

@pcorf for good scans yes, but most are conductive enough that you can see enough without. coating takes a while!

[FreonRose]

3 minutes and 30 seconds later it blows every fuse on the grid.

[FLUSEM666]

It's an old S240!!

Nice.

[mrfourtysevenman]

is that expensive?

like, outrageously expensive?

[FLUSEM666]

No, not these days. Second user instruments go for very little. The service contracts are expensive but DIY is an option for the technically minded.

[majormixer]

How cool ! Where did you get it ??? How much ?

Try scanning a Core I7 microprocessor or some othe processor. Can you photograph ??

[kelvioford]

sure beats a piano in your living room

[andydiscovery]

Good old Cambridge Instruments hey, it shouldn't take 15 minutes to get vac ready though, do you leave it pumping all the time or just when you want to fire it up?

What sort of mag do you get out of it? That column should be good for 200k times magnification, the same column was used on the Cambridge 360 and 440.

Is the EDX hooked up to anything?

[ewigkase1]

did you get this surplus how much was it? that way cool!

[MKP220]

thats awesome