[challenger]

I thought I already posted this information but I cannot find it so I am doing again.
I copied and altered an idea I found on YouTube. It was submitted by a guy and was about making your own grafting tool. I liked the idea and made my original as he had described. I decided to try another twist to this by making one with a functioning needle. I bent the needle the same way as my last one except this time I inserted a thin strand of wire into the needle prior to bending it. This allowed me to bend it without kinking the hollow needle closed. My theory is that I'll get a bit of RJ in the needle prior to approaching a larvae. Then, as I get up to the larvae, I'll push on the plunger of the syringe so the rubber bottoms out and compresses. Then upon getting right up to the larvae I'll release the plunger and this will decompress the rubber which, in theory, will provide just a tiny amount of suction to draw in the larvae. To deposit the larvae I'll just compress the plunger.
I'll report back with the details of the disaster I plan on creating. It's hard to see in the photo but I modified the needle point by dressing it with a diamond knife sharpener. The idea was to make it a little bit of a spoon profile and get rid of the ultra sharp point as well. I don't know if it will work but I tried to make sure to not allow the hollow point to get too large. If the needle opening is too large there will likely be zero suction on the larvae because all the suction will be lost. I'm hoping the RJ acts as a sort of buffer between the needle and the larvae. If I end up with a syringe full of larvae plasma I'll take that as a sign that there was too much suck.

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[WBVC]

What gage needle and length did you use?

 

[kilocharlie]

Challenger - Now, THAT is using your noodle!

I like the idea about collecting the RJ using the needle to suck it up, but not for loading the larva. Larvae that age are very delicate. Just the hook in the needle is good enough. You will probably always flip one once in a while no matter how skilled you get. I would add a "finger" to kick the larva off the hook after the RJ was deposited in the QC cup, something like the "Chinese" grafting tool.

Good idea! Keep developing it until you have the best grafting tool out there! Hope you sell a million of them, and put my name on the list.

 

[jaked007]

Is the gauge on the syringe in the marinade kits large enough to draw the rj and larva up at the same time without harming larva?

 

[challenger]

Marinade kit needle would work great. Just make sure to graft only five day old drone larvae. Those needles are waaaaaay too large. I'm using a 20 Guage and I even tried an 18 Guage which was too big. I've been using one for the last two grafts and I love the way I can pick up the larvae. I suppose it is all how one gets accustomed to the chosen tool. Getting larvae off is harder. For me the trick was to pick it up with a bit of it hanging so this little part of the larvae grabs the cell cup bottom and gets dragged off. A little twisting motion helps. Also the way you hold your tongue out is key. Think MJ at the free throw line.

 

[challenger]

Syringe did not work as intended. I still used it for the latest potential grafting disaster but the suction action was not readily available.

 

[challenger]

Suction did not work. I used the needle to graft but the suction action didn't work.

 

[djastram]

Interesting idea!

In a former career... we used vacuum pencils for delicate pick & place operations such as shown in these links.

http://www.vaccon.com/Cups-Pencil.aspx

&

http://www.vaccon.com/Cups-Probes.aspx

On the site it shows the smallest tip is .050" which is probably still too big, but I wonder if you fished your wire in the end, and then epoxied the tip shut, and then pulled the wire if that would leave a hole small enough to hold the larva safely.

Thanks for sharing.
Dave.

 

[challenger]

Interesting idea!

In a former career... we used vacuum pencils for delicate pick & place operations such as shown in these links.

http://www.vaccon.com/Cups-Pencil.aspx

&

http://www.vaccon.com/Cups-Probes.aspx

On the site it shows the smallest tip is .050" which is probably still too big, but I wonder if you fished your wire in the end, and then epoxied the tip shut, and then pulled the wire if that would leave a hole small enough to hold the larva safely.

Thanks for sharing.
Dave.

I don't have a clue about the proper design for a suction assisted grafting tool. In my hack of an attempt to make my syringe/needle a suction unit I found out immediately there was no way I cold get it to work without a fair amount of tinkering. I was/am not in a position currently to tinker with this idea although I do feel there is a possibility it could work.