Flame by Alcohol Sterilizing Equipment - Where to get?

Does anyone know where to get one of those alcohol burners? My package comes today and would like to go pick one up after work so I can start my inoculations tomorrow. Not really wanting to burn drops of alcohol on the bottom of a shot glass.

Just use a lighter.

yeah, any flame will work.

Seems like the easiest quickest methods listed above. Or go to a hobby shop. Order on Amazon. Yadda yadda yadda. Use a lighter. Good luck.

Take a small jar.
Punch a hole in the lid.
Take a cotton washcloth, cut a strip from it.
Pull through lid.
Fill the jar about 1/4 full with alcohol.
Close.
Light.

Your best bet is a small gas torch. You can find them for about 20 bucks at hobby stores or a home depot. The essence of sterile work is fluid speed, conservation of motion. If you have to stop and wait for a paultry little flame to turn your nicrome instruments to turn red you are asking for more contamination than you have to have. A torch will heat your instruments up in a second or two.

Better yet is something that might be hard to find, a nitrous/Propane microtorch. This is what I have used to the greatest effect.

canndo said:

The essence of sterile work is fluid speed, conservation of motion.

Click to expand...

I thought it was to create a sterile environment. Sure, you can pretend to avoid the spores and floating bacteria if you work fast enough, but I can't and don't.

Create a glove wall. Think of it as a glove box running the entire corner of a room. Hanging thick white/clearish plastic from the ceiling and staple gun it to the floor. Make it big enough to put a glass table and as many jars as you want to work with. Put zippered door on it. Create tyvek sleeves and bind them to semi-thick gloves (make sure you can use needles, open jars, etc.). Gorilla tape is your friend. You can have sleeves at multiple levels and areas so you can put shelves in there as well to store jars that have yet to be inoculated but already PCed. Put a plexiglass viewplate to you can see clearly enough. Make sure the sleeves (and your arms) are long enough to reach to the back. It SUCKS when you push a jar too far and can't reach it.

In this area I can work about 30 quart jars at a time without any exposure. It is also about the same amount of needles I can sterilize before the flame goes out due to low oxygen.

The main reason I built it in the 1st place was I did not like working with glove boxes. Sterile prep time is huge, and glove boxes are tiny. Adding a live fire after you've filled it with lysol is crazy explosive.

Also, I destroyed several lighters when attempting to sterilize them before putting them in, so I learned to love a long burning alky lamp, as long as there is oxygen.

I can take a hot pressure cooker, spray/wipe it down just in case (handle isn't hot), place it in the sterile area, and unload it to the shelves, and let it cool there, having never had the possibility for contams during a PC unload pass.

Now create an additional set of hanging plastic walls 4 feet out. You want to be able to clean the outer area as well, and suit up, and be confident the only air movement is you.

I take about 20 minutes of clean prep, spray, wipe, etc, the entire area, before i do any work. I'm always running a couple of hepa fans in there to keep the general load down.

testtime said:

I thought it was to create a sterile environment. Sure, you can pretend to avoid the spores and floating bacteria if you work fast enough, but I can't and don't.

Create a glove wall. Think of it as a glove box running the entire corner of a room. Hanging thick white/clearish plastic from the ceiling and staple gun it to the floor. Make it big enough to put a glass table and as many jars as you want to work with. Put zippered door on it. Create tyvek sleeves and bind them to semi-thick gloves (make sure you can use needles, open jars, etc.). Gorilla tape is your friend. You can have sleeves at multiple levels and areas so you can put shelves in there as well to store jars that have yet to be inoculated but already PCed. Put a plexiglass viewplate to you can see clearly enough. Make sure the sleeves (and your arms) are long enough to reach to the back. It SUCKS when you push a jar too far and can't reach it.

In this area I can work about 30 quart jars at a time without any exposure. It is also about the same amount of needles I can sterilize before the flame goes out due to low oxygen.

The main reason I built it in the 1st place was I did not like working with glove boxes. Sterile prep time is huge, and glove boxes are tiny. Adding a live fire after you've filled it with lysol is crazy explosive.

Also, I destroyed several lighters when attempting to sterilize them before putting them in, so I learned to love a long burning alky lamp, as long as there is oxygen.

I can take a hot pressure cooker, spray/wipe it down just in case (handle isn't hot), place it in the sterile area, and unload it to the shelves, and let it cool there, having never had the possibility for contams during a PC unload pass.

Now create an additional set of hanging plastic walls 4 feet out. You want to be able to clean the outer area as well, and suit up, and be confident the only air movement is you.

I take about 20 minutes of clean prep, spray, wipe, etc, the entire area, before i do any work. I'm always running a couple of hepa fans in there to keep the general load down.

Click to expand...

One can do well in an open room if there is no draft or air movement and one has their tecnique down. If you concentrate on having your lids cover your working area (from petri dish to jar, from dish to dish, that sort of thing, you don't really have to have a glove box or hood. The point is to know exactly where your instruments are going and have your stubstrates open to the air a minimum of time. Of course fire tends to make it's own air movement but if the flame is pointed away from your work it helps. A good container of 91 percent iso and a round of instruments works well. Have three agar knives or three scapels,two are soaking while you use the third, and then switch out every set - the alcohol won't hurt anything but raw spores but working with a spore loop is different work anyway.

I quit flame sterilizing spore needles on syringes long ago. Keep some spare needles sterilized and in their plastic holders, replace the ones on your syringe every step or two.


Mind you, if one does not have the patience or is simply unwilling to risk it, glove boxes or better yet,hoods are the way to go. And of course, if you work in a heavily contaminated area then all bets are off.