One of our post docs who is a very competent instrument designer wants to fire a laser into an outrageously expensive bit of kit. The Principal Investigator is understandably dubious. Then a few months ago, the C-trap on the the Orbitrap Elite failed and needed replacement that essentially doomed the beast to the skip. I told him we had a proof-of-principal toy to play with and started extricating the working- from non-working-bits.
I disconnected the Linear Ion Trap (the LTQ) from the electronics that couple it to the Orbitrap and reinstalled the software so that I could use it as a stand alone ion trap mass spectrometer and everything worked. I needed to pump down the Orbi chamber because it is all one vacuum system as supplied, but that was the only connection to the old instrument of any sort.
I brought this up to contacts at Thermo (the manufacturer) and our service vendor all of whom told me you can’t use the LTQ separate from the Orbitrap because it is tied to the Orbitrap and simply won’t work as a stand alone instrument. Fucking liars.
The absolute hardest part of this endeavour was releasing it from the other instrument. Not because it is tied by electronics or software (which, as I mentioned, it isn’t despite the claims of the ‘owners’ of the technology) but because there are four hidden bolts holding it to two hidden rails. They require a 17mm socket and an extender and a little less torque than it takes to open a bottle of catsup.
The other required part for us to prove to the P.I. that it will work on the more expensive instrument (besides the laser which was harvested from a derelict LTQ-FTICR about 10 years ago) is a flange for the back of the LTQ that will have a hole for an infrared compatible window cut into it. That is now in the work shop but in the meantime I’ve just held a piece of sheet metal over the opening and against the Viton o-ring and found that despite my abuse it remains fully functional and surprisingly still within calibration specs.
Endless British Pub Crawl (Part 3) 