Platinum Wire

I would like to order some platinum wire for worm picks but I am not sure where to order from in the United States. It would be greatly appreciated if you could let me know the company and order number where your lab has ordered platinum wire from. Thanks.

This isn’t an endorsement - I’ve never had to buy it for myself, and I’ve never shopped around, so I can’t really recommend anyone - but one place I know does sell it is Tritech.

I would strongly recommend against getting the 90% platinum/10% iridium - get the 99.5% platinum. The lower platinum content wire hardens with use and reheating, and cannot be trimmed or reshaped as it warps and wears.

Sigma also has some! I ordered some in Germany, so I can only tell you the specifications. We use 99,9 % with 0,3 mm diameter!

Not as an endorser of this company, but genesee scientific makes worm pick handles and replaceable platinum wire picks. I have used for the last year and I have really enjoyed it. It is a good weight in your hand and for me feels better than using the glass pasteur pipet. Heres a link if you want to look at those. Oh, and I have used the same platinum head for 14 months now, so I don’t know if you need 6 of the replacement heads…

https://www.geneseesci.com/shop-online/product-details/?product=59-X32P6

I agree with Hillel, the 90%/10% wire is pretty crappy…especially for scraping bacteria onto paraquat plates ;).

I would try and get the 99.5% but it will cost a pretty penny (but so worth it).

Hi,

Just to say…we use 0.2mm platinum wire (99%) sold as a replacement for electrophoresis tank electrodes from Scie-Plas, Cambridge UK (in the States they distribute through www.azerscientific.com), 65cm cost €67, and that’s makes a load of shovels… Had no problems and it was way cheaper than other sources.

Steve

Out of curiosity (and the fact that we are running low on platinum wire), I ordered a few of these worm picks (from Genesee) for my lab. They are about the same size in length as standard pasteur pipettes and are slightly wider in diameter. The picks come packaged in tubes that have a magnet on the lid (used to suspend the tip and prevent it from being damaged during storage). The pick does provide have a good weight in your hand (as said earlier by medawg). The pre-flattened tip is a bit long and I’m considering cutting it a bit.

I think it’s a nice investment, and as medawg said before, I don’t think the extra 5 tips are really necessary. I think it might take a while before I get used to it though.

http://i.imgur.com/JJN5n.jpg

I guess as Snug suggests, it’s what you feel comfortable with in the end that counts…I haven’t tried out the glass pipette solution or the pre-made alternative from Genesee.

My lab started off (and still is) using a combination of a bacterial loop handle (€8, no glass blowing skills required) + 2cm of pure platinum wire (€2). Time to flatten the end to a shovel ~5 seconds, fitting time (wire to handle) ~10 seconds, total cost…€10 .

The whole setup is well balanced and light, not too bulky and it makes me wonder how some companies justify marketing something for over $130 that is really pretty simple??

Anyway, enough griping…enjoy!

I think I should add that the worm picks also came with 2 snack sized packages of Gummi Bears (random, I know).

in a similar vein, we were trying to work out what we could buy from a company selling cloning products so that we would get the 4 boxes of Celebrations chocolates that came with orders over €2000…we saw sense and bought a box at the local store…but Gummi Bears, well I can see that would be too good to pass on.

I always get my Pt wire from Omega. http://www.omega.com Search for SPPL. http://www.omega.com/pptst/SPPL.html