Anyone who has worked with me knows I’m of bit of a tool fiend. I love having good tools, and often keep my own set of tools at work so I don’t have to search the whole lab for the 2.5mm allen key.
I was thinking about putting together a collection of the most useful tools for Lab Automation. I am especially thinking about tools that are more specific to lab automation, stuff you probably couldn’t borrow from facilities.
Are there tools that you love to use that make your work a lot easier? Do you have any tools that you reach for frequently when working with lab automation beyond your metric allen keys? Can you think of any times you needed to get a weird, specific tool solve a problem?
One thing I like to keep around is a set of feeler gauges. I think the Agilent Bravo comes with a 0.2mm gauge, but I find it useful to have a full set.
I also have a Wera Toolcheck Plus that I like to keep around, where I replaced some of the redundant phillips, flathead, and posidriv bits with addition torx and hex bits. The smaller size of the driver and ratchet make it great for reaching inside instruments.
Another more niche tool I’ve found useful is the Photosentix microplate reader validation tool. Obviously you can call in the vendor to validate your plate reader, but it can be nice to get quickly get a sanity check that it is indeed your assay that is failing, not your plate reader.
Many of these items are off-the-shelf. We’ve since added a wireless mini keyboard and a WiFi USB adapter and if needed, recommend specialists acquire Govee Bluetooth Hygrometer/Thermometers and/or a Temperature Gun, a bubble level, hex key set, etc.
I hope this helps! Eager to hear about other suggestions!
I don’t know how many of y’all are in the same boat as I am, but seeing all these gadgets is fantastic timing for Father’s day. I want some of these tools in my own workbench.
Also to contribute, Tecan had their own toolkit but it was ~just OK~ You could additionally order something like this from the shop which was a great tool.
I’ve found that an ethernet cable tester can be real helpful for determining if it really is a bad cable, or finding the other end of an unfortunately unlabeled cable.
