Sauron
International Hazard
Posts: 5351
Registered: 22-12-2006
Location: Barad-Dur, Mordor
Member Is Offline
Mood: metastable
|
|
Awash in HPLC Equipment
The third and largest shipment by ocean freight of my two year accumulation of Waters HPLC equipment has arrived and cleared Customs, this one 1200 Kg
in 20 cartons.
So I am tired and stiff and sore from unpacking and shifting all these furshlugginer machines around to store them until I can start the next phase,
which will be to change them all over to 220V and begin assessing the servicibility of the components. Some will be refurbished and some will be for
spare parts.
Here is what I have purchased:
PrepLC 4000 - two fluid units and two controllers, one injector module with a Rgeodyne injector, one three tier rack.
Mod.600E Analytical - three fluid units and three controllers, two U6K injectors
650E Advanced Protein Prep System - two fluid units, one controller, injector module, rack, auto switching valve units (2)
486 UV Absorbance Detectors - two)
490E Multiwavelength UV Abs.Detectors - four
Waters Fraction COllectors - two
715 Ultra WISP autosampler with heater/cooler and carousel (two)
Misc isocratic pumps (501, 510) and 660 solvent programmer
PrepPAK radial compression module 47-57mm x 300 mm
PrepPAK RCM 25 and 40 mm x 300 mm
RCM 8 x 300 mm
Misc spare pats
Millenium32 Chromatography Manager and BusLACE IEE488 control cards to control most of these systems
Misc Waters items that are probably pretty useless like SIM and Lacebox. A pair of 746 Data Modules (inegrators) and a pair of 5200 4-channel chart
recorders that go well with the 4-frequency 490Es.
My goal is to have at least one prep scale and one analytical scale system online, with a second of each for backup, and spare parts units for
cannibalization as necessary. I think I have largely met my goal, time will tell.
I started buying this stuff in March 2006 and 95% of it is now here.
Also just arrived is my Thermolyne tube fornace finally.
My Parr stuff except for 3911 shaker hydrogenator is still in USA, as are my UV-Vis spec, another of my pile of Cole Parmer Masterflex L/E peristaltic
pumps, and a K&Z analog chart recorder. The shipment of all this, will likely be in Sept.
It will likely take me all of 2008 to sort everything out and commission systems. At which point the budget starts to go for solvents, columns and
lamps. Ugh.
|
|
|
Sauron
International Hazard
Posts: 5351
Registered: 22-12-2006
Location: Barad-Dur, Mordor
Member Is Offline
Mood: metastable
|
|
An object lesson for HPLC adventurers
As my acquisitions of Waters two piece MultiSolvent Delivery Systems started to pile up it became obvious that several of these lacked the requisite
pump interface cable. This connects the system controller to the fluid handling unit, and supplies all power as well as control signals to the latter.
So I dutifully queried Waters' agency about this cable and was informed that the cable was about $1000.
As this seemed egregious even by Waters standards (and they are notorious for high spares prices) I investigated further. First I advertised on LabX
for a used cable and fairly quickly was offered one for $150. Then I studied the interface.
This is a 37 pin D-shell, essentially it is a larger 4-channel (4 x 9 pins, plus one disused pin)serial cable with the familiar M and F ends. There
are several industry standards for these, such as EIA-422 if I remember correctly, primarily used for machine control interfaces. There's a different
one for telecoms applications.
Anyway I could not find any of these 37 pin cables off the shelf in Thailand, and the agent for a well known cable mfg wanted an arm and a leg for one
(but nothing like Waters price). Instead I hunted around on the Internet and found a US seller called Cables Direct with such a cable (shielded) for
$10 ex stock. So I bought one. Figured I would try it alongside the original Waters cable.
So now my machines have arrived and I have just tested them with both cables.
Both worked identically, on a 600E system.
Someone told me to expect this, with the possible limitation that the column heater might not work properly. This I will have to check into later.
$1000 for a replacement cable, bah humbug! Incidentally the Waters price ion USA is about $650 so the Thai agent was making his usual markup only.
-----------------------
Today spent the daytesting components and systems, mostly on a stepdown transformer prior to the changing over of fuses and fuse cards to accomodate
220V mains. So far nothing has arrived D.O.A. All four of my 490E Programmable Multiwavelength Detectors calibrate and pass diagnostics. Both of my
486 Tunable Absorbance Detectors have got some glitch or glitches and will go the Waters agent for attention in their service dept. One of them I
think just needs a new D2 lamp, the other needs some chip replaced.
The 490Es use not D2 lamps but Xe strobes and replacements are a little costlier than D2. But as these all appear fine that is a future hassle.
So far the pumps and controllers have checked out OK, as have the fraction collectors.
[Edited on 25-7-2007 by Sauron]
|
|
|
Sauron
International Hazard
Posts: 5351
Registered: 22-12-2006
Location: Barad-Dur, Mordor
Member Is Offline
Mood: metastable
|
|
URGENTLY SEEKING
Manuals for Waters Fraction Collector (NOT WFC II or WFC III)
and 715 Ultra WISP autosampler
Original, xerox, scan, pdf, anything.
WILL PAY $$$
|
|
|
Sauron
International Hazard
Posts: 5351
Registered: 22-12-2006
Location: Barad-Dur, Mordor
Member Is Offline
Mood: metastable
|
|
Here's a photo of the actual Waters PrepLC system I bought which was the very first and costliest acquisition of the last eighteen months. I bought
this from Mike Hnatow aka HiTechTrader.com for $2800. This pic is from his website (and for some reason is still there, although he shipped this to my
Calif. warehouse a year ago. Maybe he has more than one.) The injector module is just a tray for solvent bottles, abd a place to mount the Rheodyne
injector with 2 ml sample loop.
That Rheodyne injector is a good $1000 new, by itself.
The rack with drip trays is convenient but not mandatory.
I bought a second pump and controller of same model for $600 so maybe I paid too much for this one, but the second set came without rack or injector
module. Or the expensive pump interface cable WAT088972.
This system can handle columns up to 50mm diameter with pressures of 4000 psi and flow rates of 150 ml/min. Thus it is suitable for samples as large
as 3-5 g per injection (in 5 ml). Set this up with an autosampler and you can process a lot overnight.
Normally you do method development on an analytical system, with or without help from software like DryLab, and then scale up to prep scale. Waters
makes it easy by providing prep cartridges for theur Radial Compression Modules from 5 mm through 47mm diameter that scale directly at simple
multiples. The smaller cartridges are in 100mm lengths and can be combined to 200mm and 300mm totals. The 47mm and 57mm cartridges are always 300mm.
Anyway the 57mm are a little too much for this 4000 system, and are only offered in a very limited range of normal phase packings. So not useful for
me, while the 47mm and smaller come in reverse phase as well (useful for amino acids and peptides.) I have the 8mm RCM holder, also takes 5mm
cartridges; the 25mm holder; rgw PrepPAK RCM base unit for 25mm and 40mm; and the huge PrepPAK base for 47 and 57mm cartridges. The last uses tank N2
for pressure, all the others use water and are pressurized by hand crank The point is that prep columns tend to develop voids than can ruin a
seperation, so using column segments that have flexible walls and pressurizing them during use eliminates the voids. Waters says they can prove this
is superior to the axial compression used in prep columns by competitors.
[Edited on 27-7-2007 by Sauron]
|
|
|
Sauron
International Hazard
Posts: 5351
Registered: 22-12-2006
Location: Barad-Dur, Mordor
Member Is Offline
Mood: metastable
|
|
Theswe are by the way, "quaternary" systems capable of blending up to four solvents and performing gradient elutions with great precision.
The PrepLC 4000 as its name implies is a 4000 psi model, with an upper limit of flow rate of 150 ml/min. Its big brother, PrepLC 2000 is 300 ml/min
and restricted to 2000 psi. I have my eye out for such a system, as it can handle tens of grams per injection (10-20 ml sample loops). Columns up to
75mm diameter.
The PrepLC 4000 and 2000 have a variant model called Delta Prep which includes more elaborate switching valvles and a column rack.
Also they underwent a name change and are now called PrepLC150 and PrepLC300 and the system controllers now sport LCDs rather than CRTs but the
hardware is otherwise the same.
Millenium32 software has given way to Empower and Empower II but I just have Millenium32 running under Windows 98. Works like a charm.
|
|
|
Ozone
International Hazard
Posts: 1269
Registered: 28-7-2005
Location: Good Olde USA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Integrated
|
|
And you were giving me hell about my 510...
Just kidding, nice haul.
Cheers,
O3
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
|
|
|
Sauron
International Hazard
Posts: 5351
Registered: 22-12-2006
Location: Barad-Dur, Mordor
Member Is Offline
Mood: metastable
|
|
Damn, I hope so. I have a pair of 510s plus a 501, a SIM to link them and a 660 to program gradients with them. Mostly I bought them with a view
toward teaching myself to service Waters pumps (all of which a very similar) without putting the costlier fluid units at risk early in the learning
curve.
For the benefit of everyone except O3 who already knows, the Waters 510 is an older isocratic pump )meaning it pumps only one solvent or mix) of
analytical scale, and if you use two of them you can run binary systems. ne 501 is an even earlier edition, and there's a still older one called M45
which I do not have. A later one called 590 with a programmable controller built in and the current Waters isocratic entry 515. I just have one 501
and a pair of 510s, in this series.
|
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xpblue/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
