Greetings, I'm trying to design a small lab system that grows Aspergillus Niger on a solid agar base and I've been thinking of making it from acrylic and using some sort of adhesive to hold it together, but I know some adhesives contain anti-fungals, etc. or they just happen to contain a lot of nasty chemicals that might make my precious molds oh-so unhappy. Does anyone here have laboratory experience with such adhesives, who can suggest the best thing to use? The entire unit will be about 30cm long by about 4cm wide and maybe 4 cm tall with about 20 to 30 small compartments in it, so the glue doesn't have to be super-cheap but I can't afford $100 a drip, either. thanks for your help, Mark
Hi, no direct experience with fungi, but there are similar worries with cements for aquaria. 'Weld-On' cements are favoured in this context. They are basically solvents which soften the acrylic along the seam and then evaporate causing the two pieces to adhere. As the solvent completely evaporates, there should be no residue to worry about. There is a range of Weld-On adhesives with slightly different properties (drying time strength of bond etc) - check them out on the web. Good Luck Brian
Acrylic is fine. Use methylene chloride solvent and a squeeze syringe bottle to weld the joints. IT is sold for this purpose where you buy acrylic. It dissolves the acrylic, then evaporates completely in a few minutes. It is fun and easy to use. If I remember right Aspergillus niger is used to ferment soy beans in making soy sauce. Beware the spores, it's quite a producer and they're not good, respiratorily. Good luck.
Thanks Brian and Fish Dr. I've never heard of welding acrylic that way and it sounds like the ultimate method for what I need. That will really simplify my project. thanks for the help! Mark