Season's Greetings and Ho Ho to everyone on the isotope list.
This past week I had a "great" time taking apart every piece of my TC/EA
looking for a supposed leak. I am writing from the perspective of a
scientist, who sadly has no technical support. So if you are in my shoes,
you'll appreciate this. If you are a lab tech watching over your mass spec
flocks by night, you'll not mind this either.
After changing pressure regulators, gauges, checking reactor tubes,
connections, etc. etc., then changing the He regulator, the water trap,
finally it was determined that the oxygen-water scrubber (Li metal on
resin) was fully reacted and restricting flow. The symptoms were of a
"leak", but nary a leak could be found.
If you are the lucky one with Santa having delivered you technical support
via NSF, the North Pole, or your university, you might have a smug- Heh
Heh for me. As for me, I am not one to back up hard drives unless
absolutely essential, but I archive data in the bottom drawer of a filing
cabinet, fix broken pumps on holidays, and still have the old Isodat
system running.
If you are the technical support staff, I suggest putting on your list of
maintenance items: Replace He scrubbers once every three years. Like one's
underwear, they need changing.
Merry Christmas, cheers to all religons (which we are to religously
(oops!) avoid) and have a great New Year--either on the first of January
or sometime later in the year.
Heloise of Isotopes, Marilyn Fogel
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