Fellow sample collectors,
I have a few suggestions that might help.
I found that wearing an earthing bracelet works wonders to control static
and stop sample powders flying about.  I wear one when ever I collect
drilled samples and when I am weighing out powdered samples.
Try placing a small 'isocarb' bucked directly over the drill sample and
invert the section and bucket together, you should recover most of the
sample.
I was asked to analyse zoned material from a polished thin section.  The
section was too thin to drill within a single zone and retrieve enough
material to analyse. So I took a fine scalpel blade and cut about 100ug from
the zones and carefully lifted the material into an 'isocarb' bucket.  It is
fairly simple to calculate how much sample to remove to recover the desired
sample weight.   This method requires testing the resin to eliminate it as a
source of contamination.
Good luck,
Carolyn

Carolyn A Chenery
NERC Isotope Geoscience Laboratory
British Geological Survey
Kingsley Dunham Centre
Keyworth, Nottingham
U.K. NG12 5GG

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-----Original Message-----
From: glenn jaecks [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 04 July 2000 01:15
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ISOGEOCHEM] collecting sample


Hello,
I am in the throws of using a microsampler for the first time.  My sampling
protocol requires (for now) that I sample spots.  In order to get enough
sample, I have been driling as deep as 110 microns.  I thought that might
do the trick, as I would need only 20 micrograms or so of calcite. I have
been collecting th powder using an exacto knife and a razor blade, and
transferring it directly into pre-wieghed boats.  However, I am routinely
recovering much less than 10 micrograms (much less).  My question:  has
anyone figured out a good way of collecting powder in such small
quantities?  Any suggestions would be very helpful.
Thanks,
Glenn Jaecks



____________________________________________
Glenn Jaecks
Geology department
U. California, Davis
95616
USA

ph: (530)752-0350
fax: (530)752-0951
"His earliest memory was of a geologist."  Joseph Heller, 1955, p.53
"words are the children of reason"  Bill Evans in a 1960 interview
____________________________________________