Dissection blocks

[curie]

How does everyone clean wax dissecting blocks?
Do you clean them with disinfectant, remelt them, or something else?

Thanks

[bindibadgi]

We don't have wax blocks......the kids get large shallow plastic trays for dissections, & they go in the dishwasher for a good hot wash.

[smiley]

Don't use them. I have used either cardboard or even large polystyrene trays from Coles, so that it's all chuck-able afterwards.

Peroxide would probably work - it would lift the left over proteins (blood) and sterilize at the same time.

[cosmo]

we have the old home eco plastic chopping boards, can go in the dishwasher, or wash by hand with cold water, then scrub with bleach then rinse. cant stick pins in them though

[Ocker]

I presume you put a sample in block of wax then slice with microtome knife drop shaving on surface of hot water till wax melts then fish out sample slice to put on slide.
I would just chop out sample than add wax to crucible for recycling

[Lyn]

I have stainless steel trays with wax in them. I pour bleach to cover the surface after use then wash later with warm soapy water. When the surface becomes too chopped up I remelt the wax in the tray on a hotplate. Usually it stinks. Am checking into alternatives to use instead.
Lyn.

[dime]

Sorry haven't heard of wax blocks for dissecting. I have changed to paper plates for dissections.

[curie]

Thanks all. The polystyrene tray idea sounds like a goer, as you can pin out the rats and then chuck them, tray and all.I had been cleaning with disinfectant and hot soapy water; and remelted when they got chopped up. As Lyn says it stinks the place out, even with good ventilation.
Thanks again.

[RosalieL]

What are people currently using for dissection trays? We have a heap of ice cream container lids but the bio teacher has requested actual dissection trays. Upon searching, I can only find the wax ones. I've never used those before. At my previous school we had shallow grey trays but I must be using all the wrong search terms because I can't find them. (I will keep looking because usually after I post a question like this it pops up in my next attempt at searching! ). We don't have a massive budget but I'm happy to spend a bit on something that's a little bit more sciencey-looking!

[bigmack]

We had those Grey shallow trays at old school to Rosalie .
Apparently they were Photographic development trays .

I couldn't find the original ones for Love nor Money but I did find some Newer ones .They all had a small pourer on one corner . I thought they looked strange but the Bio teacher said it was great for pouring the blood down the sink

See this Topic .
viewtopic.php?p=46431#p46431

I ended up buying the ones in the Link that MarimaT posted .

[RosalieL]

We had those Grey shallow trays at old school to Rosalie .
Apparently they were Photographic development trays .

I couldn't find the original ones for Love nor Money but I did find some Newer ones .They all had a small pourer on one corner . I thought they looked strange but the Bio teacher said it was great for pouring the blood down the sink

See this Topic .
viewtopic.php?p=46431#p46431

I ended up buying the ones in the Link that MarimaT posted .

Yes!! Those ones you had pictured are the same as we used to have at the other school! Thanks for the link to the thread. I'll check out the ones you've suggested.

May I ask what size(s) you got and are you happy with them?

[littltesttube]

Hi Rosalie
I just purchased dissection trays from Haines ($24 ea) and they are great. Teachers happy with them. Prior to that we used plastic chopping boards from Woolies.

[RosalieL]

https://www.chemtalk.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=451/tech-tray-with-mat.html this one (if the link works)? How frequently do you need to replace the mats?

[bigmack]

We had those Grey shallow trays at old school to Rosalie .
Apparently they were Photographic development trays .

I couldn't find the original ones for Love nor Money but I did find some Newer ones .They all had a small pourer on one corner . I thought they looked strange but the Bio teacher said it was great for pouring the blood down the sink

See this Topic .
viewtopic.php?p=46431#p46431

I ended up buying the ones in the Link that MarimaT posted .

Yes!! Those ones you had pictured are the same as we used to have at the other school! Thanks for the link to the thread. I'll check out the ones you've suggested.

May I ask what size(s) you got and are you happy with them?

Pretty sure we ended up with the 10" x 12" ones .
Was happy with them . only bitch was they give you a mix of three colours ....if you could call that a bitch .

[RosalieL]

haha yeah I saw that That's the size I was thinking as well. Good to know they work.

[Merilyn1]

I bought the thin chopping board style from Haines. They come in a pack of 10. Easy to put in the dishwasher. Some of the smarter teachers got the kids to put the boards down first, then newspaper on top - made for a much easier clean up.

[Wayne]

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=451/tech-tray-with-mat.html this one (if the link works)? How frequently do you need to replace the mats?

Says, "The requested topic does not exist"

[RosalieL]

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=451/tech-tray-with-mat.html this one (if the link works)? How frequently do you need to replace the mats?

Says, "The requested topic does not exist"

Probably because it was a link to an external company... sorry! I'm pretty sure I'm going with the photography trays now anyway.

[Wayne]

We had those Grey shallow trays at old school to Rosalie .
Apparently they were Photographic development trays .

I couldn't find the original ones for Love nor Money but I did find some Newer ones .They all had a small pourer on one corner . I thought they looked strange but the Bio teacher said it was great for pouring the blood down the sink

See this Topic .
viewtopic.php?p=46431#p46431

I ended up buying the ones in the Link that MarimaT posted .

Are the trays you bought able to go in the dishwasher?

[bigmack]

We had those Grey shallow trays at old school to Rosalie .
Apparently they were Photographic development trays .

I couldn't find the original ones for Love nor Money but I did find some Newer ones .They all had a small pourer on one corner . I thought they looked strange but the Bio teacher said it was great for pouring the blood down the sink

See this Topic .
viewtopic.php?p=46431#p46431

I ended up buying the ones in the Link that MarimaT posted .

Are the trays you bought able to go in the dishwasher?

Hi Wayne .
I honestly couldn't remember if I had or not ,so I just contacted Briony at my old school and she says she has had no issues at all with putting them through the Dishwasher .