A low-cost and open-source mini benchtop centrifuge for molecular biology labs
Description
Small benchtop centrifuges ubiquitous in many labs. Often they are only used to remove liquid film or droplets from the inner wall of plastic tubes after vortexing or homogenization. In this manuscript all the necessary information is provided to build a simple benchtop mini centrifuge for this task, requiring minimal footprint. It consists only three printed parts (optimized to be printed without supports) and cheap off-the-shelf components (80 mm computer fan, switches, food container and power supply). It can be assembled with basic soldering skills, no programming needed. While the total cost of materials is only 20 €, when compared to its commercial counterparts, this diy benchtop spinner was equally capable to remove droplets and liquid film from the inner wall of centrifuge tubes (up to six 1.5/2 ml, 0.5 ml or 0.2 ml tubes). Comparing noise levels this model was quieter than an Eppendorf 5424, BioSan MSC-6000 or Kisker biotech centrifuges at 2000 RPM. Because it is designed to perform a very generic and common task, it could be useful for a very wide array of laboratories and researchers: molecular biology, genetics, microbiology, student labs, biohacking labs, etc.