Help!. . . Applied Biosystems 4700 Proteomics Analyzer

Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

cosmetal

Well-known member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2017
Messages
445
Location
Sacramento, CA USA
Mass Spec.jpgAll,

Put me out of my misery . . .

Do I even want to mess with this 3-part, 1,500 lb beast? Is there anything else other than the dual Xeon processors, 4GB memory and telco grade PCBs worth the effort? I can get it for free.

Help!

James
 
Seems to be quite a lot high-tech gear inside.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Applied-BioSystems-4700-Proteomics-Analyzer-MALDI-TOF-TOF-Mass-Spectrometer-/162167334745

If it is working you might be able to sell it, LabX is a good site for selling and buying old instruments.
If you scrap it I would expect the laser, vacuum pump and various high voltage generators should be possible to sell on ebay as components.
I would also expect some gold plated components inside the vacuum chamber, especially around the detector where oxides might allow some charge to build up and that would affect the precision of the measurements.

This kind of scrap is my favorite, not for the content of precious metals, but for the opportunity to observe how an instrument like this is built. A lot of work to dismantle, but also a lot of fun. :mrgreen:

Göran
 
g_axelsson said:
Seems to be quite a lot high-tech gear inside.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Applied-BioSystems-4700-Proteomics-Analyzer-MALDI-TOF-TOF-Mass-Spectrometer-/162167334745

If it is working you might be able to sell it, LabX is a good site for selling and buying old instruments.
If you scrap it I would expect the laser, vacuum pump and various high voltage generators should be possible to sell on eBay as components.
I would also expect some gold plated components inside the vacuum chamber, especially around the detector where oxides might allow some charge to build up and that would affect the precision of the measurements.

This kind of scrap is my favorite, not for the content of precious metals, but for the opportunity to observe how an instrument like this is built. A lot of work to dismantle, but also a lot of fun. :mrgreen:

Göran

Thanks, Goran.

This type of equipment is my favorite too . . . that's why I feel like I'm getting sucked in.

Saw that on eBay - this one doesn't work. Trying to find out if it contains any voodoo reagents or gases and if it's been decontaminated. :shock:

Best.
James
 
There might be some oil in the vacuum system (quite expensive stuff) and possibly in the high voltage system, but except of that I don't think there are any strange gases or reagents.

The working principle is that a sample of an unknown protein is blasted under vacuum by a laser beam. The pieces are ionized and accelerated in an electrical field, then the time of flight is measured until it hits the detector. Heavier pieces takes longer time to fly while lighter pieces takes shorter. The result is a spectra of different heavy pieces and from that they could piece together what the original protein was.
MALDI-TOF MS = Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization - Time Of Flight Mass Spectroscopy.

https://www.shimadzu.com/an/lifescience/maldi/princpl1.html

Göran
 
Awesome!

If I had that chance, I would hire guys to help me get it home just so I could take it apart and learn from it.

What a wonderful opportunity.

Who knows, while dismantling and learning, the mode of failure may even be discovered and easily fixed.
If not, it was still a valuable learning experience, and knowledge gained. With the added benefit of cool tech bits to play with!
 
g_axelsson said:
There might be some oil in the vacuum system (quite expensive stuff) and possibly in the high voltage system, but except of that I don't think there are any strange gases or reagents.

The working principle is that a sample of an unknown protein is blasted under vacuum by a laser beam. The pieces are ionized and accelerated in an electrical field, then the time of flight is measured until it hits the detector. Heavier pieces takes longer time to fly while lighter pieces takes shorter. The result is a spectra of different heavy pieces and from that they could piece together what the original protein was.
MALDI-TOF MS = Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization - Time Of Flight Mass Spectroscopy.

https://www.shimadzu.com/an/lifescience/maldi/princpl1.html

Göran

How do you know all this stuff? Amazing. :D
 
silversaddle1 said:
How do you know all this stuff? Amazing. :D
Because I have an unhealthy curiosity and I'm a physicist by trade. :lol:

Mass spectroscopy was something I was looking into a couple of years ago. Basically I wanted the possibility to measure different oxygen isotopes as well as measuring the elemental composition in meteorites and minerals. Another of my hobbies.
The mix of oxygen isotopes differs in different parts of the solar system. The Earth and Moon have one mix of the three stable isotopes while Mars have another one and the meteorites yet another mix. There are a lot of "common" highly weathered meteorites that can be had for very low money, to sort through this with a MS could reveal some interesting stuff. I have about 15-20 kilos of meteorites that I've bought over the years and only a few have been analyzed properly.

This instrument is sadly not so sensitive in the small mass segment as it is optimized to detect large proteins, not single atoms.

Göran
 
I love things like that. Usually contains High quality gold plated connectors, plated boards and other hard to acquire parts to sell on ebay. I scrapped out the innards of an Electron microscope, which I imagine may be similar. One of my best finds ever in my not so old hobby. These boards I took apart contained tons of gold plated pins and some gold fingered connectors.
 
Back
Top