A recent incident of a fallen sample is caused by

  1. The sample rod is not as straight as before
  2. The plastic straw adapter, which was glued to the end of the metal rod, is loose.
  3. When the user tried to pull out the sample rod, the plastic adapter got caught at some gas inlet on the side wall and detached from the metal rod.

A few tips to avoid dropping your sample

  1. Aware that the sample rods are always bended.
  2. Always lower and pull the sample rod slowly. If you feel any resistance, you should stop and inspect the cause.
  3. Make sure your straw has a tight fit with the plastic straw adapter
  4. The plastic straw adapter is glued onto the metal rod. It may not be very strong. When pulling off the straw, the other hand should grab the plastic straw adapter, instead of the metal rod. If you find the adapter is loose, glue it again before you use it.

A special tool is made for fetching fallen samples.

A wood screw is welded to the end of a stainless tubing. One can use it as a drill. If you can not fish out your fallen sample by using the sticky tape method, you can use this tool. Basically, you lower it down and apply some pressure to drill the screw into the end of the straw and get it out.

This will be kept aside of the SQUID, together with the sample rods.

When using this tool, a few things you may want to keep in mind:

  1. Always try using the sticky tape to get the sample out first, especially if only the straw falls down. In this case, you can easily poke a sample rod with some sticky tape into the straw and get it out.
  1. The drill is good when both the plastic straw adapter and the straw fall off, or the straw is squashed and get stuck down there.
  1. When do the drilling method, the straw will get squashed. This may damage your sample.
  1. The drill is not perfectly straight, so when you lower and drill it into the straw (or the plastic straw adapter), be careful not to scratch the inner wall of the sample space.
  1. Never leave anything behind. Always clean the sample space after fishing out your sample.

(the above information will appear on the SQUID website)