I’ve seen many fascinating things under the scanning electron microscope. Pollen, various crystals, diatoms, and even viral particles. But nothing…
microscopy
SEM beam alignment: The Happy Place
June 26, 2019Aligning Milly’s electron beam is tricky business. It’s a process involving hours (or even days!) of pain and uncertainty that…
Porcelain, Tungsten, and other yaks
January 5, 2019Yak shaving : Any apparently useless activity which, by allowing you to overcome intermediate difficulties, allows you to solve a…
2017: Year in Review
December 26, 2017Looks like I haven’t made a lot of time for blogging this year. I’ve been too busy taking photos with…
Experiments in nano manufacturing
January 17, 2017There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom. —Richard Feynman With the recent demise of Milly’s electron emitter, I attempted to…
New Year, New Emitter
December 31, 2016We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men…
AmScope upgrades
April 23, 2016I designed a 3D-printable eyepiece holder that mates a Raspberry Pi camera to a popular inexpensive stereo inspection scope. This lets me send…
Happiness is an aligned electron beam
December 17, 2015Back in business. What should I look at next?
SEM back online
November 29, 2015A couple of months ago, Milly started having beam issues. At the time it seemed like emitter trouble. New emitter modules…
Cheap digital optical microscope
November 10, 2015I recently picked up an AmScope SE400Z inspection scope. It’s a handy desktop microscope that sells for under $200. The…