Dear Colleagues,
Please let me apologize for not providing you with a summary of all the replies that I received last month regarding spinning and eject problems with Our MercuryPlus 200MHz NMR.
The response was great and all of the information passed on to me was very helpful. Thank you kindly. I would like to thank Dr. Ulrike Werner-Zwanziger for posting the question for me as I was not a member of AMMRL at that time.
The instructions below best summarize the process of removing the upper barrel of our magnet. This is part of an email that was sent to me and I would like to share it.
Remove the quick couplings for the eject, bearing and spinning air tubes on the circular top flange. Disconnect the spinning sensor plug. Then loosen the two vertical screws (they can be loosened by hand). Remove the upper barrel including the circular plate with the two screws. keep the plastic tubings nicely wound around the outside of the central tube.
To clean the seat of the spinner, you have to remove the thicker end piece from the aluminum tube.
This is best done by two people: One holds the circular plate and the end-piece (with the spinner seat; the one to which the plastic tubing and the cable for the spinning sensor are attached at the lower end) in a fixed position relative to each other and keeps the plate at a right angle to the tube, the other turns the central tube, which is tightened into the end-piece with a fine thread (and goes through an O-ring in the circular plate, which causes some resistance to turning) counter-clockwise. If you have never done this before, it might need some force to get it unscrewed initially). This way, you do not untangle the plastic tubes. You can't detach the end peace completely because the spinner sensor photocell is soldered to the white cable. However, you have enough leeway to be able to clean the inner part of the spinner seat block with kimwipes and a non aggressive solvent such as isopropanol.
Then re-attach the end piece to the tube again using the same procedure with two people holding and turning, screwing the fine threaded end into the end-piece.
Before you re-insert the whole thing into the magnet again, make sure that the three PVC tubes and the white cable are tightly wound around the central tube without crossing each other. Only this way will you be able to insert the whole upper barrel into the magnet again. Fix the circular plate to the magnet top flange with the two screws.
Then push the central tube down until it touches the lower barrel while gently turning it clockwise (to keep the tubing wrapped tightly around the central tube, although you do not see them, of course) then reconnect the three quick couplings to the air supplies.
After performing these steps our eject and spinning problems were solved.
Cheers,
Dan
Dan Durant
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Mount Allison University
Sackville NB
E4L 1G8
506-364-2699
Received on Thu Dec 02 2010 - 02:43:37 MST