3D Printing

The Heit lab has 3D printing infrastructure suitable for the creations of modestly-sized plastic or resign parts, with resolution sufficient for most laboratory needs. Printing can be performed in a range of materials, and these printers are available to other groups based on an hourly fee schedule (plus filament/resin, if you are not providing your own). The Heit lab has both FDM (filament) and DLP (resin) based 3D printing infrastructure:

Prusa i3 MK3s

0.4 mm nozzle (determines x/y resolution)
Up to a 0.5 mm layer height (determines z-resolution)
Prints using 1.75 mm filament
Compatible with regular and food grade PLA, PETG, flex and semi-flex filaments. Higher-temperature filaments can be printed, but printing errors are more likely.

Fee Schedule:

Printing Fee: $2.00/hour, or $20/print, whichever is less.
Filament: $0.06/g

Note on user-provided filament: Only Heit-lab approved filament can be used for printing. Filaments containing fillers (carbon fibre, metal, etc) are not allowed as these cause nozzle wear. Please contact the Heit lab before purchasing filament to ensure that your filament is compatible with our printer and meets our requirements for material quality and features.

Elegoo Mars Pro

0.05 mm resolution (x/y/z)
Prints with most DLP-compatible resins
Print washing station included
UV-curing station not currently available to non-Heit lab members.

Fee Schedule:

Printing Fee: $2.50/hour, or $25/print, whichever is less.
Model slicing/hollowing: $10
Resin: $0.10/mL

Note on user-provided resin: Due to the risks of improperly stored and treated resin damaging this machine, resin must be purchased from the Heit lab. We carry 2-3 types of resin for your printing needs.

Heit Lab Print Designs

We have designed a range of 3D prints for various scientific uses. These are provided, for free but without warranty, to anyone who would like to use them. Most of our print designs for imaging chambers have been published, with the .stl files for these designs available in the supplemental figures:

Tepperman A, Zheng DJ, Taka MA, Vrieze A, Le Lam A, Heit B. Customizable live-cell imaging chambers for multimodal and multiplex fluorescence microscopy. Biochem Cell Biol. 2020 Oct;98(5):612-623. doi: 10.1139/bcb-2020-0064. Epub 2020 Apr 27. PMID: 32339465

Other Desings

Replica plating block, for 10 cm (100 mm) petri dishes. Cloth needs to be held in place with an elastic. When printing, use at least 5 perimeters (shells) to ensure proper wall thickness. Recommend printing with PETG (Polyethylene terephthalate glycol) filament if using chloroform to sterilize. Polycarbonate is recommended if the cylinder needs to be autoclavable. File format: Zip-compressed .stl

Spaceships. Our custom Leiden chambers for use with live cell microscopy. These hold an 18 mm circular coverslip plus enough media to keep cells alive over 24 hours of imaging. The .ZIP file contains a readme file with all of the information required to print these chambers (including a complete list of non-3D printed parts), .STL files for two different size chambers (35 mm and 42 mm) and a .STL file for tools to aid in the assembly of the chambers. The only other item you will need is access to a 3D printer (we use the Prusa MK3S).

Large Phone Grip. A modified phone grip for the Universal Smart Phone Microscope Mount Remix. This replaces the lower of the three grips that hold the phone onto the mount. Having a larger grip on the bottom makes it easier to mount phones which have the camera positioned near the edge (e.g. iPhones). To use, print the mount as normal, but only print two of the parts found in the “Phone_Grip_1of3.stl”, and then print a single copy of the grip in this file for the third grip.