Materials

• Long wooden Q-tips (at least 6 inches long)
• Water
• Minuten pins, 0.15 mm diameter (BioQuip #1208SA)
• Loctite two-part epoxy
• Forceps (#3)
• Scissors
• Parafilm

Directions

1. Cut off the cotton tips of the Q-tips so you are left with a long wooden dowel.
2. Place the wooden dowels so that one end is immersed in water for at least 5 minutes.
3. Cut the minuten pin in half, discarding the half that has two blunt ends.
4. Use forceps to embed the other half of the minuten pin in the center of the damp end of a wooden dowel.
   • Make sure the pointed end of the pin is not the end that you embed in the dowel.
   • Push the pin down about 2/5ths of the length of the pin. The length of the probe is generally a matter of personal preference — longer probes are easier to bend and ruin, but can be easier to manipulate. Remember that you will be covering a portion of the pin with epoxy, which makes the usable length shorter.
5. Follow the directions of the two-part epoxy to mix it together on a sheet of parafilm.
6. Use another dowel to apply the epoxy around the base of the wooden dowel to secure the minuten pin. Make sure the entire base of the dowel is covered.
7. Leave probes to harden while sticking up in a tube rack overnight before storing them.

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Be careful that hardening probes are not left somewhere a person could injure themselves accidentally.

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