When preparing to perform frequent blood capillary collection for differential leukocyte and general erythrocyte health checks (for ingesting into a studio-wide health tracking dataset), it occurred to me that storage for a moderate number of microscope slides would be unclean. Since I am (at the time of this project) limited with storage furniture, I wondered if the studio 3D printer could be of use.
I designed an easy-to-print sleeve made of two identical components. It is a small cuboid / rectangular box with raised corners inside. It is measured to fit a standard microscope slide. When the slide is placed inside and the two halves and placed together, the slide is prevented from moving, and nothing can make contact with the slide surface (other than the contact corners). While the option to do a hinge with the 3D printer was available, I decided that for simplicity, the two halves would just be taped together afterwards. They are, after all, designed with disposability in mind, even though they can be recycled indefinitely.
This is suitable for an amateur environment, however sterilization will be an issue in high-demand environments as the PLA printed material contains ridges and may have miniature non-manifold or poorly-enclosed regions.
Curtis Holt - Studio / Lab 