Hi All
I wonder if anyone has any advice for me. The equipment I use to analyse samples for my PhD has broken and apparently the manufacterurs don't make spares for it anymore. A new one is studpidly expensive, way beyond my PhD funding but I am only one of 2 people who use it at the moment (well not use it cos its broken!). I am in my 2nd year and spent all of my 1st year developing the methods I need to use and now can't use them. I have been waiting for it to be fixed for a month already and it now doesn't sound like it will be anytime soon or at all!

My supervisor is quite laid back, doesn't think it matters if I waste a couple of months. As probably is the case with most unis at the moment, money is tight so apparently no chance of them stumping up for a new one. I'm beggining to think of asking to go to another lab somewhere else to do it but how likely are they to accept me given I'm not a student there? Has anyone else had similar equipment issues or advice? Please help.

Have you thought about speaking to the technicians directly and getting some idea about how soon the equipment may be fixed ?
If its not going to get fixed and the Uni are not going to be buying a new one then you don't have much choice but to explore using someone elses lab.

I suggest you have a meeting with your supervisor, and the technicians, and agree a plan of action with a timescale.

Thanks for your reply. Yes I have met with the technician and my supervisor. It all depends if they can find the spare part somewhere else so they don't have an idea how long that could take. They also said they may replace that part and then find that is not the only thing causing the problem.

Does anyone know what the etiquette might be for a student from one uni using equipment at another e.g. would I have to have a co-supervisor at the new uni?

hi there! I have to use equipment in 2 labs other than my own and one of these i had to sort out myself. generally, people are ok with sharing equipment so long as there is something in it for them - and in academia, that would be co-authorship for the paper resulting from your data. Especially in science, 'collaboration' is a big thing i've found. If you can find a really nice person who doesn't have this attitude and helping cos thy are genuinely nice then you're well sorted, but otherwise I would try to arrange it that the results will be written up as a pper and not just in ur thesis, then you have add the other lab onto authorship, and everyone will be happy. trying to find another lab might be difficult tho!

good lord just noticed my spelling is terrible! i should really go home!

hi i've known a few people who would use equipment in other university departments either running the tests themselves or paying a technician there to run them- they will usually charge per sample though if this is the case but worth looking in to. I know a lot of uni labs that will run samples for external clients so if you contact the lead technician they may be able to help you out. They usually have lists on their web pages of all the equipment in the lab.

its hard to say without knowing what your samples are or the equipment you use. if its standard chemical analytical equipment and you have developed the methods it should be straight forward to transfer your methods to a new machine with a few adjustments at first.

i think you need to present your supervisor with a few options with approximate costs i.e. 1) another lab at your uni with you running the tests 2) sending the samples to another university and a technician there running them or 3) even looking in to industrial labs? (again i dont know the nature of the samples so cant make specific suggestions) and stress to him/her that you really want to get things sorted asap.

i've had the same situation many times with broken equipment and realise now that you really have to sort it out yourself and not wait around because, at the end of the day, its you and your work/time that will suffer.

hope that helps a bit!