I originally went into histology because I love to work with my mind and hands at the same time.  Creating new original pieces that I can use or look at over time gives me satisfaction.  This field of histology keeps me wanting more, always looking for new and different information to add to a growing repertoire of knowledge.  This keeps me going, day after day to contribute to the field and the people who need histology for pathology diagnosis.   I work 2 jobs, one for myself as the owner of a histology company and two for a private college WPI in Worcester, MA as the histology manager.  The histology core provides services to mostly the professors and students who do biomedical engineering research.  Since the college has the resources for me to come up with and execute my histology based experiments, I have been compelled to create new products that may help me and others in the future.  One of these experiments, an old extra hot plate we had, turned into a paraffin wax trimmer (block melter) (see picture 1 & 2).  There are companies that make these paraffin trimmers but they are $350.00 to $800.00.  My cost nothing but a few hours of my time and I get the satisfaction of building like an engineer.

*Sorry Facebook, you have seen this already.

 

The next equipment I made, and i just did this in my garage with Baltic birch laying around, is slide holders.  These are used next to the microtome when cutting.  They make it easy to put the slides standing up but not in a rack.  I used the table saw to cut plywood down to the chosen size, then angled grooves at an inch apart for the slides to stand in.   Everything in the medical field does not have to cost so much, why would I pay for something that I can just make.  These also are sold as histology extras but not as cheap or fun as the one’s I make in my garage.  These will be used by all the people doing histology at the college and any doing work for me.