[Nhcoll-l] Putty For Sealing Jars

[Lazo-Wasem, Eric]

Hi,

As typical, I do not often fall into the "best practices" category, but do have 40 years' experience with fluid jars and this sort of situation.

I agree that with ground glass non-setting clear grease works well.  However, I have also used pure silicone to seal flat lids onto flat ground jars (can be flattened manually as a touch up with wet/dry sandpaper and a bit of effort) for exhibits; even with warm lights there is no evaporative loss of fluid.  To remove the lid after many years, a razor blade will get most of the silicone off, and final cleaning can be done with mineral oil followed by soap and water.  I have jars sealed back in 2004 for an exhibit that are still completely intact; one contains a 1 m section of giant squid gladius and this demonstrates the technique can be applied to large, as well as small, jars.

Eric LW

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of James Maclaine
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2023 7:09 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Putty For Sealing Jars

Dear all,

Happy New Year!

Hope someone can help with a large jar sealing question.  In the past we have used a kind of putty (made by Arboseal) to seal flat glass plates to the top of some of our largest jars and containers.  This was especially useful in the case of some of the older jars where the top is not completely flat and the putty could fill in the gaps.  It isn't an ideal solution (and makes opening the jar a bit of a chore) and in some cases the putty has hardened and cracked but on the whole it has fairly effectively slowed down evaporation over several decades.

However, in the cases where the old putty has to be replaced I can no longer find the same brand for sale online, so can anyone tell me where I can purchase something similar and reliable that I could use for this?  Or ideally, let me know of a better way of sealing a flat lid on an uneven jar top (please don't suggest stretching parafilm over it!).

As these are large containers for specimens that would be difficult to find alternative storage for (see attached), I'd like to keep using them if possible.  They would also be prohibitively expensive to replace.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

James



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