Fri Sep 10, 2021 5:43 pm by mleipold
Hi Terry,
You can use your hands to pull the blue sheath tubing out of the yellow ferrule+silver ring. Then, take a pair of needle-nose pliers in one hand to grip the silver ring, and the fingers of your other hand to grip the yellow ferrule and pull apart. Don't use pliers on the yellow ferrule, as that will warp the plastic and make it useless....your fingers are just the right "grip" to pull without warping.
Then, take the pointy tip of a P200 pipette tip and push and twist lightly against the cap (pointy, non-flat) end of the yellow ferrule to open it back up a bit. This will allow you to get the blue sheath+white capillary back into the pointy end of the yellow ferrule and push until flush with the flat end of the ferrule.
Order of operation:
1. Use your hands to disassemble the blocked capillary setup into 2 white screw fittings (what goes into grounding nut and what goes into the back end of the square connector nut), 2 silver ring+yellow ferrules (still stuck together), 1 square connector nut with the nebulizer port screw fitting still attached, 2 blue sheaths, and the blocked capillary (which you throw away).
2. Pull apart the silver ring and yellow ferrule with your fingers and needle-nose pliers as described above.
3. Open up the pointy end of the yellow ferrule as described above.
4. Cut appropriate length of new capillary tubing (you can use the blocked piece as a measurement).
5. Push one end of new capillary tubing into a blue sheath until just peeking out. Slice a flush end of the capillary tubing+blue sheath with razor blade (needs to be sharp so you don't crush/crimp it).
6. Slide white screw fitting onto the end with the blue sheath until the sheath+capillary end is poking through. Slide on a silver ring (slightly tapered end pointing outward, away from the white screw fitting), then push on one of the widened yellow ferrules.
7. Make the end of the capillary+sheath flush with the flat end of the yellow ferrule, then take the square fitting and screw it on tightly. This treats it as an anvil to force the silver ring back onto the taper of the yellow ferrule to hold everything in place. Once you have forced it on there as tightly as you can, unscrew from the square fitting. If you push lightly on the blue sheath to move the silver ring+yellow ferrule slightly out of the white screw fitting, you should see that the capillary+sheath+ferrule+ring should move as one unit.
8. Do the same operation for the other end of the capillary. However, when screwing things into the square nut, do it gently until you feel it hit the end of the opening; do not tighten just yet. That should line up the capillary with the hole in the share nut; you should be able to push the end of the capillary through the hole and out the far end (nebulizer port). Once the appropriate length extends out, *then* tighten the back white screw firmly to clamp everything in place.
Please note: in our experience, the yellow ferrules can be reused multiple times. However, at some point, you will fatigue (irreversibly compress) the conical part of the yellow ferrule to where it will no longer clamp down on the sheath+capillary. At that point, you need to replace the yellow ferrule.
Hope this is clear,
Mike