Pumping Iron to Pump Pumps

It’s the time of year when I service the mass spectrometer. One of my many tasks is to change the oil in the rotary pump.

The oil is really nothing more than mineral oil, but it gets dirty. The bottles with the blue lids contain dirty oil. The bottles with the red caps are full of clean oil.

In the picture above, the pump is sitting on the counter. But where it usually lives in a special snuggly place behind and below the mass spectrometer.

To get it out to service, I have to pull it past all these hoses and wires in this little narrow space.

That doesn’t sound too daunting. At least not until you realize that the pump weighs at least 60 pounds.

I’m glad I’ve put a lot of effort into building my strength, because hefting this thing can be hard. This year, not so bad.

Now the oil’s changed and the pump’s back home where it wants to be. It’s working great and in a few days, I hope we’re back doing analyses!