Not too lazy to do a search, just while this thread is live at the moment where do you guys source your test tubes and what $$$ ? What's the best type of tube, plastic or lab quality glass? Do they have pop on or screw on lids? If pop on then do you seal them by dipping them say in melted candle wax like some winemakers with their corks??
Why so many questions two dogs? :icon_cheers:
Plastic or Glass. Glass is what I have used in the past and glass is what the yeast meisters at the club use.
I have not bookmarked any web sites but there are a few good laboratory and medical supply mail order firms out there, others will probably chime in.
Wort and Agar are cheap so most people don't get bothered with the waste of surface area by buying large capacity tubes and just filling them up. That said, you only use the increased surface area created by turning the tube on its side to set the agar at an angle and not the 3/4 of a giant tube of wort poured beneath it. You work on the surface with Agar, not through the substrate -- for that we have specialty gels for 3-dimensional work.
Tube holder frames are cheap, plastic jobs you snap together yourself. The only problem is most are not slant holders so you have to prop them at an angle until the agar sets. Another option is to get tubes with sides that extend down to the bottom past the dimple or cone and can set upright on their own. Because surface area is all you want you can also look at anything wide and squat and forget about slanting them - something closer to the petri dish which is what you really want anyway for surface area, which is why they were invented and used, just that most glass petris do not have screw on lids.
Most of this is sold at a price per lot of items. Expect anywhere from $20 and up for a set of tubes with screw on caps. Qty depends on what its made from and what size (you can also use some Cetrifuge Vials as tubes as well as some have good seals. Plastic frames are $10-20 range.
I'm going to see about getting my borosilicate petri plates and sample vials brought over from the states as I have a huge collection just sitting around in storage
EDIT: If you have a pressure cooker already then you are set. You can do sterilisation lab techniques (steam + pressure is the most effective per cost) as well as santisation techniques (just boiled on stovetop at standard atmospheric pressure)
Cheers,
Brewer Pete