DIY lab-style vortex mixer?

I recently tried to resuspend the yeast in a vial from my yeast bank...after 10 minutes of shaking, I was halfway there. Then I thought.....man, I wish I had a vortex mixer!



They are way to expensive to purchase outright, and there was only a DIY tutorial for a stupid attachment to an existing vortex mixer (which was really lame).

So, I put it to the great HBT DYI brainstorm....let's build a vortex mixer!

The hardest part, I presume would be the motor...it has to be strong to resist pressure and still rotate. I was thinking like an old food processor or something. Any ideas?

maybe a random orbit polisher/sander?

Agreed on the orbital sander or the new "all in one" cutting/sanding tools with interchangeable heads. The latter might be the easiest to adapt to and create a vortex mixer head for.

Such as http://www.google.com/products/cata...=X&ei=xycrT7DLC8eg2AWUrpTrDg&ved=0CIQBEPMCMAk

I knew I could count on HBT! I have both and know what I am doing this weekend.

I dreamed about this thing last night...I generally dream about ideas/projects/statistics/math problems, and will often times have a much clearer understanding of the direction I need to head when I awake.

I think the orbital sander will be the best bet. It has a much larger orbit than the oscillations on the all-in-one tool. I also imagine I can use a silicone jar opener or cut an appropriate square off a silicone oven mit that will snap in place using the latches on the orbital sander. I will try just the bare head first, and then try the other silicone additions.

I am going to build a simple box that will hold the orbital sander upside-down and make the handle portion more stable by firmly attaching it to a bench top. This should help transfer the orbital energy to the "head" and thus to the vial, and not so much to the handle. this will also allow the orbital sander to be removed and used as intended (like sanding my mash paddle project I need to start).

I'll update with pics as I go.

It didn't take long for this project. First I tried just the sander alone, which worked so-so. I had to hold the vial pretty hard against the sander and tilt it just a bit to get a vortex. Next, I placed the silicone jar opener on the sander. This worked much better, but the vial ate right through the silicone because of the pressure.

I then took the four srews out holding the sander platform on the bearing. I cut some plywood to the size, drilled holes for longer screws in the factory hole positions, drilled holes for the vials... And used the short factory screws as anchor points for the rubber band stabilizers.

Before:


Installed:


30 seconds after:



She ain't gonna win a beauty pageant, but she sure mixes year vials well.