All of the holders need to be treated with care. Each of the holders has a pair of O-rings at the specimen end of the rod and these should be inspected to make certain that they are clean (i.e., free of lint or dust) and lightly greased. Do not touch any part of the specimen holder between the O-rings and the tip of the holder: touching these surfaces leaves traces of material that will slowly degas into the microscope vacuum and cause problems.
When the holders are not in use, they must be stored properly. For the cryo-holders, this means attach them to the dry pumping station and leave them so that the holder’s dewars are being actively pumped by the turbo-molecular pump. The JEOL holders have individual plastic cases and should be stored in them when not in the microscope. There is a plastic cap with each of the cases that should be used to cover the tip of each holder when it is in storage. Please remember to keep all the accessory parts associated with each of the holder cases (and remember that the dual tilt beryllium holder has its own screwdriver and tweezers). The Fischione dual axis tomography holder should be stored in its wooden box with the metal sleeve protecting the rod. For extended storage of the Fischione holder, we will evacuate this metal sleeve.