Jim,
	I bump my paraffins every 400 cassettes approx. Moving the last
two up to replace the first two . I also use Paraplast Plus and have a
VIP and keep my paraffins at 60 degees. Just my 2cents this
morning.Betsy ----------
> From: 	Jim Ball[SMTP:xryhisto@ovis.net]
> Sent: 	Monday, January 24, 2000 5:41 PM
> To: 	histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
> Subject: 	first wax change
>
> I have been a firm believer that dry tissue can be caused by to much
> xylene
> in the first wax after the clearing process as much as over
> dehydration. I
> have found that the least aount of time the tissue spends in this
> station
> the better. I have tried to keep the over all exposure to 15 to 20
> minutes.
> Our department has gone with a cheaper variant of paraffin and the
> brittleness of the tissue has increased considerable. My question is,
> How
> often do you in histo cyber space change this wax. When we were
> getting a
> good quality wax I was replacing half of this station with half the
> station
> that followed in the process after about ever 350 to 400 blocks. This
> worked
> out to be about every third day the waxes would be rotated even if we
> had
> not reached 400 blocks there seemed to be enough carry over to justify
> this
> rule of thumb.
>           I have always thought that the fresher the wax the more
> insulating
> properties it had as xylene was introduced, but eventually this
> insulating
> property was lost and the 60 plus degrees helped this station to act
> as a
> french frying unit, This effect was multipled if xylene was allowed to
> build
> up in the next station and the next station. Would like to hear other
> peoples view on this subject. Oh yea we are using the VIP processor so
> each
> processor may allow for more or less blocks in my simple equation, and
> as
> the old saying goes " Hit me with your best shot "
>
>