Jason, 

Hopefully you have a manual on this cryostat sitting around, if not will be
glad to send you my old manual from a dead, much beloved 1800.    

Several things: 

The knife angle must be correct for knife you are using.  You did not say
what kind of knives you are using? If the angle is really off (too steep)
you will not get sections to form properly.  Look on the left side of knife
holder where the bottom has a mark, the top part of knife holder is marked
at 0, 5 and 10.  By releasing the lever on right hand side of knife holder,
the upper part will move. Line up the bottom mark so it is one tick to the
back side of 5 (towards the 10) giving you approx 6 = to approx 11 degrees
or so.  

If your bottom mark is lined up at the 0 on movable part of holder, you are
in trouble and will not get sections. 

If the microtome is out of adjustment with micrometer is not working
correctly (you did not say what number the micrometer is set at (see dial
at right, top side of microtome) you will get poor sections. This will
require technical service.  The joy of 1800 is you can take the microtome
out, and send it to services to have it put in order - for Leica fee, of
course. I was able to do this in 3 days with Seattle services. 

There is a specific protocol to take the microtome out of cryostat and must
be done correctly, handle location, sliding glass door out (don't break it,
$750!- but a service engineer can talk you through this in order to remove
the microtome or call me! Can do it in my sleep. You do NOT need a service
rep to do microtome repair - send it to them. 

When you take microtome out, you must turn off refrigeration unit and allow
to dry. Be careful to not unscrew and remove all the little levers, if you
strip the threads - BIG problems. These must be carefully  protected for
shipping. 

How is the automatic advance/retraction working?  If you have problems with
that, then a service call may be in order.  

Hope some of this helps.  Or call me, we can talk about it without Histoblab. 



  



Gayle Callis
MT,HT,HTL(ASCP)
Research Histopathology Supervisor
Veterinary Molecular Biology - Marsh Lab
Montana State University - Bozeman
S. 19th and Lincoln St
Bozeman MT 59717-3610

406 994-6367 (lab with voice mail)
406 994-4303 (FAX)

email: gcallis@montana.edu