1. When you are adding several reagents to one tube, release each drop of reagent on the inside wall of the tube near the bottom.
   
   
2. Tightly close the caps on all the tubes to be placed in the microcentrifuge (also called microfuge).
   
   
3. The microfuge rotor must always be balanced - you cannot, for example, insert one tube into a microfuge. Spinning in an unbalanced arrangement like this would damage the motor of the instrument.
   
   
4. The amount of liquid in the tubes should be similar, otherwise the rotor will spin unevenly (like wet towels spinning out of balance in a washing machine). You can always prepare a "blank" tube with the appropriate volume of liquid with which to balance a single tube.
   
   Samples of balanced rotor configurations:
   
   
   

   Question: What do you do if you only have 5 tubes? You must put in one extra (a blank) tube blank with equal volume.

5. After you have replaced the metal top (if your type of microfuge has a rotor top) and secured the lid of the microfuge, give the tubes a 1-2 second pulse. This will mix and pool all the reagents into a droplet in the bottom of each tube.
   
   NOTE: REVIEW SECTIONS OF INSTRUCTIONS AS NEEDED AS YOU PROCEED TO PRACTICE MICROPIPETTING
   

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