Mushroom Spore Printer

thingiverse

The design is a self-contained still-air box unit in which the mushroom is held 3 cm above a clean 90 mm* petri dish into which the spores are delivered. The bottom surface has a large opening through which the underside the petri dish is visible - so by placing the spore printer on top of a mirror one can observe the amount of spores deposited without disturbing the setup. The idea is that one can set this up inside of a still-air box or in front of a flowhood and then move it it somewhere else to free up the workspace. Once the spore print is ready, the setup is brought back into a sterile environment, the mushroom removed and pure water is injected/withdrawn through the top opening to prepare a spore syringe. This printer can also be useful in an educational setting, as one can show different groups of students how the spores are being released over time without having to move the mushroom and disturb the print. Multiple different size holes are provided for different mushroom sizes. Before printing, you can clean the device by wiping the inside surfaces with rubbing alcohol (70% isopropanol/30% water mixture) *The petri dishes I designed this with are sold as a ‘90 mm’ petri dishes, but the diameter of the bottom piece is actually closer to 88 mm. From what I have found, this is the case for many of the 90 mm polystyrene petri dishes that are commonly sold to hobbyists, but not all of them. I recommend you to first print the barrel piece and test it by placing the bottom half of one of your 90 mm petri dishes inside of it. The fit should be a good but loose fit. The barrel should be easy to remove without disturbing the dish and the dish should not be free to bounce around when inside the barrel.