Magnetic Separator Rack

Magnetic tube racks from commercial lab suppliers can costs hundreds of dollars. But if you have a 3D printer you can make your very own for a fraction of that price! These racks are designed to support up to twelve 1.5-2.0 mL microcentrifuge tubes. They use long, rectangular magnets set lower on the tubes than most commercially available racks, allowing for good separation even with very low sample volumes. In addition, these racks are designed to slot together to allow for expansion when more than 12 samples need to be processed.

Two designs are available. The Two Part design features a removable top so that samples can be vortexed all at the same time without having to removing each tube from the rack. The One Part design is a single piece. These racks are designed to accept a 5/8” x 1/4” x 0.1” neodymium magnet. I used ones available from McMaster-Carr.

Links to download STL files as well as to the OnShape cad document are under the resources section.