Mid-experiment and your lab stirrer conks out. Do you get online buy a new one for $300 or more? Or do you fix it?  The prospect of repairing lab equipment may sound daunting, especially to those who never spent time in dad’s basement workshop. But, for the past six years, the local chapter of the national Graduate Women in Science group has offered a little help.

Since 2003, Charles “C.T.” Moses, a sci-tech jack-of-all-trades, has run an annual session to teach researchers how to fix their own gear.  He’s an expert in “Making Technology Work,” according to his business card. He’s also married to Judy Artley, a computer systems administrator and the GWIS Boston liason.

Each January between class sessions,  Moses teaches a course he describes as “geared toward but not limited to beginners.” On Wednesday, a small group of women and men gathered in a bright, messy, basement learning lab at MIT to get Moses’ advice. First point – Know what you can’t do: “Look into it, figure it out and when you can’t figure it out, call the experts,” he told them.

Often, however, you can figure it out the cause of a problem and use a few everyday tools to repair broken lab gear, he said. For example, stirrer plates break down all the time. In one lab, as many as one in three were down every day, he notes in his handout. He found a way to fix them most of the time: “When it stops spinning, drop a little oil in the right spot.” He points out that room dust and oxidation can create residue that builds up in the motor. Take it apart, lubricate a key bearing, put it back together and it will work.

First: “When you disassemble anything that has power to it, the first thing you do it pull power and them pull the batteries,” he said. “Then start taking things apart. If you don’t do that in that sequence, you can end up with a surprise.”

Then, have the right tools. Moses shared the contents of his toolbox, which, for the most looks like it came from a typical basement. He has a little bit of everything –pliers, wrenches, a polarity tester,  3-in-1 Oil,  — because, he said “ I do a little bit of everything.”

His handout and web site attest to his range of experience and skills. He served in the Navy, and has worked as a live sound engineer, a fire fighter, a lab manager, an optical designer.

“This little tool here is a multi tool,” he told the group.” You can use it for cutting wire. You can use it for crimping wires. You can use it crimping connectors and you can use it for cutting bolts… because sometimes thing are just too darn big.”

The wrong size bolt can be more than frustrating, he said. It can short out the power supply and destroy a device, he said.

MIT biologist Brenda Devlin Minesinger, who helped organize the event, said learning how to fix equipment that you use routinely can be “empowering.” And Moses offers instruction on the gamut, including “electrical concerns, mechanical clearances, and identification of failure modes….centrifuges… wiring & soldering…lubrication, cleaning, power supplies…assembly & disassembly techniques, and…approximate repair costs.”

Barbara Karampalas, the manager of an MIT biology lab, arrived with a small centrifuge, that she said was functioning, but loud. The most common problems with centrifuges, Moses said,  are the latches – they lock up. But, this one opened easily. Once he turned it one, the loud grinding noise gave him a hint.

“When you hear that noise, it means there is a gear inside that slipped,” he told the group.

But, before he started to take it apart, he took his own advice and pulled the plug.

For more on the local chapter of the Graduate Women in Science, see www.gwisboston.org