An electrospray instrument is more difficult, but after training and close
supervision the first few times they use it on their own. Of course the
heaviest users are our own group (8 students use it regularly), but we have
had 12 people from other groups who used it on their own. We have a clear
rule that anyone who clogs the orifice with salts must clean it themelves
and if they do it twice they will never run again and no one has ever
clogged it even once. People who do LC/MS must use their own columns and
we will train them to pour their own capillary columns, which most of the
students do.
It helps to have a regularly scheduled class (say once a year), that covers
data analysis and experimental design.
Katheryn Resing