Dissecting Pans - (Jan/04/2014 )

Hello All!  I'm new to these forums and new to being a general lab techincian for biology and chemistry departments.  I have been doing some prep work for the upcoming semester and I wanted to do something about the dissecting pans used at my school.  They were dirty and the wax was really marked up.  I gave them all a thorough cleaning then ran them through the autoclave to melt the wax and sterilize it.  I used to do this at the end of each semester for a university where I was once a work-study student and got great results.

Upon runinng the trays through a liquid cycle a few turned out nicely but most were marked and unsmooth.  Any adivce would be greatly appreciated!

I'd use a drying or heating cabinet for this.

Any recommendations on temperature or time left in cabinet?

Until it's melted which depends on amounts and wax composition. Wax usually melts around 60 °C but with higher temps it's faster...I wonder if the cooling down speed has an effect on the smooth surface, i.e. perhaps a fast cooling rate might reduce development of a wavy surface, or vice versa?