1.                  ALWAYS make sure that when you take an area of the instrument apart you are 100% sure you know EXACTLY how it is constructed.  What you think is happening is not good enough!  So that you are less likely to make an error THINK TWICE (at least) BEFORE you make a move.

2.                  You MUST leave the instrument in a condition that will be exactly as the customer expects, that is you must not make a modification that will force the customer to carry out a procedure which is different from that they carried out prior to your visit.

3.                  DO NOT tackle large areas of the machine in case you hit problems.  Constrain your actions to small areas of the instrument and have them sorted 100% before you move on to another area.

4.                  FINISH one task in total before you move on to another for example complete the cleaning before you tackle a vacuum task.

5.                  DO NOT random search for the source of a problem, that is following closely the path that you know covers the problem and that path alone.

6.                  KEEP CLEAN.  Do not cross contaminate using dirty materials on clean areas, change the cleaning “cloth” as often as possible, so that you do not wipe dirt from one area on to another area, even within the same component.

7.                  General laboratory practice is to pour liquids into smaller containers to prevent other people having problems from your actions, for example wetting a cloth from a bottle may well contaminate the whole bottle.

8.                  Once the system is pumping down do not assume that all is well, wait and watch the gauges until the DP/Turbo system has fully taken over.  RP/FP vacuum does not mean leak free!

9.                  The manufacturers make good manuals WORK FROM THE MANUAL every time and use the diagrams to help explain the instrument’s construction.

10.              Never believe you know all that there is to know, from time to time expect the instrument to beat you, but man made it so man can fix it – PROVIDED HE THINKS!