Biogang:Projects/Open Source Molecular Biology

I started this page after Richard Badge tweeted

Lab work in progress.. thinking about "open source molecular biology" What reagents currently supplied by companies can be made in house?
Back to the lab... and current economic situation (and looming funding cuts!) prompted a revisit to this site... So what molecular biology reagents can be sourced "In house" cheaper that purchased alternatives?*Richard M. Badge 04:34, 10 March 2010 (EST):

Suggestions

• A pressure cooker for sterilization
• Diapers (or sponges?) to absorb the buffer in southern blots
• Cheap ways to make useful DNA molecular weight markers - e.g. 1 kilobase ladders etc
• Methods to extract DNA from agarose / polyacrylamide gels without columns, magnets...
• Pooling and assaying left over Taq DNA polymerase for use in "routine" (non-sensitive) PCRs...
• Hints and tips for improving quality of non-kit plasmid minipreps.
• Guidelines on re-using agarose (how any times?)
• Good protocols for making high efficiency competant cells
• Protocols for "home-made" T-vectors for cloning PCR products