This is a couple of years old, but it is SO cool. A mass spec startup package stretches just about every institution's budget. Sure...maybe(?) you'd want to buy a commercial MALDI sprayer one day? But if you could build your own for a couple hundred $ why would you?
(When you do mass spec imaging you want to deposit MALDI matrix at the same relative depth and concentration over your entire surface and the best way to do that is to nebulize the matrix in nitrogen and spray it like paint over the surface of what you want to image).
The one they built cost them $2600 and took about 30 minutes(??) to configure. Most of the cost was the fact they used an ESI nebulizer, though! Loads of other options for providing a nice dilute spray. They just thought "most labs will have an ESI source lying around" and they're probably right.
Also, I bought a much higher resolution 3D printer recently for $99 at Microcenter for printing custom Transformers toys with my kid. That technology is faster, higher resolution and much cheaper than it was even just a couple years ago. I bet you could put together a sprayer for <$800 by being even a little creative.
Also, the good software for 3D printing is free, well supported and easy to customize. Setting up a sprayer to coat a custom surface wouldn't take 5 minutes.
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