Freeze-drying followed by sputter coating is the optimal method for preparing detergent-extracted cells for scanning electron microscopy. However, during transfer from the freeze dryer to the sputter coater, the cells are warmed to room temperature, exposed to the atmosphere, and returned to vacuum, which will cause “melting”, partial rehydration, and subsequent redrying of the sample. To avoid these potential sources of damage, we have developed an improved device that allows samples to be freeze-dried and then sputter coated while still frozen (cryosputtered) and without first exposing them to atmospheric moisture.The construction is based on a Tis-U-Dry Histological Freeze dryer, model TFD-130 (FTS Systems, Inc., Stone Ridge, NY, USA). The walls of the cylindrical vacuum chamber are cooled to -130 °C by a three-stage refrigeration system and the circular platen in the bottom of the chamber is cooled to -110 °C by conduction. The chamber is evacuated with a turbomolecular pump (Balzer model TPH 330), backed by a rotary vane pump (Balzer model DUO 016B), giving a clean, high vacuum.