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A microscope thread

I saw that. Some lovely kit, and enough examples of the same types it should be possible to build several really nice ones. Microscopes are just hopelessly undervalued IMO, such beautiful precision optical equipment for scrap value.
 
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This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
However, I was tempted by the Zeiss equipment so bought the lot as the price was too good to be true.
I need to arrange collection but the rest will be available for relative peanuts for whom ever wishes to partake.

Unless any fishes live nearby ?
 
Ian G said:
However, I was tempted by the Zeiss equipment so bought the lot as the price was too good to be true.
I need to arrange collection but the rest will be available for relative peanuts for whom ever wishes to partake.
Click to expand...

I’d be very interested to know more about the two Olympus wood boxes and what may be in them. Possibly interested in one of the many stereo microscopes too if there is a really nice clean complete one.
 
Oh, excellent! Seller's in Caerphilly, so any fishies in that area, now's your moment.

Once you know what's there, and what's usable, I'm sure there will be interest in the classifieds. Tony sold his in what felt like nanoseconds.

I've got a bid in on an Olympus that's also listed. Currently winning, for not a huge amount of dosh, but who knows where it'll end up.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Tony sold his in what felt like nanoseconds.
Click to expand...

I could have sold it twice so far, so there is at least one potentially interested party.

PS I really hope this thread encourages folk with turntables to grab one for stylus inspection. I really can’t recommend one highly enough. Once you have lighting sorted (an LED bike light!) the image of the stylus is just amazing, you can see everything. I know it would be a PITA with a fixed headshell arm, but even there it’s better to check than just buy a new cart! It may even show a load of caked-on dirt and actually save buying a new cart.
 
Tony L said:
I’d be very interested to know more about the two Olympus wood boxes and what may be in them. Possibly interested in one of the many stereo microscopes too if there is a really nice clean complete one.
Click to expand...

Once I've got them I'll post details in this very thread.
 
Tony L said:
I could have sold it twice so far, so there is at least one potentially interested party.

PS I really hope this thread encourages folk with turntables to grab one for stylus inspection. I really can’t recommend one highly enough. Once you have lighting sorted (an LED bike light!) the image of the stylus is just amazing, you can see everything. I know it would be a PITA with a fixed headshell arm, but even there it’s better to check than just buy a new cart! It may even show a load of caked-on dirt and actually save buying a new cart.
Click to expand...
I wonder whether anybody has any pictures of what a worn stylus looks like. I'm not sure I'd know how to gauge the degree of wear. Maybe there's, er, scope, for a thread on the 'reference' section for pics of 'before' and 'after' for some popular profiles, or can anybody link to a known resource that already has it?
 
Ian G said:
Once I've got them I'll post details in this very thread.
Click to expand...

Thanks, please give me first refusal on those, I’m interested in building up a bit of an Olympus system and I’m definitely interested in eyepieces, filters and any other add-ons that can be used with my scope. The box style and logo suggests the same era as mine.

PS Thinking more about it, and without ever having used one, I suspect it may well be possible to cope with a cart mounted in something like an Ittok with one of the stereo type scopes, i.e. take the arm off the deck (very easy, just detach the arm cable and release the VTA bolt), and then it may be possible to prop it on some books or whatever next to the viewing platform. Just thinking aloud, but it may make a scope more viable for those with fixed-shell arms who don’t want to go fiddling about actually removing the cart from the shell.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
I wonder whether anybody has any pictures of what a worn stylus looks like.
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I use an MM cart (Nagaoka MP-500) with a removable stylus, so just buy the next one well ahead. That means I have a brand new one to contrast and compare.

Here is a really good vintage manual from Shure for their inspiration microscope (Shure). Well worth a read and certainly applicable here. As I understand it the BBC used a different technique of projecting an image of the stylus from behind so any asymmetry could be detected. This approach seems better to me for complex fine-line tips such as the one I use as the thin micro-ridge doesn’t show the two ‘eyes’ to the same extent (or at all). I have some Shure elliptical styli knocking around, e.g. an M95ED, and their instructions certainly correspond well here. I can see exactly what they describe.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Oh, excellent! Seller's in Caerphilly, so any fishies in that area, now's your moment.

Once you know what's there, and what's usable, I'm sure there will be interest in the classifieds. Tony sold his in what felt like nanoseconds.

I've got a bid in on an Olympus that's also listed. Currently winning, for not a huge amount of dosh, but who knows where it'll end up.
Click to expand...

Nice spot by the way .:)
 
Tony L said:
PS I really hope this thread encourages folk with turntables to grab one for stylus inspection. I really can’t recommend one highly enough. Once you have lighting sorted (an LED bike light!) the image of the stylus is just amazing, you can see everything. I know it would be a PITA with a fixed headshell arm, but even there it’s better to check than just buy a new cart! It may even show a load of caked-on dirt and actually save buying a new cart.
Click to expand...
I think it's also going to be useful for checking out carts bought through the classifieds, or inspecting them prior to advertising them.
 
Yes, that is a superb resource. I’d likely never have got mine working properly without the K service manual and the blog of someone restoring one linked there. I really can’t overstate just how glued-up old Olympus microscopes get. No idea what oil/grease they used, but it is a remarkably good metal adhesive. I did mine in winter time and I had to leave it sitting on a hot radiator for a couple of hours to get it moving sufficiently to fully disassemble it!
 
Tony L said:
Yes, that is a superb resource. I’d likely never have got mine working properly without the K service manual and the blog of someone restoring one linked there. I really can’t overstate just how glued-up old Olympus microscopes get. No idea what oil/grease they used, but it is a remarkably good metal adhesive. I did mine in winter time and I had to leave it sitting on a hot radiator for a couple of hours to get it moving sufficiently to fully disassemble it!
Click to expand...
A lot of people used the wrong oil/grease on them as with all Olympus and Nikon microscopy the original spec stuff was an horrendous price per ml.
In my first job we had the microscope up from yours, it had the power supply and light source built into the base. Lifting 35 of them in their wooden boxes for a practical class was quite a work out!
 
I just remembered finding these bits in the back of a store room, I remember the microscope that they used to be on, a nice boxed Oaks Edison IIRC.
When I asked about it I was told that it had been thrown out ( I had my doubts about that)
PXL_20230809_084042178
 
So, I have a vast package siting at my unit awaiting investigation, I shall be there on Thursday for an initial perusal. I'll keep you posted.
 
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