American Optical Stereo Zoom; Accessory Thread

[jim rozen]

Holy S**t, Larry.

You have a set of the ultra-wide field 15X eyepieces on that.

1) do you know how much those cost, new?
2) are you aware that they are no longer manufactured?

Never ever let those get away.

 

[L Vanice]

Holy S**t, Larry.

You have a set of the ultra-wide field 15X eyepieces on that.

1) do you know how much those cost, new?
2) are you aware that they are no longer manufactured?

Never ever let those get away.

1) No, how much?
2) No, but I figured B&L microscopes in general may be no longer manufactured.

I am aware that those eyepieces were more expensive than the commonly used eyepieces. Somewhere I saw a picture of a set and noted that they are visibly different from the cheap ones. I think it was around 2005 that I saw a couple of cased sets of accessories for a B&L Stereo 500 aerial photo interpretation microscope on eBay. I could see in the photos that one case had a pair of the ultra WF 15X eyepieces, so I bought them. I was the only bidder, so they were pretty cheap, but I forgot the price. I kept the eyepieces and put the rest of the set back on eBay with a better description and got $100 for them.

And I did note that your picture yesterday of a G. Boley lathe had the same ultra WF eyepieces on the scope.

Larry

View attachment 290799

 

[jim rozen]

1) No, how much?

On a stack of bibles, those retailed for $3K a pair, last time I bought them - and I think they've been NLA for over ten years.

Aside: I've never liked the sterozoom 7 much, the working distance seems too close for me. That's a 4 in the photo of the setup
on my bench at work.

 

[L Vanice]

1) No, how much?

On a stack of bibles, those retailed for $3K a pair, last time I bought them - and I think they've been NLA for over ten years.

Aside: I've never liked the sterozoom 7 much, the working distance seems too close for me. That's a 4 in the photo of the setup
on my bench at work.

The one over my Levin lathe is a Stereozoom 4, with plenty of working distance. I see your work scope has a fiber optic ring light. I bought several fluorescent and fiber optic ring lights to try, but ended up using the LED type. It seemed some of the fiber optic types I bought had a small opening and a fixed focus point that did not always match my scopes. And the light weight of the LED works better on the SZ4, which does not have a secure groove to attach the ring light's clamp screws.

Larry

 

[jim rozen]

That photo is over ten years old! I think I still have one fiber optic ring light running here at work, all the rest have been
swapped over to LEDs. The real issue with the fiberoptic ones is the lamps have a pretty limited lifetime. Hardly any of the
researchers think to switch them off.

In fact that is my one metric to gage if a researcher is really a stand-up guy. They turn off the microscope light when they're done with it.

Also the fiberoptic ones do put out a *lot* of heat. OK in the winter, but....

One trick for mounting the lights is that they made flat clear plates to mount to the threads on those microscopes. They way they're
made, there's a lip (has knurling, to tighten it in place) which can be used to mount another ring that the light mounts to. I like them because
I do a lot of soldering under the microscopes, and the flux blows off and gets on the optics. Cleaning the flat plate is easy, it's sort of sacrificial.

They also make + and (-) lenses to mount under the objectives. The (-) lenses increase the working distance even more.

 

[Joe Gwinn]

Great analysis of this issue and I applaud your solution. I have run into the exact same thing on my AO 569; ordered an adapter ring off fleabay and found it was just enough off that it would not screw on. Plastic POS anyway. Cannot seem to find one anywhere either and unfortunately my Logan is in storage right now so cannot just make one to solve it. Ever think about making a few of these to sell (hint hint)? LOL. Although I would want to add a thread inside the opposite (bottom) end to take a polarizing filter. David Chapman.

Thanks. None of the adapter rings I found on fleabay or Amazon were correct - they were all the modern adapter ring, which is metric. Which you have discovered.

I have been using my prototype, having been distracted by other things. I didn't think of cutting a filter thread, but I don't really need a filter either.

I wasn't planning to make these rings for sale, because I'm not set up for production, so these would be hand-made and the price would be ridiculous.

It would be easy for someone with a CNC mill though. I can provide a dimensioned drawing if someone is interested. I bet one can sell these on fleabay and Amazon.

 

[crrmeyer]

1) No, how much?

On a stack of bibles, those retailed for $3K a pair, last time I bought them - and I think they've been NLA for over ten years.

Aside: I've never liked the sterozoom 7 much, the working distance seems too close for me. That's a 4 in the photo of the setup
on my bench at work.

I suspect the 0.5x accessory lens is helping with the working distance. At least that is the way it has been with all the AO, etc stereo microscopes I have used at work in the past.

 

[thermite]

-The seasoned tech that was breaking me in told me what might happen beforehand but said "You need to find out for yourself" and we had a replacement mirror. It amazed me how little it took to ruin the mirror, even a successful cleaning would leave a slight degrading of the surface. Sometimes the surface remains intact and sometimes it doesn't. Sorry to hear we have shared the same lesson. My apologies to the OP for the OT thread hijack.

On the same "off topic" line, I employed for some years a seriously competent watchmaker. He had started out, War Two, as an instrument repairman. Bombsights and electrically-stabilized long-range aerial navigation sextants included.

He did his cleaning NOT with Isopropanol at all. "Absolute" Ethanol with a US Federal Stock Number, rather.

FWIW-not-much-but-maybe-useful?

Hard to get mirrors as have not been otherwise damaged can be "re-silvered".

 

[jdgoguen]

I recently repaired an Olympus stereo zoom which wouldn’t zoom at all because the grease had hardened so much. Broke a #1 shoulder screw in the mechanism trying to make it budge and had to make a new one. To relubricate, I used used Nyeogel 774VL, which was provided was provided in a free sample kit with 9 other damping greases. Works great.

 

[sstephenson]

To original poster: Hi Joe. Please message me. I have a question about your adapter. Thanks!

Steve

 

[Joe Gwinn]

To original poster: Hi Joe. Please message me. I have a question about your adapter. Thanks!

PM has been sent.

 

[dazz]

Hi
I brought a Bausch & Lomb Stereo 4 Zoom microscope off e-bay. Very high risk of getting something bad, but not this time.
I chose one without a base because the shipping cost was already eye-watering for just the head. (Not the sellers fault)

I made an adapter for a standard computer monitor stand
The scope came with a 0.3x auxiliary lens, so the working distance is as shown in the photo (= lots)





I made a 3D printed LED ring light from automotive angel eyes.