Re: Olympus PMG
- From: dljones@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 06:38:02 -0700
On Jun 26, 7:56 am, "Kevin Cunningham" <sms...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<dljo...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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On Jun 25, 8:21 am, "Kevin Cunningham" <sms...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<dljo...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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On Jun 24, 1:41 am, Richard J Kinch <k...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I am interested in adapting a digital
camera to this microscope. Would you be willing to look at this with
me?
Sure, I have another pending inquiry from someone who wants to adapt
an
Olympus PME metallurgical scope, where there is a Polaroid port.
How interesting is that! I was inquiring about how to convert a
Olympus PME Polaroid port throug Qiogtiq, what used to be optiem....
I would like to do the same, so if you get the PME figued out, you
have a second customer...
As to the PMG:
I've spent the better part of last ngiht and today taking it apart,
cleaning, and reassembling. This if going to take a ton of time. Of
course, I'm really fussy, really curious, not trying to do it fast,
but trying to understand everything I touch.
So far, I've completely cleaned and put back to gether the entire
mechanical stage, focus, and begun cleaning optics. I've run into a
bit of a road block on the optics as I need one of those tools that
has small round ends that can be spaced precisely into the little
round holes that hold things together. I don't know what these are
called.
Spanner wrench. You can get one at a really good hardware store, Handy
Hardware in Atlanta, or on the web at places like McMaster-Carr
(www.mcmaster.com) or Techni-Tool (www.techni-tool.com). The cheapest
and
probably the best way is to buy a needle nosed pliers of the regular,
large
size and cut it down using a grinding wheel or a file until it fits. Oh,
buy
the simplest spanner wrench you can find. The ones built for camera
repair
are just to complex, they do everything but work.
Thanks,
Kevin Cunningham
SMS
I'm not certain I'm going to go inside the whole microscope and clean
all the internal optics. I'm looking for a way to get the mechanical
prism movement assembly cleaned and regreased without taking
everything apart. I'm just a bit worried about getting all the
internal optics all lined up if I take them apart. I will clean the
surfaces I can reach without removing things.
Optics: The PMG is unusual in the fact it does not use projection
lenses in the photographic optics. It uses standard eyepieces. I'll
have to see how I can take photos and post them somehow so folks can
see what this microscope looks like. It's quite unusual. So no matter
where I put the digital camera, the image will be shot through an
eyepiece.
It's looking good at this point. I have put it together a couple times
today to play with, and it is getting so much clearer. I think most of
the sludge was on the external surfaces of the optics.... Inside looks
better than I had initially thought....
dj
Kevin,
I was looking at the web references for these tools, then checked
McMaster-Carr (one of my favorite catalogs) and have decided for what
I do, I'm going to hit garage sales and modify some good quality
needle nose pliers that I can pick up for $0.50 to a $1.00... Then
I'll do the old grinder modification of the points. I may make two or
three this way. The old blacksmith in me looks at $70 to $80 for a
tool of this type and says: I can do that for a whole lot less and
just as good. Heck, I am a metallurgist, I can even heat treat these
babies to make them just what they need to be...
At this point, I'm looking for the screw that holds the fine focus
arm. this is a flat head screw with a 4 mm plain shank going to a 3 mm
threaded end. Once I have that, I'm almost done. I have not finished
the cleaning of the OC2 eyepieces, those are the 23 mm eyepieces used
on the photography end. But after cleaning the top end, this is one
crisp clear microscope. It must have taken me an hour to get the
polarizing filter on the rotating filter turret to work. It was gummed
up and dead stuck. I thought I was going to end up breaking it... But
as luck would have it, it now is working smooth as silk... This is
slow going... But more fun than I've had in ages... And, I am learning
a whole lot...
dj
A real cheap, good tool to have is a plastic pipettor, a plastic bulb on a
thin pipe. I get those at hospitals, I ask and take one, there are tons of
them around. These allow you to pick up a small amount of liquid from the
Menda bottle and carry it to were you need it.
One part of this craft is tool making. When asked I can point out all the
tools I made, no one has ever asked twice though. My old boss asked the day
after I was hired to make out a tool list. I spent the rest of the day
writing up and investigating tool sources. My boss read all the papers I
handed him and told me that the heck with this list, he had a lathe that the
Carl Zeiss folks had given him when he left, I could come over in the
evenings and we would make tools.
Yeah, right, I thought. My boss liked Scotch and I figured that in 2 or 3
years I'd have a tool kit and a bad liver. I convinced him to buy all the
stuff then I went to work for a day or two and modified what needed to be
modified. I still have to make a lot of stuff, I have a screw driver I
modified as a pry bar, when I finally cut it to small I get another
screwdriver and start over.
Sounds like your doing well! Oh, the cross point screws that look like
Phillips but have a dot on the top are Pratt-Reed. Get a set of these from
McMaster. The job will look a good bit better with the Pratt-Read.
Thanks, let me know how it goes.
Kevin Cunningham
SMS
Kevin,
Making one's own tools, or modifying existing ones to work, is a
significant part of all craftsmen that I've known. There are always
tons of "tricks" that people like you have figured out over the years
of working in their trade. Sharing those with others as per this board
is, frankly, extraordinary. Some of the problems that novices like me
run into are the terms, definitions, vocabulary of the trade, e.g.
Pratt-Reed, spanner... I didn't know the terms, but now know: what to
look for, where to find them. Having someone who has been there and
seen where, for example, what should normally be a metric thread, may
in fact not be... These seemingly small things make a huge
difference... I'm not going to become a professional in this field. I
have one microscope, may buy another who knows, and am truly
interested in using it to have fun, learn a lot, and help my kids
learn as much as I can pass onto them... I wish to do this at a
standard that is at as high a professional level as I can do. Not
because I have my own ego to support, although there is a component
there, but because by working to the highest standards possible, one
learns a lot. When I studied blacksmithing many years ago, my teacher
said to me, "Do each step perfectly and in the end, you'll have a
pretty good end product." I still subscribe to that.
Thank you for everything. I'll certainly keep you posted as to how
this PMG progresses.
dj
.
- References:
- Olympus PMG
- From: dljones
- Re: Olympus PMG
- From: Richard J Kinch
- Re: Olympus PMG
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- Re: Olympus PMG
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- Re: Olympus PMG
- From: dljones
- Re: Olympus PMG
- From: Kevin Cunningham
- Re: Olympus PMG
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- Re: Olympus PMG
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