Need advice regarding Watson metallurgical microscope

Hi folks,

I've been looking for an incident light microscope for a while. Recently I've seen a Watson "Standard Metallurgical" microscope for sale. It's cheap, but it needs some components: it's missing the power supply for the illuminator and also doesn't have a turret; it just has a single objective lens.

I've always been impressed by the build quality of Watson microscopes. Consequently, I've collected a few incomplete ones which are now waiting for a project. I have three Watson "Service" microscopes, which are all missing parts of the condenser assembly, but are otherwise in good condition and have a selection of objectives lenses and eyepieces. Sometimes I've seen lenses specially designed for reflected light, but I'm not sure if these are a necessity. So my first question is, can I take an objective lens from a Watson transmitted light microscope and expect it to function well on a Watson incident light microscope?

I'm also thinking of fitting a turret from one of the Watson "Service" microscopes onto the "Standard Metallurgical" microscope. These two models appear to share many components. I have a general question about turrets, though. It's my understanding that you should be able to focus with one objective, then rotate the turret to change the objective, and find that the image is still in focus. But it doesn't work on any of the Watson "Service" microscopes which I have. It isn't even especially close. Is my understanding wrong, or is there some way in which the turrets might be incorrectly adjusted? Also, is there any reason why I shouldn't fit one of the turrets onto the metallurgical microscope?

Lastly, if I fit the metallurgical microscope with a turret, will I need to fit a different length of drawtube to compensate? What is the effect of using a drawtube of the wrong length? Will it just change the magnification (and possibly focusing distance) slightly, or will it have a more serious effect? From a quick experiment, the former seems to be the case, but it would be good to have an opinion on this issue as I don't believe the Watson "Service" sliding drawtubes will fit the "Standard Metallurgical" because they will hit the internal mirror.

Thoughts and suggestions would be much appreciated.

I've also posted this question in the Yahoo! "Microscope" group.

Many thanks,

Chris Tidy

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