On Wed, 30 Jul 2014 14:49:59 -0700, you wrote:
>Harvey and the group:
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>I bought a nice American Optical stereo microscope at Goodwill for $6 :)
Very good buy, never paid that little for one.
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>It's in nice shape, was probably new in the '60s, has two magnification levels and the requisite 3-4 inch working distance, but...
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>The "eyeball separation adjustment" is very critical, and if I move my head back and forth just a teeny, there's no optical path until I move my eyes back into that one very critical position. Plus, if I have my glasses on (which is a good thing), I can't get close enough to the eyepieces to see much of anything.
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Yep, I know that one, the adjustment is quite critical. I have the
10x wide eyepieces on both of mine, and that may make somewhat of a
difference.
Take your glasses off (unless you have severe astigmatism), and use
the microscope focusing adjustments to correct for your
nearsightedness, farsightedness, etc. Remember that the two eye
pieces focus independently, and are designed that way for just this
situation.
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>Dang!
P'raps not....
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>I could use it for inspection, but I can't imagine that I'd be able to use it with any type of soldering or hot air device.
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Oh, I can, and do. You use it with soldering, but you don't need it
(my opinion) at all for desoldering. Perhaps the ultimate is to get a
swing arm and stand combination. They're hard to find, though.
On one of mine, I have to go machine a new knob, since the knob
plastic was cheap, and someone played swap...
Oh, and I suggest making a ring light, or something of that nature to
give yourself a good vertical light source. At times you'll want
something that is a sidelight, but for the most part, vertical is
good.
One that I have is a fiber optics ring with a projector lamp as a
light source. I have it turned to minimum and that has seemed to
increase the lamp light quite a lot.
If I run out of projector lamps (I have a spare), I'll rig up
something with very bright LEDS.
Harvey
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>My original idea was to cobble together a video microscope for SMD work, with a small VGA or composite monitor. Based on my experiences with one particular stereo microscope, a home-brew video scope couldn't be any worse :)
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>Thanks,
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>--Kirk, NT0Z
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>My book, "Stealth Amateur Radio," is now available from
>www.stealthamateur.com and on the Amazon Kindle (soon)