Posted By: charlesb
Microscope images - 12/21/15 01:25 AM
Last week a fellow brought in a Winchester model 70 from the push-feed era that needed repair. It was a .308 and his son had been firing steel-cased ammo through it. The 'brass' got stuck in the chamber and by the time they got it out, the extractor had broken.
The extractor on the push-feed model 70 is little-bitty, maybe 3/16" on a side. To see the damage to it, I had it in my stereo microscope. While I was looking at it, I had an idea and put my digital camera into "macro" mode and held the lens up close to one of the oculars on the stereo microscope. - The LED display on the camera showed a clear image, so I took the shot.
Click image to see it larger.
I've had that stereo microscope for years now, and it wasn't until a few days ago that it occurred to me that I could take pictures through the thing. I use it to examine cartridge cases, small gun parts, tools I am sharpening and of course the usual fun stuff like bugs and knife blades, etc.. - Stuff that you think is well-polished looks like a battle-zone, it's amazing.
Stereo microscopes are low powered, but give you a 3-D view and do not require slides, etc.. There's a piece of frosted glass or plastic that you put whatever it is that you want to look at on. There are two eyepieces, which gives you the 3-D view.
Now I can show customers what the damage on small parts looks like. - Does anybody else here use a stereo microscope in the shop? They are pretty handy, I got mine for five bucks at a pawn shop, some years ago. It's butt-ugly, but the optics and the mechanism are just fine.
The extractor on the push-feed model 70 is little-bitty, maybe 3/16" on a side. To see the damage to it, I had it in my stereo microscope. While I was looking at it, I had an idea and put my digital camera into "macro" mode and held the lens up close to one of the oculars on the stereo microscope. - The LED display on the camera showed a clear image, so I took the shot.
Click image to see it larger.
I've had that stereo microscope for years now, and it wasn't until a few days ago that it occurred to me that I could take pictures through the thing. I use it to examine cartridge cases, small gun parts, tools I am sharpening and of course the usual fun stuff like bugs and knife blades, etc.. - Stuff that you think is well-polished looks like a battle-zone, it's amazing.
Stereo microscopes are low powered, but give you a 3-D view and do not require slides, etc.. There's a piece of frosted glass or plastic that you put whatever it is that you want to look at on. There are two eyepieces, which gives you the 3-D view.
Now I can show customers what the damage on small parts looks like. - Does anybody else here use a stereo microscope in the shop? They are pretty handy, I got mine for five bucks at a pawn shop, some years ago. It's butt-ugly, but the optics and the mechanism are just fine.