Optical Centering Microscope

I made a back of the napkin drawing and started to remove material to make the hollow housing:

31864240590_7263abbf88_b.jpg

It is painful drawing in Imperial when my mill is Metric. I have made errors this way. Not as bad as the Hubble Telescope mirror debacle....
Also ordered some aluminum tubing and a longer end mill. Next step is to remove material on the lathe. Then finish machining the pocket out to final dimensions. Then I will go back to the lathe and machine and thread holes for the optics.
The threads on the objective are likely metric. I have never cut metric threads but I understand you cannot disengage the lead screw.
Also, somehow I got poison ivy in January. Pretty sure my dog was playing in it in the snow....
Robert

Edit: oops sorry that was the NASA Mars Orbiter that was lost due to a unit conversion error.

http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/
 
Last edited:
The glue used to mount car mirrors is not superglue. It’s a UV curing glue. That means it needs ultraviolet light (240nm-380nm) to cure. If the glue does not receive this UV, it will not harden. The sun is a good source of this UV and they also sell special UV lamps and LED’s. The UV glues bond VERY well. And the UV only curing allows for extended set-up time. Remember, it needs UV to cure. So trying to glue two pieces of opaque metal together will not work! Good stuff, but a little pricey…Dave
 
Figured out a way to hold my shims in place.

31448855313_e109c9dfb2_h.jpg

Got some material removed.

32218094996_005aa06b35_h.jpg

Now onto the mill with an extra long endmill..

Robert
 
Looks like a great project so far, Robert. Can't wait to see the end result.
 
Pretty much done.

32327453425_08b791a360_h.jpg

31485431724_4fd58cf1db_h.jpg

31950592000_275352711e_h.jpg

32207797761_ba749cf34d_h.jpg

32184360652_a9e1b670b3_h.jpg

If you look carefully at that last image you can see the reticle scale and cross hair.
I immediately found out I had a significant tramming error on my mill. I calibrated the mount on the lathe and got it perfect. The centering scheme works well. I will eventually post plans but it's pretty straight forward.
Robert

Hard to get a good pic of the reticle:

31957698810_1ca29b48af_h.jpg

R
 
Last edited:
Looks like you proved the naysayers wrong, NICE JOB! :encourage:
 
What steps did you take to calibrate it? I could make some assumptions, but I am usually mistaken when I do that. :laughing:
 
Back
Top