Toolmakers microscope ?

I need to move... nothing like that comes up locally...
 
I have a cheap binocular microscope in the shop that I got to examine trigger sear surfaces and angles. I have also used it for soldering and probably some other stuff - in addition to occasionally examining something microscopically just for the fun of doing so. It's not a daily driver, but it's awfully handy. A better unit, mounted on an arm (so I could put bigger stuff under it and still focus) would probably get a lot more use.

GsT
 
It is one of those things you really need when you need it.

Slivers and clock repairs for us.

Get it if you can and keep it protected from dust.

Great for doing autopsy work on failed parts too.

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I bought a stereo microscope several years ago because a small electronics manufacturer was retiring. I used it to troubleshoot my tool grinds and it totally solved my problem. I needed a much higher resolution than a jeweler’s loupe to see. It’s also showed how brand new carbide inserts were not really ground well. It’s not something I use everyday but I won’t be without it. It was only $40.

When I went down to pick up my air bearing grinding jig the guy had all kinds of cool stuff from his time as a tool and die maker. One he was hoping to sell me a huge toolmakers microscope with the wooden case. He probably would have given it to me if I’d shown any interest but I had my much smaller one already. He was really sad I didn’t want it. He ended up selling me a Hardinge cross-slide and an incredible precision angle jig for $10ea. He kept dragging stuff out and doing the “make me an offer” and when I told I don’t do that because I don’t want to insult him he said $10. Then I COULDN‘T not take it. He was overjoyed when I called him about the air bearing. It had been on CL for over a month for $200 and nobody knew what it was or how it was used.

As I was trying to leave he admitted the air bearing and the micro scope and the other pieces he’d sold me were in the storage room at his last job and nobody knew how to use them or what they were and they let him take them when he left. He couldn’t stand to leave them behind and probably get dumped but couldn’t believe nobody knew what they were or how to use them. To my mind he was selling cheap once he was sure they were going to a good home.

I can’t believe a working machine shop wouldn’t want a good toolmakers microscope around. YMMV.
 
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I wonder if it’s not so much that the shop doesn’t want/need a microscope but that the older manual instruments have been supplanted by digital ones? I have two microscopes at work I use occasionally for examining specimens and paint layering. Both are nice old manual instruments and I love them but there’s that whole ‘getting your eyes used to the binocular lenses’ thing, only one person can see at a time, etc. Plus the magnification is limited to the lenses in place and not software driven. Digital instruments solve a lot of these difficulties.
 
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