Jump to content

35mm Barlow lens thread?

Capie

By Capie
in Tools & Equipment

 Share

Recommended Posts

Capie Member

Capie

Posted
Posted

Hi guys

Think this is my first posting on your forum. Been "setting up" for quite a while now which is proving expensive.... Already bought a few batches, as well as singles, of old mechanical watches cheaply. Although some are Eterna, Girard Perregaux, Avia, Cyma etc etc and other nice makes, the fog is starting to clear up to see why they went so cheaply! Missing stems and crowns, damaged dials, missing hands, (probably) broken mainsprings etc etc. Anyway, its going to be a learning process in ALL aspects of watch repairing.

Now my problem. Got my hands recently on a beautiful well cared for German made Askania GSZ stereo microscope with 12,5x eyepieces fitted (and hot, yellow Halogen spot-lighting...) . In its current configuration, I'm getting 10 to 50 magnification at a working distance of about 70mm. In order to get my working distance up and my magnification down, I'd like to fit a 0,5x or 0,32x Barlow lens. BUT.... the normal thread size it seems is 42 or 48mm for these lenses!!! By measuring with a ruler, it looks as if I'll be needing a 35mm thread.

I have contacted the friendly and helpful folk of Askania in Germany and they do have stock, but at a cost of 131 Euros plus shipping to South Africa by UPS of 167 Euros. I paid about 200 Euros for the mic! Its such a nice microscope and would like to keep it, but not only for close-up inspections. I need one doitall mic.

Do you guys know where I can look for 35mm Barlow lens (35mm tbc by Askania, if they are willing to divulge that info).

Capie Member

Capie

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Apologies for bombarding you, but if I can't find a M36 Barlow lens, do you think I may be able to use a M36 to M42 adapter. Will my setup still be optically sound?

Capie Member

Capie

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thank you Paul, and I suppose the working space shouldn't be compromised? Spoke a bit too soon, prove to be also difficult to find one. I'll also look for m36 to m48, which is also more common

  • 2 weeks later...
Capie Member

Capie

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Ok, so I decided to get a M36x0,75 to M42x0,74 (T2) male-female adapter and a 0,5x M42 lens. Got two adapter manufacturers/suppliers of which one sits in Belarus and won't currently export to South Africa (Rafcamera) and then Lacerta in Austria.

The lens I ordered is a Hayear with the M42 thread, of which the quality I'm not certain of. At least its made of metal and glass!! Saw the same Hayear lens on various sites but at a very wide price range!!!  Also ordered a 56 LED ring lamp with the lens. The current yellow, hot Halogen spot lamp is not working for me.

Should I decide in future (not that I have any reference) that the lens is crappy, I'll be able to get a more readily available M42 to M48 adapter, and then can choose among the wider range of M48 lenses.

I'll post some pics as soon as I get these items.

  • 8 months later...
Capie Member

Capie

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

I'm not getting real joy from the Hayear 0.5 Barlow lens I bought. Working distance before was 7,1cm. With the Barlow its about 8,5cm, instead of the quoted and expected 16,5cm.

By looking at a Barlow lens operation diagram, perhaps the 5mm adapter moved the Barlow lens too far away from the objective lenses? Or perhaps the Hayear is just plainly inferior?

I'm on the verge of ordering the original 131Euro lens at 160Euro shipping!!! For my 200Euro Askania uscope..... Lol

Edited by Capie
mm vs cm
  • Haha 1
rehajm Super WRT Addict

rehajm

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Capie said:

I'm not getting real joy from the Hayear 0.5 Barlow lens I bought. Working distance before was 7,1cm. With the Barlow its about 8,5cm, instead of the quoted and expected 16,5cm.

By looking at a Barlow lens operation diagram, perhaps the 5mm adapter moved the Barlow lens too far away from the objective lenses? Or perhaps the Hayear is just plainly inferior?

I'm on the verge of ordering the original 131Euro lens at 160Euro shipping!!! For my 200Euro Askania uscope..... Lol

Some watches are a hole where one tosses money to make it disappear. I've yet to experience a similar experience with the microscope. Thanks for the warning!

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Topics

  • Posts

    • way2wyrd
      No images showing

      By way2wyrd · Posted

      Web sites are cheap. Message board are easy. Hosting both is less than 100 usd a year and small advertising would cover most of that.  In the discord group we did some 15 min poc and threw up a couple of different message boards on a domain i host.   The real value is the data / information / hive mind While I'm a rank amateur in watch repair the information and assistance on this board is invaluable. The members on here are friendly, entertaining and a wealth of knowledge This is what needs to be preserved  --Jeff
    • ChrisInOz
      No images showing

      By ChrisInOz · Posted

      The post below contains the link. If you don't already have a discord account it will take you to the registration screen.  Registration is free.   https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/31653-mark/?do=findComment&comment=279066
    • luiazazrambo
      WWW Eterna sucked me in.

      By luiazazrambo · Posted

      HWGIKE#57 Valex FEF 190 15 jewels Swiss lever full service and repair This one was waiting for a balance staff replacement in my cabinet parts and case cleaned up with a new balance staff and a 4th wheel as the original 4th wheel had a broken pivot for the off center second hand. I never attempted a balance staff replacement before however I received a Bergeon Molfres (i was hunting it for about 2 years) and with the help of it I managed to remove the old staff and riveted the new one in. It also received a new MS, crystal and the hole for the MS arbor was also tightened. With the new MS now it has an acceptable performance meaning that the amplitude goes up to 280 fully wound, has an acceptable beat error and I have the two nice lines but only dial up, dial down is not as nice and I could not figure out as why. I have the two lines but the amplitude is dropping to around 230 and the lines are a bit hairy. Both dial up and dial down the lines just go up and down without seemingly any pattern. I cleaned the movement two times, and then a 3rd time pegged out the main plate and train bridge holes but made no change. Both the HS collet and the roller table was too lose on the new staff... I did not count how many times I took the balance cock off to sort out the HS collet, the roller table and the beat error, somebody before me also shortened the HS by pushing it out a bit and it seems every time somebody is messing with the end of the HS the protruding bit is most of the time twisted bent etc. This one was probably one of the most challenging repair and service. I might take the new MS out and clean it lubricate it as I just pushed the new one in to the barrel from the retaining ring. Plus started to re-read the theory of the escapement and how to analyse the graph on the timing machine: Greiner Chronografic Record manual. I am also thinking to put the watch on a 24 hour long run with the eTimer SW it once helped me to figure out what was wrong with a watch. There is an interesting part of the Greiner record manual talking about the pallets and the end shake of the balance and pallet staff. Maybe this is my issue? Who could that possibly identify? After a few years now I am still without a clue how could watchmakers make parts I can only see with my microscope or how could/can they carry out complicated services impossible to do.. real magic..... .... ..... before I sent this post while the pics were uploading I had an idea, i was browsing the possible outcomes on the timing machine I had one for magnetism..... so I demagnetized the movement and it is not hairy now.... two really nice lines 0.2 ms beat error still a bit wavy, but a lot lot better..... argh....  
    • Nucejoe
      Hello from Cypress, CA

      By Nucejoe · Posted

      Hi there, welcome here.  
    • JohnR725
      No images showing

      By JohnR725 · Posted

      yes the advertising revenue should generate money. The question is how much money? Then as far as the cost of the website goes that's relatively easy to determine? all you would have to do to grasp costs and profitability would be to go to the link below and you can actually get a website for free try it out for free I believe you get no advertising initially. They also talk about that they'll help you out they have marketing tools and some sort of paid subscription or something. So I guess were shopping for a whatever just ask them what would a maybe could use this one as an example in other words it's going to look basically identical to this is going to have advertising a paid subscriptions what's it going to cost? After all they want to sell or give us a message board like this they should bill answer the questions as they're the people who did the software for this. Yes they really said you can have a free discussion group at least to start. https://invisioncommunity.com/ I was curious about the monthly supporter thing where exactly do we find that on this message board? A quick search I'm not finding it so obviously I'm not looking in the right place?
×
×
  • Create New...