Re: Looking for Watson microscope parts
- From: Christopher Tidy <cdt22NOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2006 21:12:45 +0000
David Littlewood wrote:
Hi Chris
Usually the condenser has the diaphragm built-in, though it may be separate on an old microscope.
There is a fair amount of microscope equipment on eBay. The Watson Service is not particularly rare. Unfortunately the majority of sellers are in the USA, but my experience of buying from US sellers with good feedback has been almost all good (watch for the import taxes though).
Brunel Microscopes have had Watsons quite often in the past, though I suspect a fair amount of their second-hand trade has defected to eBay.
You could subscribe to the Yahoo Microscope group, it is fairly active and a fair few UK members.
The Queckett Microscopical Society has frequent meetings around the country, and often has trade stands. This may be your best source, as they seem to have a large percentage of "spare parts and accessories, especially for old microscopes.
You could at a pinch use a condenser lens from another make of 'scope. Optically there should be no problem with matching, you would only have to worry about physical fit for mounting. I have a CTS polarising microscope without a condenser; I just tried the condenser from a Baker of similar vintage and it fits perfectly. Haven't tried it optically, but it should be OK. If you go to a swapmeet type of do, try taking the condenser holder (or a measurement and a vernier caliper) with you.
Even a surplus objective lens should work, though you may need to faff around to find one that best matches the objectives in use. A crude test with a spare condenser here suggests that the focal length of the low-power condenser is about 50mm, suggesting an enlarger lens might be good. For higher-power objectives (above about 20x) you will also need a high-power supplementary (FL about 5-10mm) on top of it, which will be a bit more tricky to find and fit.
Sorry, can't help you more specifically as I don't have (and never have had) any Watson 'scopes.
An afterthought, not sure what you want to do, are you sure the Watson is going to be worth the effort? There are many other models out there at modest prices that are a lot more versatile.
David
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll contact the groups and see if I can track down the spares I need. I'll also try Gunner at rec.crafts.metalworking, as these parts would be small enough to be worth posting across the atlantic.
I don't have a specific project in mind for the microscope. I just occasionally have a use for one and have always fancied one of my own. I wouldn't have gone out and bought one, but having been given several broken microscopes it seems like a good plan to fix one. Besides the three Watson "Service" microscopes I was also given two Swift "Nine Fifty" microscopes. There are enough parts present on these to build one working microscope without having to embark on a hunt for spares. Any opinions on the "Nine Fifty" series?
Best wishes,
Chris
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