Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: Colin2B on 17/02/2015 13:40:10
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I have an Olympus KHC but the grease on the focus slides has hardened. Do you know anyone who has a service manual for one? Or has dismantled the fine focus and condenser rack. I've got the coarse focus slide off, but the fine focus mechanism is hidden inside and I don't want to take apart without being sure I can put it back together.
Thanks
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Hi Colin,
I'm not sure what you mean by "focus slides", but there's a manual for an Olympus KHC here:
http://www.alanwood.net/downloads/olympus-khc-instructions.pdf
Do you mean the knobs for moving the slide/stage about?
With the warning that I'm not a lab tech, only a user, and therefore not (oficially) certified to take any equip apart, if it's grease that's clogged up the works I'd be inclined to try to clean it/soak it with a bit of acetone, but note that acetone can dissolve some plastics too, so only use this on metall and glass parts.
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Hi Colin,
I'm not sure what you mean by "focus slides", but there's a manual for an Olympus KHC here:
http://www.alanwood.net/downloads/olympus-khc-instructions.pdf
Do you mean the knobs for moving the slide/stage about?
With the warning that I'm not a lab tech, only a user, and therefore not (oficially) certified to take any equip apart, if it's grease that's clogged up the works I'd be inclined to try to clean it/soak it with a bit of acetone, but note that acetone can dissolve some plastics too, so only use this on metall and glass parts.
Thanks Tom
I was about to post here that I took the plunge and dismantled the unit, cleaned with white spirit and regreased. Few tricky moments with springs!
The Alan Wood pdf is too vague to help, so I'm going to put together a doc including photos I took.
Enjoy your KHC it's a good piece of equipment.
Regards
Colin
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Hi Colin,
I have just purchased an Olympus KHC microscope.
The scope needs a good clean but is in great condition for its age.
The coarse focus slide is tight and the fine focus shaft appears to be seized, the fine focus adjusting knobs just unscrew when they are turned.
I want to dismantle the microscope and lubricate the focus slides but could not find any useful information on the internet.
Looking at your post I am wondering if you have any procedure for dismantling the focus system instead of me just going in blind.
I am retired and would like to spend some time restoring the microscope back to working condition.
To me it looks very well engineered and worth the time and effort.
Cheers Gary.
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Hi Colin,
I have just purchased an Olympus KHC microscope.
The scope needs a good clean but is in great condition for its age.
The coarse focus slide is tight and the fine focus shaft appears to be seized, the fine focus adjusting knobs just unscrew when they are turned.
I want to dismantle the microscope and lubricate the focus slides but could not find any useful information on the internet.
Looking at your post I am wondering if you have any procedure for dismantling the focus system instead of me just going in blind.
I am retired and would like to spend some time restoring the microscope back to working condition.
To me it looks very well engineered and worth the time and effort.
Cheers Gary.
Hi Gary
I did dismantle by trial and error. I took photos along the way, I'll dig them out jot down some notes. Won't be until next week as in the thick of it here at moment.
It is worth doing as it is a very high quality instrument and you won't be disappointed.
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... I'd be inclined to try to clean it/soak it with a bit of acetone, but note that acetone can dissolve some plastics too, so only use this on metall and glass parts.
Don't use acetone on lenses : it will remove any anti-reflective coatings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-reflective_coating).
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Hi Colin,
Thanks for the reply.
Only if you can spare the time.
Many Thanks
Gary.
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Hi RD,
Thanks for the warning against using acetone to clean the lenses.
I have restored a few Russian Lomo microscopes in the past as a hobby and have tried various lens cleaning solutions e.g ROR,and Eclipe lens cleaning solutions, Isopropyl alcohol 99%, but I don't really now if they are suitable for the job. The anti reflective coating on the eyepieces of this microscope looks a bit worn but suppose they have been cleaned many times over the years.
Regards,
Gary
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Hi
Decided to dismantle the microscope.
Worked out to be easier than expected.
Cleaned off old grease with white spirit and isopropyl alcohol.
Regreased the focus sliders and screw threads with Nye damping grease.
All controls now working silky smooth.
Enjoyed the challenge and job satisfaction.
Thanks for the help.
Gary.
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Cleaned off old grease with white spirit and isopropyl alcohol.
Gary
I asume from 'white spirit' that you are UK.
I've had the opportunity to check the KHC against modern microscopes and it is very good quality.
Difficult to get parts but I've just ordered items from Brunel and their stage micrometer and measuring eyepieces work well.
They had difficultly with a polariser, top part of which has to fit in the recess under the binocular head, but I think I can modify the one they supply.
Hope you enjoy using it.
Regards
Colin
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I see "Olympus -khc microscopes" being sold on eBay with prices ranging from $99 to $550.
If you have a case of the gold shorts, maybe you could shake down some of the ready on kickstarter if you have a good case to be made. How different is it than a grant proposal after all?
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Hi Collin
I didn't intend to buy the microscope just happen to notice it on well known auction site.
It was advertised as not working and for spares only, with loose control knobs and for collection in person.
Although the seller would have put buyers off from the description the photo looked good and only needed to be collected about a mile away from my home address in Liverpool I made the winning bid of £16.
The scope came with wooden cabinet, two spare reflector bulbs and a very good quality stage micrometer and measuring eyepiece which I was very pleased about. The scope required an 6v external power supply which I already own.
I could find very little info as to the year of manufacture and the price when new of the scope when new on the net.
I have also purchase a Swift MP81T/I polarising microscope another bargain £26 The seller just advertised it as a scientific microscope and didn't include the Swift name in the description.
The microscope is a combined incident and transmitted light model which works great had some excellent results looking at crystals.
The incident section of the scope doesn't work very well due to the beam splitter half silvered mirror loosing the reflective coating and again could not find any info on the net about the microscope so don't think I will be able to repair the beam splitter mirror.
Cheers
Gary.
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I also bought a Olympus KHC in very good condition on ebay. I got it for 50 USD, with all parts except the wooden case. Also, the 4x objective was included in spite of the seller telling in the description that it wasn't. However as in the case of Colin, some mechanisms including the fine focus, have hardened.
I have since created the following blog post describing my experience with the disassembly and lubrication:
creationfactory.blogspot.pt/2016/08/reconditioning-50-year-old-microscope.html
I hope you enjoy and find it useful.
Best regards,
Luis Teixeira
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Thanks but I managed to sort it by careful dismantling and regreasing.
Great optics for the age.
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I was lucky in respect to the optics too. Apart from some surface dust in the eyepieces that was easily removed, it is in excelent condition. Of course, the objectives are not Plan Apochromats, but great nevertheless.
More recently I converted the illumination to LED (single die 3 watt LED chip), which I have documented here:
creationfactory.blogspot.pt/2016/09/reconditioning-50-year-old-microscope_10.html
And the result is great.
Best regards,
Luis Teixeira