Post your coolest microscope images

Some of these images would look great captured in some kind of acrylic and used as scales.
 
Not really cool but a couple pics of a single cluster on an Atoma 140 diamond plate. You can clearly see where diamonds have been dislodged and are missing, plate is used for leveling waters stones.

vskcIa5h.jpg


pQjzUVLh.jpg
 
kwackster said:
Mirror edge on a Spyderco PM2 in S110V steel done on Paper Wheels with diamond compounds.
Pics taken with a cheap USB microscope.


Click to expand...
That's incredible!

Can you point me toward that microscope? I've been looking for something affordable for the kids, actually. Thanks!
 
E ErikMB :

A picture of the USB microscope i have is in post #1690 on page 85 in the Paper Wheel sticky here in the MTE subforum:

paper sharpening wheels - when your time is important to you

A few weeks ago a knife collector asked me if i could sharpen the false edge on a Gerber Applegate Fairbairn folder. On this knife the blade is completely shrouded by the handle when closed, so there is no risk of injury while carrying it. The owner also wanted the new bevels to be a bit shiny...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
kwackster said:
E ErikMB :

A picture of the USB microscope i have is in post #1690 on page 85 in the Paper Wheel sticky here in the MTE subforum:

paper sharpening wheels - when your time is important to you

A few weeks ago a knife collector asked me if i could sharpen the false edge on a Gerber Applegate Fairbairn folder. On this knife the blade is completely shrouded by the handle when closed, so there is no risk of injury while carrying it. The owner also wanted the new bevels to be a bit shiny...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
Click to expand...
That's great, thanks!

I'd like to get something like this for the family.

I didn't know these things are commercially available. Awesome!
 
kwackster said:
E ErikMB :

A picture of the USB microscope i have is in post #1690 on page 85 in the Paper Wheel sticky here in the MTE subforum:

paper sharpening wheels - when your time is important to you

A few weeks ago a knife collector asked me if i could sharpen the false edge on a Gerber Applegate Fairbairn folder. On this knife the blade is completely shrouded by the handle when closed, so there is no risk of injury while carrying it. The owner also wanted the new bevels to be a bit shiny...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
Click to expand...

That looks like the USB microscope that I bought. I just googled, 'the best inexpensive USB microscopes', or something like that and picked one. Then bought it from Amazon.
 
kwackster said:
E ErikMB :

A picture of the USB microscope i have is in post #1690 on page 85 in the Paper Wheel sticky here in the MTE subforum:

paper sharpening wheels - when your time is important to you

A few weeks ago a knife collector asked me if i could sharpen the false edge on a Gerber Applegate Fairbairn folder. On this knife the blade is completely shrouded by the handle when closed, so there is no risk of injury while carrying it. The owner also wanted the new bevels to be a bit shiny...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
Click to expand...

So, what's the name of it?
 
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I have done an absurd amount of research into buying a scope. If you are patient, you will find a good deal. Also, consider that if you are going with a serious scope consider looking into a "trinocular" scope, which has a third eyepiece to attach photography/video gear to.

I ultimately went with a Nikon SMZ-2T which is a stereoscope- you don't need to prepare slides, you can just put an object under the tubes and focus.
A good scope will hold a lot of its value. Brand new it was $7000, going out of business liquidations happen A LOT on this stuff and got in at auction for under $500.

"If you need help choosing a scope: https://amscope.com/pages/how-to-choose-microscope
This guy on a forum made some good points, except I disagree about "brand doesn't matter." It does- you want something proven with parts available.
Brand and model are irrelevant. You need a compound microscope with:
a. condenser (very low cost microscopes do not have them but it is recommended)
b. objectives 4x, 10x, 40x, (100x oil objective is expensive and not needed unless special purpose)
c. 10x eyepieces
d. mechanical stage recommended and not only stage clips
e. coarse and fine focus knobs
f. DIN 160mm ISO standard
pretty much all entry level microscopes have these (and also advanced)

Do not buy microscopes that:
a. only have one focus knob (you need coarse and fine focus)
b. have plastic objectives (toy microscopes)
c. have non DIN objectives (possibly toy microscopes)
d. have a built in camera (toy)
e. are historical (put them into museum)
f. are special purpose (inverted microscopes for cell culture, polarization for geology etc.)
g. do not buy used, unless it is over a shop, which did servicing.

in my view irrelevant:
a. halogen vs led
b. unrealistically high magnification (2000x) no image information gained and possibly marketing measure.

preferred, if money available,
a. trinocular head (for photography)
b. otherwise binocular
c. koehler illumination for photography
d. large and heavy for stability
e. wide field eyepieces"


Think of it as you would a scope or a good pair of binoculars.
 
Got a new objective, this is a beater straight razor I use for experimentation. Last honed on a no-name barber hone, don't know what it is for sure. This is a first test image, at 1,000x optical magnification using DIC: 10x eyepiece, 100x objective. Field of view is right around 200μ, or .008" - or just under the thickness of a couple of average pieces of paper.

dZiIcTi.jpg
 
These photos are making me want a better microscope! I just looked on Craigslist and lo and behold there is a Cambridge S4-10 Scanning Electron Microscope for $300 just a gunshot away from me, but no good optical microscopes. I will just have to wait until the right one turns up.
 
Diemaker said:
These photos are making me want a better microscope! I just looked on Craigslist and lo and behold there is a Cambridge S4-10 Scanning Electron Microscope for $300 just a gunshot away from me, but no good optical microscopes. I will just have to wait until the right one turns up.
Click to expand...

I felt the same way for quite some time and made do with a USB microscope for many years until I lucked into a few very nice microscopes. I found the first one via Craigslist or similar, it was an Olympus CX41. I purchased it locally fairly cheaply then sold it on eBay for almost 4 times what I purchased it for.

Then an Olympus BX40 that someone was about to throw in a dumpster fell into my lap - got that from the person who rescued it from the dumpster for a very low price (I still have this, use it for transmitted light with slides). It came with a bunch of accessories that I wasn't going to use, (spare eyepieces, spare binocular head, fluorescence lamp) so I sold those and that brought more than the purchase price of the scope.

mTLUj7u.jpg


Last came the metallurgical scope, and I lucked into the DIC components and 100x objective for that at a real nice price as well. On a roll lately I guess. Moral of the story: be patient, keep looking, you'll find something.
 
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on a side note, this paper (5 pages of text w/ photos and illustrations, 5MB pdf) is FREE for download (after free registration and free login):

at the bottom of the webpage one can find additional free Resources File Downloads (supplementary PDF and *.MP4 movie clips, with lots of beautiful professional quality microscopic images).
The How Hair Deforms Steel paper is written by smart PhD doctorates from the MIT. Good stuff, enjoy!

I didn't read. (Because, honestly, i doht care. I am not thirsty for knowledge or tech anymore. At my age, I prefer life, things, to be simple.)
 
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