My eyes are not what they used to be, so I am entertaining the idea of getting a microscope to look a jewels, pivots, etc.

Do you use one and do you find it useful?

Thanks

Hi Ed,

I would not be without one, I use the normal loupe of 4 & 7 (11x) for most work,
Then for the lathe work I have a 7-90x tri-ocular microscope that allows me to make the smallest staffs & parts when needed and also inspection microscope, I also have a LED ring light that allow me to see deep inside movements, plus the ability to attach my camera the photos are not very good and need to practice more with that.
I got the one on a boom stand (40lbs) to get over the lathe with a 6” working distance, when I was in watchmaking school I liked using the scope for doing hairsprings with practice you have a certain amount of depth perception.

Chris, wow, you certainly have a nice set up.
What power do you find adequate for close up viewing?

Hi Ed,
I can speak up here to extoll the virtues of my stereoscope (not a microscope). A stereoscope has two objectives retaining the virtue of seeing with depth of field instead of a 'flat' image that the microscope gives.
These tools are not cheap as a quick Google search will show. You will want one with the ability to adjust for the distance between your pupils. In my humble opinion, for watch work you won't need one that yields any more than 15 to 20 power.

In my stereoscope, you can see my eye pieces are 8X which means I need a fractional objective to magnify something smaller that 8X. My unit has a .5 objective so when the eye piece and the objective are multiplied,I get 4X.

I encourage you to surf the net a little bit and read about stereoscopes before you buy. I bought a Russian model. They are useful and FUN for a number of uses. Mine came with a light attachment that I didn't like, but I found a gooseneck lamp a good substitute.

Mine also came with the ability to remove one of the eyepieces and attach my 35mm camera. Thats cool, but I can hold my digital camera next to the eye piece and achieve the same thing.

Mike

Here is another view of my unit...

Chris and Mike,
Thanks a lot for pointing me in the right direction.

Some are fixed in set magnification steps 10x 20x etc this one can be adjusted from 7x onward to 90x I typically use about 20x -40x range.

Thanks Chris, I was thinking that 20x would be a good place to start.

20x will be enough for you to see more problems then you really wanted to see

For Chris Abell: Regarding your post of December 21, 2010 11:36, would you be willing to share the make and model of your stereoscope? You mentioned that it was a Russian scope. I'm looking to get a stereo scope to hang over my lathe and I'm finding it fairly time consuming trying to make a selection on-line. Wish there was a used microscope dealer around the corner. Thanks much. -Gerry

Gerald,

Here is one on ebay they have many along the same syle scope

I love the steroscope I bought from Phil. I've been using it about 2 times a week since buying it. Amazing what you can see with it.