Sparky's Fabulous DIY Stylus Microscope

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HI,
Yes I do. Don't waste your money on this toy. Have you read my microscope thread INCLUDING the links to the other threads that discuss the subject? If you do I think you will see what I am talking about.

While you don't need a great microscope for stylus inspection, you do need adequate optical quality and certain important features. I talk about these in my thread. If you take shortcuts, expect poor results. Come on. This project is not that expensive to do it right.

Sparky
 
Sparky, this thread covers an interesting subject (stylus microscopes) and your approach to it was so thorough and well thought out that I feel it warrants a sticky here.

Now here's the thing though; this site has members enjoying this hobby with several different levels of commitment and with widely varying budgets; If they choose to participate in this thread, on this subject (no thread crapping) and even ask for advice, then they can and will do it. Kind of comes with the territory in a stickied thread.

If you don't like this, get hostile with every poster that is not following your direction to the letter and can't remember that this site is all about 'no attitude', then this thread will get closed.
 
Followed your Detailed Instructions

Sparky,
I read with keen interest your detailed information about putting together a microscope for specifically examining a stylus. Since I am getting back into vinyl, after purchasing a mint condition Rabco SL-8E tonearm (something I've always wanted as a kid, but could little afford), I want to make sure my pristine record collection stays exactly that way. I followed your recommendations to the letter (a microscope - 50x & 200x - purchased on ebay, together with the lighting set-up and metal bookends).
It might give you some satisfaction to know that things worked-out exactly as you had predicted (you can't bear experience). After setting it up, and after fooling around with it for a while, I started to recognize and identify what I was looking at. I, at least, now know that I can stay on top of the stylus wear, and actually see it before any damage occurs.
BTW, I, also, followed your other tip, and went to the Last Factory Store to purchase some of their products.
I, again, want to thank you for your time and effort in educating myself and, I'm sure, many others so that we can all benefit from your personal experience.
 
***Removed by moderation staff for insulting comments toward members and comments on moderation.
 
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Hi Sparky,
Yes, I did track down a microscope with an x-y axis, a feature with which you didn't exaggerate its importance. I wasn't taking any chances, and didn't want to be frustrated and with the results. I took my time, and spent weeks searching the Internet for the right one. They, either, were a little too powerful, or not powerful enough. You had said that any magnification larger or smaller than 200x was totally useless, and that staying close to 50x was important, but not as critical. I finally found one on eBay for $104.90. It was new, and had a lot of the features of the more expensive microscopes. A great find. If anyone is interested, as of this post, there are three more still available. The seller is changbio (8036) and his store is Chang Bioscience.
Because, it came with another eyepiece and another objective, it afforded the opportunity to experiment with varying degrees of magnification, and, of course, you were proven correct. Unless a person has some experience using a microscope, it really comes as a revelation just how important those above- mentioned features are, and how they make the inherent problems of a microscope much more manageable. You NEED that x-y stage, or you'll forever be bumping and pushing that poor, mistreated stylus around, trying to get it exactly where it needs to be - and that's not easy. You NEED the 200x magnification, because that's the ideal for seeing the proper size and the all-important details. You, really, do need the 50x magnification to get the stylus properly aligned, so, that, when you switch to the 200x view, you don't smash the stylus with the lens (that's where your binocular microscope has the advantage, because you don't have to do anything except look into the other eyepiece). And, finally, you do need your suggested side-lighting (DecorativeCents.com) to get the light where it needs to be.
So, all-in-all, yours is a formula for success, and why, oh why, would anyone want to experiment with success. Why fool with the recipe if the soup is already perfect.
My advice, if finances are a problem, is to wait and save until you have enough to get the ideal set-up ... anything less is doomed to failure and frustration over money not well-spent.
I will post some pictures later on, but if some can't wait, all they have to do is to look at your posted pictures, because the only difference between yours and mine, is that I used Velcro to attach the lights to the bookends (the lights are bright enough so that it still works, perfectly).
Magicflute
 
Enough.

If the OP of this thread cannot be respectful to other members of this forum, even those he disagrees with, then this thread has outlived its usefulness.

This thread is closed.
 
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