Question on Old Spencer Component Interchangeability

[desertrat]

I'm interested in cobbling together a binocular head to an older monocular stand.

There's a stand with binocular head from the mid thirties minus objectives and eyepieces on Fleabay that I might be able to get pretty cheap, the seller might accept an offer. The binocular head is the compact, non-inclined version, looking similar to the heads on early Spencer binocular stands from the late teens.

I was wondering if the focusing rack on the binocular head is the same dimensions as the rack on the older monocular heads (bodies?) from the twenties. I have a couple of these older stands, and was wondering if I could just crank the binocular head off the stand on Ebay and install it on the older monocular stand I have.

I'm not interested in period correct, I just want to cobble together a franken-Spencer scope from different year parts for personal amusement.

I have a small collection of brass objectives and a couple of eyepieces from the late teens to twenties.

If the prisms in the head are only dirty and not damaged, I think I can clean them up and get them realigned enough to use. I've already done this with a couple of binocular heads for the 2/4 series.

[MicroBob]

Hi Rick,
from the Zeiss Winkel GFL and early Zeiss Standard Junior I know that a bit of shimming was done in the factory to get the right fit in these places. And this was post war design, fully post war machines and Zeiss. With these even older microscopes you probably will have to try for yourself as the parts will have been matched and might or might not be close enough to get along with shims.
This is an interesting project - I hope you will keep us updated. I like these old binocular microscopes a lot.

Bob

[apochronaut]

If you could provide the two models you plan to engineer the swap with, there is a good chance I could tell you. I have or have access to quite a few stands made from about 1920 to the post war. I can do a trial for you, if I have those same components available. Or, if you can provide pictures, I probably can determine the models.

With regard to the binocular stands; there was a good general contemporary compatibility between the vertical tube models , the inclined tube models and the upper end mono models but I vaguely recall swapping one for the other sometime but across the years somewhat, and the pitch of the dovetail was different

As the rank of the models declined too, the dovetails were smaller . An actual test would be the best method of determining.

[desertrat]

If you could provide the two models you plan to engineer the swap with, there is a good chance I could tell you. I have or have access to quite a few stands made from about 1920 to the post war. I can do a trial for you, if I have those same components available. Or, if you can provide pictures, I probably can determine the models.

With regard to the binocular stands; there was a good general contemporary compatibility between the vertical tube models , the inclined tube models and the upper end mono models but I vaguely recall swapping one for the other sometime but across the years somewhat, and the pitch of the dovetail was different

As the rank of the models declined too, the dovetails were smaller . An actual test would be the best method of determining.

Thanks.

I'll do some digging to find the monocular stand I already have. It occurred to me I might be able to swap focusing racks between the two heads, although some drilling might be required if the mounting holes are spaced differently.