Oiling/Greasing a Microscope

[miniscus]

Can anyone recommend a good "chemical" for greasing a microscope?

[deBult]

Plastilube brake grease or equivalent will do YMMV.

Please note it is required to remove the old grease completely: lighter fluid will do here.

[Sure Squintsalot]

Plastilube brake grease or equivalent will do.

I wouldn't use automotive greases and oils anywhere near an old microscope with a halogen light source. The last thing you need is volatalized organic compounds re-deposited on the surfaces of microscope internals, like prisms and optics. Spend a little more and get vacuum greases that are designed to NEVER out-gas into your microscope.

Krytox and Fomblin make (ridiculously) expensive vacuum greases but also make a range of low vapor pressure multipurpose greases that are much more reasonably priced.

[deBult]

Plastilube is commonly available and accessible to non professionals and is high temperature resistant (e.g. recommended for furnace doors) all purpose metal to metal grease. It does contain 1.1% organic solvents, so I’m personally not to worried about outgassing YMMV.

Did overhaul about 8-10 Olympus scopes and 2 Lomo’s using it over the last 5 years without issues, a limited number and usage period, I know, so no “proof” of suitability.

Agree on the superiority of special purpose greases though (Olympus has a list of about 10 grease types in the BH maintenance manual series). Not easy to obtain for a hobbyist.

Some of the forum members in the scope maintenance profession may chime in with recomnendations

https://rimmerbros.com/ItemFiles/Manual ... ube-EN.pdf

Safety instructions: https://p11.secure.hostingprod.com/@sit ... -14-oz.pdf

[tlansing]

Having never greased microscope parts, I will bravely ask for advice on how one actually greases microscope parts. Most posts on this topic assume one knows how to do this, but I would appreciate any guidance on how to actually do this (how much to apply, tools to use, etc). Thanks!

[deBult]

For Olympus BH2 there is a series of repair guides and videos by forum member Carl Hunsinger on the Alan Wood website useful to understand the basics for other scopes as well

https://www.alanwood.net/olympus/downloads.html#bh

If you read German: the Mikroskopie-forum has lots of posting on Zeiss and Leitz maintenance.
https://www.mikroskopie-forum.de/index.php

[apochronaut]

The technique of applying the grease can be unique to the part. Very little is usually the mantra. any excess can often be collected and redistributed.
Over the years I have built up a disparate array of quirky tools. Small pallet knives, denturist tools, reshaped small screwdrivers etc.but most of those just came my way. A denturist died for instance and his wife offered me his tools. These help but no special tools are really necessary, just carefull observation and drlicate workmanship.
I use some Nye lubricants, which are in my opinion about as good as you can get : they aren't cheap but small containers last for 100's of applications and the packaging itself is usually a microdose dispenser. Small droplet nozzles for instance. I think all my Nye lubes cost about 35.00. 2 damping greases and 2 oil viscosities, which I can mix. I also have a Corning silicone stopcock grease and shaver oil with a thin nozzle dispenser.

Toothpicks, plastic or wood coffee stirrers, swizzle sticks or other food service single use devices are usefull for getting into hard to reach spots and avoiding disassembly. They can easily be reshaped.
Follow the advice in the previous post. Minimal disassembly is always best.
Be careful arround optics in sealed spaces. Gassing off can be a problem with certain cements. I prefer to avoid products that gas off but in many open locations I have used chassis lube. One such is when I want to get a rapid stage. These are useful for following protists.

[deBult]

Mind the screws on older Olympus scopes may look like Philips heads, they are NOT.

You will need JIS type screwdrivers or you wil ruin the heads.

[carlh6902]

I have a friend who is a retired microscope repairman in the Madison WI area. 50 plus years of field service of Olympus scopes. He taught me most of what I know about Olympus scopes, and he swore by Plastilube, and used in every BH2 scope he serviced. So there is good demonstrated history of no optical fogging for decades. Plastilube goes way back to the 60s where it was used in American Optical Microglide stages. There it was located just below the objectives, and never fogged. It's not an "automotive grease" per se. It is marketed by Henkel for various uses, one of them being brakes on BMWs.

Carl