Leitz Diaplan - Stage level.

[N3ptune]

This is the question about stage level from my previous thread, transferred here.

I am rebuilding the microscope right now and the stage is now reinstalled, it works A1 up and down.

But there might be an issue now. It's possible for me to level the microscope itself then level the the stage horizontally, the X axis or the larger side of the stage. But for the Y axis, there is no angle level adjustment for that.. and by installing the level, it's not levelled.

Is this a big deal? should I attempt to have a perfect level there? (Not sure if it's even possible)



I looked at the pictures of the support plate which is holding the stage I am not sure 100% but the 2 screws don't really look like an angle adjuster.



Looking for some advices.

Thanks,

[zzffnn]

At their bottom (when you flip the scopes upside down), you would often see rubber feet, some also have adjustment screws padded by rubber.

If may help, if you replace those old and stiff rubber feet. I have never checked the leveling of my scope though, unless something is visibly not level.

[N3ptune]

What is bothering me is more the relation between the stage and the objective, I think the stage needs to be parallel with the objective otherwise one part of the slide will be lower then the other one, involving refocusing while moving the slide.

And Maybe it's no big deal because I don't see any angle adjuster for the stage.. so maybe they are made like that.

[apochronaut]

Usually that sort of adjustment is done with shimstock.In this case, shimming the bottom of the focus travel.
A question related to Fan's suggestion is...By testing the level of the stage front to back : how do you know the stage is not parallel to the plane of the objective already, and that the entire stand is not out of level?

[N3ptune]

I tested the microscope, I think it's working fine as it is for the moment. I'll leave the stage as it is, eventually if I notice a problem, I'll address it. But now it's giving some extremely nice views !!

Thanks for the info, I'll level the whole microscope as suggested.

[dtsh]

What is bothering me is more the relation between the stage and the objective, I think the stage needs to be parallel with the objective otherwise one part of the slide will be lower then the other one, involving refocusing while moving the slide.

And Maybe it's no big deal because I don't see any angle adjuster for the stage.. so maybe they are made like that.

Unless your stage itself moves, the slide should remain at the same focus; even if one end of the slide may be lower than the other due to a tilted stage, it *should* remain consistent provided neither objective nor stage moves.

IMO, a carpenter's level is not a useful tool here. A machinist's level perhaps, but for it to matter you'd have to have the tabletop level, then the microscope feet, etc, etc. If you had an absoolutely perfect stage, but the floor isn't perfectly level, a level on the stage would show it as not level - even though it's perfect in relation to the rest of the microscope. The stage's reference point is in relation to the objectives, not to the Earth.

I don't know for microscopes, but for other machines one would use a tram for such a process. In a mill you'd put the tram in the spindle, then measure the variance across the table and adjust accordingly until everything was as close to perfect as you can get. For a microscope it'd probably work to have such a device with RMS threads to hold it while the tram could swing below it, rotating on the axis of the objective. Something like that would serve the same purpose, but I suspect one would need to fabricate such. All that said, I don't think the stage needs to be perfectly level, rare is the specimen itself that's flat down to less than a micron of variance; the stage just needs to be square with the objectives, or close enough that the FOV doesn't deviate significantly across a flat spacimen