I've acquired an otherwise decent SMZ-U that appears to have been used by a heavy smoker.
It's bad enough that the presence of the microscope itself will make a room smell like stale cigarettes in a manner of minutes. I have to store it inside a box in a detached workshop.
The cigarette odor has permeated all the internal surfaces of the microscope. It's everywhere. I imagine the residue is also impacting optical performance.
Does anyone have any suggestions for cleaning the thing? Or can you recommend anyone who does this sort of work?
Deodorize cigarette smoke-coated Nikon SMZ-U?
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apochronaut
- Posts: 6325
- Joined: Fri May 15, 2015 12:15 am
Re: Deodorize cigarette smoke-coated Nikon SMZ-U?
I once cleaned a pair of English W.W. II binoculars that had had so much exposure to tobacco smoke that the image was yellow. Maybe they were Winston Churchill's. You could smell them from across the street. I've done some choice lab microscopes too. I don't know of any quick fixes.
I remove the optics and treat them separately but for the body, knobs etc. it's elbow grease, detergent water and a toothbrush, swabs and alcohol; followed by a fine metal polish to buff the lustre back up.
Optics, I just do mostly with swabs, alcohol, lens cleaner, blower brush, oil-less compressor. I don't touch the greased parts, if the grease is still soft but clean the areas adjacent and as well adjacent to the optics thoroughly. Unfortunately, when bad enough the optics need complete disassembly...even objectives, sometimes.
It is terribly time consuming.
Likely, for an instrument like yours , that is relatively new, the invasion of smoke particles internally isn't too bad. I would just do a really good exterior cleaning at first, protecting the optics with covers and see if that gets the bulk of it and makes the instrument tolerable.
I remove the optics and treat them separately but for the body, knobs etc. it's elbow grease, detergent water and a toothbrush, swabs and alcohol; followed by a fine metal polish to buff the lustre back up.
Optics, I just do mostly with swabs, alcohol, lens cleaner, blower brush, oil-less compressor. I don't touch the greased parts, if the grease is still soft but clean the areas adjacent and as well adjacent to the optics thoroughly. Unfortunately, when bad enough the optics need complete disassembly...even objectives, sometimes.
It is terribly time consuming.
Likely, for an instrument like yours , that is relatively new, the invasion of smoke particles internally isn't too bad. I would just do a really good exterior cleaning at first, protecting the optics with covers and see if that gets the bulk of it and makes the instrument tolerable.