Watson and Sons Stereo with obtuse irreversible design?

[dzarren]

Hi there! I recently got this scope on loan to me.
Anyway, I probably don't need to go into the full story, as this post will probably be long enough.

But pointed out to me by the person who loaned me this scope, the binocular eyeports face away from the user, when the stand is positioned in front of the user, such as with a regular stereo, with a reticulating arm.
The person who lent me this, actually told me i could have the scope at first, because he found it unusable, due to the backwards binocular head.

So here are some pictures of the scope. As you can see, the binocular eyepieces face the opposite direction of a typical stereo setup, and in order to use the scope without hanging upside down, I must position the stand to my side, and swing the scope all the way perpendicular to the stand, so i can get to the eyepieces from the side.
This seems far less than ideal, since it removes access to one of the focus knobs, and just becomes cumbersome to use.

Why would it be made this way? Am I missing a trick here? Like a really big trick?


Pictures below, but I want to point out that I took the binocular head off, to see if perhaps it could swivel to the other side.
It was held down by 4 screws, two easily accessible, but another two behind the objective lenses.

When I got the head removed, I see that it is indexed into position via some indexing pins, so there does not appear to be a way to swivel this head around. And looking at the prism inside, even if i were able to flip this part 180, the optics would no longer align.

What is going on here? Why is the design so obtuse? Can this thing even be used? The optics are beautiful, but I can't get my damn eyes onto them.

Please, any advice would be great!
Thank you!

There is some part of me hoping there is no solution, because the person who loaned me the scope does not want it back if i cannot resolve this backwards facing eyepiece problem.
The microscope itself is mint, and has not been touched in over 50 years, but had a nice cover over it, so is mostly free from nasty.











As you can see here, I can use it if i swing it all the way to the extremity of the possible motion, but i obscure one of the focus knobs.







And here i have taken off the binocular head, and you can see the indexing pins that forbid me from just giving this whole assembly a 180 rotation.








Here is the arm set up, in case the problem lies here.





Thank you!

[Element 56]

Yes it seems like you're missing something obvious but I'm not immediately seeing it in your pics.

What happens when you loosen the silver knob in the front of the scope shown in the first and second photo? Seems to me the body of the scope is probably held in a "ring" or fork and there may be a retaining nut keeping it from being rotated. Look for a nut, loosen it and turn it where you want it.

I have never worked on one of these so this is speculation.

Kirby

Edit, another possibility is that this microscope wasn't made to be used with a boom stand. Is there any manufacture marks on the boom stand? The more I look at the pics the more I'm leaning this way.

[MichaelG.]

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This ... from one of the Little Imp CD series, suggests that it is just awkward by design:
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m115310d.jpg

BE1C3502-D5A8-47D3-BBF5-7F6D1483B053.jpeg (205.11 KiB) Viewed 2307 times

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MichaelG.

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Ref. M82 here: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/Little-Imp/index.html

[Element 56]

I wonder if yours was originally on a stand like this one.

https://spwindustrial.com/watson-barnet ... gLdKvD_BwE

If so it would take some machine work to get it turned around. That's really a shame.

Kirby

[apochronaut]

I think this is the case. Your microscope probably began it's life on a stationary stand and then someone moved it to the track on a boom stand. There was an alternate body design which reversed the deviating prism housing.
https://www.google.com/search?q=watson+ ... MYOpBXNIwM

[dzarren]

Yes it seems like you're missing something obvious but I'm not immediately seeing it in your pics.

What happens when you loosen the silver knob in the front of the scope shown in the first and second photo? Seems to me the body of the scope is probably held in a "ring" or fork and there may be a retaining nut keeping it from being rotated. Look for a nut, loosen it and turn it where you want it.

I have never worked on one of these so this is speculation.

Kirby

Edit, another possibility is that this microscope wasn't made to be used with a boom stand. Is there any manufacture marks on the boom stand? The more I look at the pics the more I'm leaning this way.

Hi all!

The silver knob appears to just be a cap for a threaded hole that leads nowhere. I think the threaded hole (1/4-20) is for attaching some sort of accessory, like a light or something.

The boom stand is in fact also made by Watson and Sons. It really does look like this was designed all together as a unit. At least the horizontal arm bit, i dont see any manufacture on the actual cast base, but I can only assume that the cast base and the horizontal arm are a unit.


Here is a picture of the name on the arm.



Awkward by design is certainly a bummer.. I was hoping to have this on my table and used like a normal person, with the arm all the way to the side like that, I'll have to clear a large area to put the scope down when I want to use it. It really is a shame.

To be honest, it does not really look to me as if it started life as a stationary stand scope, and then was moved. It really looks to me like this whole system belongs together, and may just be of poor design.

Why might it be done this way? It really is awful, I was hoping this could become my main stereo, my only other stereo is a Cenco where the zoom only works on one eye.

[apochronaut]

Of course the boom stand was made by Watson. That doesn't mean that your microscope belongs on it. Just because it is all black and the modular components fit together doesn't mean they belong together. The black stuff is called paint.
Did you even look at the alternate boom stand design , i linked to?