PZO mst 127 focus repair

[imkap]

Hi,
I just got a PZO mst 127 stereo microscope, the whole package is complete. I'll clean, repair and give to a friend, he'll probably use it for occasional electronic repairs. I told him to get wf5x eyepieces from Aliexpress. Not sure how wide field they give, but surely wider than the 12.5x currently on the microscope.

The focus needs repairing, as the focusing shaft is inside a metal tube which should not move, but it does. I could glue it obviously, but can't see any glue residue, so I'm wondering if there was an another way to stop the tube from moving.
There are 2 screw holes behind, one screw is longer and the other one shorter.
If I would put the longer screw into the top hole it would stop the tube from moving, but I'm not sure if that is the original idea as the longer screw was in the bottom hole. It seems to fit there nicely and the metal tube doesn't have any evidence (scratch/holr) of it being attached with a screw.

If anyone has experience with this or similar PZO please share... Thanks

[viktor j nilsson]

5x eyepieces are a bad idea for visual use. They cover the same real field of view as 10x eyepieces, but shrinks it down to a much smaller apparent field of view. Like looking down a roll of toilet paper. A pair of the good and cheap 10x/22 would be a better option.

[imkap]

5x eyepieces are a bad idea for visual use. They cover the same real field of view as 10x eyepieces, but shrinks it down to a much smaller apparent field of view. Like looking down a roll of toilet paper. A pair of the good and cheap 10x/22 would be a better option.

I didn't know that, thanks for the tip. I'll tell him to get 10 then.
He said he would need 5-12 magnification. So I thought these might be good. If he doesn't like it I'll give to someone else

[imkap]

I went to repair the thing this evening and realized there were 2 set screws to fasten the tube coming from below. So I cleaned the old sticky grease put some new one and now everything works perfectly...
The microscope is ok, but the eyepiece tubes aren't tilted. I can't believe people used to spend hours working like that...

[apochronaut]

I don't think too many actual microscopists did. The straight tube stereos were the cheaper student models. Inclined tubes were pretty standard for professional microscopes, even by the 1930's. When straight tube binoculars for biological microscopes came along and that was pretty much all they had, there was still an inclination joint. By the time that the inclined tube was the bomb, the inclination joint was gone.