zeiss eyepiece delamination fixed with immersion oil

[DrPhoxinus]

Zeiss delamination isn't limited to objectives.

I got a Zeiss stand from surplus of a University and I noticed the image through
both eyepieces were partially obscured by distortions and rotating each eyepiece
caused the distortions to be move.

Disassembling the eyepieces revealed thick lens elements cemented together.
I put a drop of immersion oil on each of the cemented bonds and wow, the
images were really good and the fix has lasted more than a year.

It is too bad this can't be done for objectives

Gerard

[Hobbyst46]

I got a Zeiss stand from surplus of a University and I noticed the image through
both eyepieces were partially obscured by distortions and rotating each eyepiece
caused the distortions to be move.

Disassembling the eyepieces revealed thick lens elements cemented together.
I put a drop of immersion oil on each of the cemented bonds and wow, the
images were really good and the fix has lasted more than a year

That is a good result !
I have two delaminated Zeiss WF10X eyepieces. One of them I converted to serve as a graticule eyepiece, so it is only used momentarily to determine the size of an object on the slide.
On the other one I tried -
a) 24h xylene bath
b) 2h oven at 60C
none worked. Will try the immersion oil.

[MicroBob]

Hi Gerard,
a while ago I repaired a Zeiss Neofluar 10:1 that has a single delamination in the uppermost lens group. I let xylene soak into the gap and then placed the lens group into a lillte bottle filled with a bit canadabalsam and xylene and headed the capped bottle to 60°C. From the delamination was only a fine line left that marked the front line of the former delamination. I have to check how it has developed since.
I have three other delaminated zeiss objectives: a 16 or 25:1 phase Neofluar and 63:1 and 100:1 Planapos. The former is only delminated in one plane, the Planapos in at least two planes. I'm positive about the repair chances with the Neofluar. But the Planapos???

Bob

[apochronaut]

Zeiss delamination isn't limited to objectives.

I got a Zeiss stand from surplus of a University and I noticed the image through
both eyepieces were partially obscured by distortions and rotating each eyepiece
caused the distortions to be move.

Disassembling the eyepieces revealed thick lens elements cemented together.
I put a drop of immersion oil on each of the cemented bonds and wow, the
images were really good and the fix has lasted more than a year.

It is too bad this can't be done for objectives

Gerard

With older objectives anyway, probably any cemented with Canada balsam, immersion oil into the cemented elements performs like a slow acting solvent. If it is there long enough, it doesn't just delaminate them, it will cause eventual decementing and separation.

[Sabatini]

Greetings.
Something similar is happening to me, but after leaving the elements submerged in xilene, they came off completely (the good news is that I could clean the old balm completely and they were super clear), but now I have two beautiful meniscus, concave convex, separated. How do I get them to stick together? So they can be aligned?
As always learning something new here.
Thank you

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[Hobbyst46]

Something similar is happening to me, but after leaving the elements submerged in xilene, they came off completely (the good news is that I could clean the old balm completely and they were super clear), but now I have two beautiful meniscus, concave convex, separated. How do I get them to stick together? So they can be aligned?...

My delaminated Zeiss West WF10X eyepiece lens was not separated into two parts, despite the xylene bath. Had it separated, I would have tried to cement them with Norland NOA61 UV-curable cement. For alignment, maybe just placing them within the eyepiece barrel (where they belong anyway) would suffice.

[Sabatini]

Hobbyst46
Thanks you.
I'm going to find out.

[DrPhoxinus]

Did anyone have success using immersion oil for eyepiece de lamination?

Mine still look good.

Gerard

[Wes]

Did anyone have success using immersion oil for eyepiece de lamination?

Mine still look good.

Gerard

There's an Italian guy who fixed his delaminated DIC prisms with immersion oil.

I have a peripherally delaminated Kpl eyepiece so might try the immersion oil hack as wel.

[75RR]

There's an Italian guy who fixed his delaminated DIC prisms with immersion oil

Do you have a link for that?

[viktor j nilsson]

There's an Italian guy who fixed his delaminated DIC prisms with immersion oil

Do you have a link for that?

He's likely talking about this one:
http://www.microscopeitaly.it/2011/06/2 ... i-rimedio/

[Wes]

There's an Italian guy who fixed his delaminated DIC prisms with immersion oil

Do you have a link for that?

Here you go 75'

http://www.microscopeitaly.it/2011/06/2 ... /#more-251

And here are my preliminary results. On the left is the delaminated doublet clearly showing how the delamination creeps in direction from the periphery to the center. On the left is the same doublet a few minutes after applying the oil. The green spots indicate the area cleared by the oil, I'll check on it in a couple of hours to see the progress.

[75RR]

.
Many thanks for the link viktor j nilsson and Wes

And here are my preliminary results. On the left is the delaminated doublet clearly showing how the delamination creeps in direction from the periphery to the center. On the left is the same doublet a few minutes after applying the oil. The green spots indicate the area cleared by the oil, I'll check on it in a couple of hours to see the progress.

Did not realize you were doing this in real time!

I suppose ideally one would post updates every 6 months or so once it stabilized ... looking forward to your results.

[Wes]

There's an Italian guy who fixed his delaminated DIC prisms with immersion oil

Do you have a link for that?

He's likely talking about this one:
http://www.microscopeitaly.it/2011/06/2 ... i-rimedio/

Beat me to it! I just noticed..

Anyway, the oil has progressed immensely, more than 90% of delamination is now gone.

[75RR]

Anyway, the oil has progressed immensely, more than 90% of delamination is now gone.

Very good news.


Did not realize at first for how long Arturo Agostino had followed through on the updates. Can't ask for more than that! See below

Update: I think the 'Italian guy' might well be arturoag75 from amateurmicrography.

Microscopy is as they say, a 'small world' ;)
.

[Wes]

Anyway, the oil has progressed immensely, more than 90% of delamination is now gone.

Very good news.


Did not realize at first for how long Arturo Agostino had followed through on the updates. Can't ask for more than that! See below

Update: I think the 'Italian guy' might well be arturoag75 from amateurmicrography.

icroscopy is as they say, a 'small world'
.

Yes, thats him

[Adam Long]

I had some success fixing my KPl eyepiece doublets which were very similar to Wes' photo above.

IMG_4479.jpg (85.8 KiB) Viewed 5512 times

Encouraged by that, I had another go at my trinocular prism which was badly delaminated, enough to be annoying in some lighting situations:

IMG_4520.jpg (100.09 KiB) Viewed 5512 times

When I bought it the head had clearly had a severe knock which may have started the delamination. The prisms are held in the head by bolts and then, once aligned, secured with grey paint/glue. This had already broken so the prism came out easily. However the delaminated joint is also sealed by black glue/paint which means oil will not penetrate. I scraped this off at a couple of points (leaving ~80% in place) and applied the oil. In the photo above you can see the oil front penetrating from the left. After 48 hours it was looking very good and two weeks later I can no longer detect the delamination. Replacing the prism with 'good enough' alignment was not difficult, no doubt collimation is now conditional on IPD but no issue for my use.

IMG_4517.jpg (70.12 KiB) Viewed 5512 times

[Hobbyst46]

Good to hear about success! my attempts to fix a delaminated a Zeiss KPL-W 10X eyepiece with immersion oil failed. Even warming it some id not help.

[woyjwjl]

immersion oil won't solidify for a long time. Will there be sequelae?

[DrPhoxinus]

I haven’t had issues