What you can get for under $100

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Oktagon · #1 Post by **Oktagon** » Wed Sep 28, 2016 12:12 am

Just finished cleaning (removing dry oil etc). New old stock GFL. It came with 1.4 APL Phase condenser, but with regular non-phase Plan objectives in wooden case, so I put 0.9 flip-top condenser instead.
It a nice little unit! Less than $100 shipped.

KurtM · #2 Post by **KurtM** » Wed Sep 28, 2016 1:09 am

Yep, they're certainly out there. I just watched a very nice AO/Spencer Model 25L stereo microscope with transillumination base go for:

US $13.51
[ 3 bids ]
Shipping: $38.59

eBay item number: 142123975763

apatientspider · #3 Post by **apatientspider** » Wed Sep 28, 2016 1:46 am

Speaking of deals - here's a very nice AO/Spencer model 13 in a case for a buy-it-now price of a hundred bucks, plus thirty-four shipping. Looks as though it has never once been used. Been kicking around on eBay for at least a month. http://www.ebay.com/itm/SPENCER-LENS-CO ... XQI5tRgYK9 If I didn't already have one.....

Jim

Charles · #4 Post by **Charles** » Wed Sep 28, 2016 10:42 am

That Zeiss GFL is sweet.

Last night, I bought this AO/Reichert trinocular stereo zoom 580, 1-6X (15-90X with the 15x eyepieces) for $63.06 ($51 + 12.06 shipping).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291882016592?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

Oktagon · #5 Post by **Oktagon** » Wed Sep 28, 2016 12:26 pm

Charles wrote:That Zeiss GFL is sweet.

Last night, I bought this AO/Reichert trinocular stereo zoom 580, 1-6X (15-90X with the 15x eyepieces) for $63.06 ($51 + 12.06 shipping).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291882016592?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

Nice!

I always hunt for deals on eBay.

This little GFL was actually new. Someone bought it 50 years ago and never used. I unserstand it it not common, but compare this with $700 Chinese scope!

Radazz · #6 Post by **Radazz** » Wed Sep 28, 2016 1:22 pm

Nice finds.
I like to scroll through vintage microscopes with breakfast.
Unfortunately I used up all of my microscope money restoring the M20 and can't buy anything.

Charles · #7 Post by **Charles** » Sat Oct 01, 2016 6:32 pm

My $51 AO-Reichert trinocular 580 stereo zoom has arrived. With some minor cleaning and on my AO 570 stand.

: AO-Reichert Trinocular StereoZoom 580.jpg (45.33 KiB) Viewed 13684 times

All optics and alignment are excellent. Zoom runs smoothly and photo tube is also in alignment and parfocal focus.

rnabholz · #8 Post by **rnabholz** » Sat Oct 01, 2016 7:37 pm

Looking good Charles. Love the Photo tube feature.

rnabholz · #9 Post by **rnabholz** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 3:28 am

$42 for an AO One Ten is a pretty sweet deal.....

Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/391571445938

Charles · #10 Post by **Charles** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 9:49 pm

Another heck of a deal Rod!

Rodney · #11 Post by **Rodney** » Tue Oct 04, 2016 2:48 am

My AO series 15 binocular from 1948 purchased price USA $27.50.
Rodney

Charles · #12 Post by **Charles** » Sat Oct 08, 2016 6:21 pm

A couple more recent purchases under $100.

First up is the Zeiss SR stereo scope for a boom stand with magnification from 0.8X to 5.0X (8x-50X with 10X eye pieces). It has an iris for controlling contrast. Optics look great. Did not come with eyepieces or stand but a great buy at $50.
Required just a bit of clean up.

: Zeiss SR Boom.jpg (65.79 KiB) Viewed 13573 times

Next is a Wild M3 with stand and magnification from 6.3-40 (with 10x eyepieces). Did not come with eyepieces and the stage was missing the round stage plate. The alignment was way off...by about of quarter of the view. Determined it was the optics in the head and after taking the cover off, found it easy to get it back into alignment. Optics are great and cleaned up pretty good. Well worth the $85 paid.

: Wild M3.jpg (43.31 KiB) Viewed 13573 times

rnabholz · #13 Post by **rnabholz** » Sun Oct 09, 2016 2:47 pm

More beauties and great values.

My only experience with alignment of stereo scopes is AO Cycloptic, which seems a bit tricky and not exactly precise.

Did the Wild have a more precise adjustment system, or did you have to get creative?

Rod

Oktagon · #14 Post by **Oktagon** » Sun Oct 09, 2016 4:29 pm

OK, since we started talong about Wild stereos, this summer I bought M5 head (no stand) with clean, alligned optics and eyepieces for .... $7. Yes. The guy was asking $50 at a flea market. In my usual custom I offered 1/10 asking price. We agreed on $7.Now I just need to find a stand for it.

Charles · #15 Post by **Charles** » Mon Oct 10, 2016 1:26 pm

rnabholz wrote:More beauties and great values.

My only experience with alignment of stereo scopes is AO Cycloptic, which seems a bit tricky and not exactly precise.

Did the Wild have a more precise adjustment system, or did you have to get creative?

Rod

In the Wild it was just a matter of removing the top cover to get to the prism underneath. The two prisms are held in place by a metal spring clip on the top and then the two bottom corners or the prism are spot glued once the prism is in place. I could tell which prism was out of place because the two glue spots were broken. I just lifted the metal spring clip and moved the prism back into position while looking through the eyepieces at a target specimen and them put the spring clip back down and spot glued the two bottom corners.

Charles · #16 Post by **Charles** » Mon Oct 10, 2016 1:28 pm

Oktagon wrote:OK, since we started talong about Wild stereos, this summer I bought M5 head (no stand) with clean, alligned optics and eyepieces for .... $7. Yes. The guy was asking $50 at a flea market. In my usual custom I offered 1/10 asking price. We agreed on $7.Now I just need to find a stand for it.

Now, that is a buy of the century! Just the head of an M5 goes for around $500-1000. Great find!

zzffnn · #17 Post by **zzffnn** » Mon Oct 10, 2016 3:08 pm

Oktagon wrote:OK, since we started talong about Wild stereos, this summer I bought M5 head (no stand) with clean, alligned optics and eyepieces for .... $7. Yes. The guy was asking $50 at a flea market. In my usual custom I offered 1/10 asking price. We agreed on $7.Now I just need to find a stand for it.

I wonder how that flea market seller got that Wild scope? I don't go to flea market a lot, but whenever I have a chance, I pay attention - have never seen anything interesting there

Oktagon · #18 Post by **Oktagon** » Mon Oct 10, 2016 8:43 pm

zzffnn wrote:
Oktagon wrote:OK, since we started talong about Wild stereos, this summer I bought M5 head (no stand) with clean, alligned optics and eyepieces for .... $7. Yes. The guy was asking $50 at a flea market. In my usual custom I offered 1/10 asking price. We agreed on $7.Now I just need to find a stand for it.
I wonder how that flea market seller got that Wild scope? I don't go to flea market a lot, but whenever I have a chance, I pay attention - have never seen anything interesting there

In MA there is this large fleamarket in Lynn. They sell all kind of junk, but you also have people who buy out machine and toolmaker shops who sell the tools there. You can fully outfit your Bridgeport mill for example for couple of hundreds. The guy who was selling M5 head also head a murdered BH2 sand and bunch of defuct electrical testing equipment. I think he must have bought this stuff by the pound.
The M5 is in surprisingly good shape and actually cam with part of the verticall poll from the stand which was ....yep separated from the reast my a means of a hack saw. My guess is that it used to be mounted on some sort of stationary piece of equipment, thus the hack saw. But then again, for $7 I would buy it sight unseen any time. The eyepieces are actually Zeiss measurment eyepieces.

rnabholz · #19 Post by **rnabholz** » Wed Oct 19, 2016 9:05 pm

Another sweet deal somebody picked up for $61

eBay item 282217592351

Very Clean looking American Optical 10, with 4,10,40,100x Plan Achromatic objectives, eyepieces, 1031 Illuminator, some prepared and blank slides. Quote was $35 shipping to me.

What a great value!!

They are out there.

apochronaut · #20 Post by **apochronaut** » Wed Oct 19, 2016 9:53 pm

I have seen those microscopes sell for that 35.00, shipping quote. Remarkable, considering that they were still pretty much state of art in the early 90's as a plan achromat system, from the early 70's and still exceed the performance level of most new basic lab scopes selling into the thousands.

rnabholz · #21 Post by **rnabholz** » Wed Oct 19, 2016 10:55 pm

apochronaut wrote:I have seen those microscopes sell for that 35.00, shipping quote. Remarkable, considering that they were still pretty much state of art in the early 90's as a plan achromat system, from the early 70's and still exceed the performance level of most new basic lab scopes selling into the thousands.

Well you know that I certainly concur....

: AO 10 on Ortho Illuminator; img_20160601_202948_std.jpg (96.44 KiB) Viewed 13460 times

Dale · #22 Post by **Dale** » Thu Oct 20, 2016 1:54 am

Vintage is what I've been searching for, also, but I need something light enough to
fly in checked luggage. These fine old instruments weigh a ton. My options are to carry
a 25lb scope, or a few lbs of sand!
Dale

Charles · #23 Post by **Charles** » Thu Oct 20, 2016 10:50 pm

Here you go Dale, under $50 and very portable.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Meade-08025-Rea ... 2356546614

zzffnn · #24 Post by **zzffnn** » Thu Oct 20, 2016 11:12 pm

Charles wrote:Here you go Dale, under $50 and very portable.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Meade-08025-Rea ... 2356546614

I forgot to mention this one. Rod and I both have it. It is an inverted design with 80x and 160x total magnification. 80x view is good and 160x view is decent. Very light and fits in your pocket.

Its inverted design allows you to scan a deep petri dish or well slide.

The thing I don't like is its ergonomics. Usable on land (when the microscopist is holding it stably), but too unstable on kayak. If your hands shake, the view will shake too. If you use a petri dish with it and are not careful, sample water can spill onto your face.

Also, the low power objective and high power objective are not parfocal. Adjustment between them takes a while.

Still, it is one of the very few affordable pocket scopes of reasonable quality.

rnabholz · #25 Post by **rnabholz** » Thu Oct 20, 2016 11:21 pm

Charles wrote:Here you go Dale, under $50 and very portable.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Meade-08025-Rea ... 2356546614

This one works fine for screening samples. I used it on vacation this summer and was easily able to see diatoms of all sizes in all the samples that I checked. Perfect for that purpose.

Some pics here:. https://goo.gl/photos/BZy8GZWS7Fhd6ZGu7

Dale · #26 Post by **Dale** » Fri Oct 21, 2016 1:11 am

Never saw anything like that before! Put it on the watch list. Now that I have some bonifide sand,
(thanks Fan) I can evaluate all the possibility's. From the images you have posted, it looks like
darkfield would be the bestlighting, and quite achievable on a small single power scope. For once
or twice a year I could use a set of optics from one of my big scopes, as I would never go near a
hazardous environment, like aboard a kayak.
Thanks for the tips, I hope it will all pay off at next years foray to Kauai.
Dale.

rnabholz · #27 Post by **rnabholz** » Tue Nov 15, 2016 11:37 pm

Another great deal for someone. Around $75 shipped for a nice clean AO Ten, 4, 10, 40, & 100x Plan Achros, swing in condenser, and transformer.

Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/391618417679

charlie g · #28 Post by **charlie g** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 3:01 am

Terrific stand you aquired for your family of stands, Oktagon...and sweet price! Are you con-US , or other side of pond, or lower hemisphere like einmen, 75RR? I ask as here in con-US, I aquired a 'sub-$100 with free shipping of a similar gem c/o EBay.

Charles terms your stand a Zeiss GFL...well then can anyone coment on what my Carl Zeiss stand is termed?

Serial etched on body/prism area: 4244822 Germany..but on the round base is etched: 4272204 Germany! So I guess my stand was put together from a few stands?

I have cheer that so many folk have caught terrific deals like you share here, Oktagon. I purchased mine for it's 'drum stick field illuminator( don't laugh)..I'm enchanted how the design curves of certain stands are almost organically related.

My 1960's Austria/Reichert 'drum stick' field illuminator...well in fact the entire Biozet stand has the curves, that round body below the oculars...is it 'design theft'?! My stand did not have I objectives...I tricked it out with a: 6X, 16X, 40X, and 63X collection..it performs well with a fixed diatom strew slide. congrats again to all you microscopists...is my stand a: 'GFL'?
charlie guevara

Oktagon · #29 Post by **Oktagon** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 5:14 am

Charlie g, I'm con-US, located in Boston MA.
Your stand is Zeiss Junior. It is basically the same as GFL, sans removable stage and slightly different coarse focusing knobs. You do have a very nice illuminator, while mine came with simple mirror, and I have to use external illuminator, like in the 50's wen this scope was most likely manufactured.
Allot of cine old scopes from mid-XX century tend to be slow movers on the auctions, as they are ol enough to be outdated in the eyes of many, but not old enought to be "cool antiques". I personally love these stands!

Yvan · #30 Post by **Yvan** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 11:08 am

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