# Bausch and Lomb Microscope Purchase



## Brain Coral (Mar 26, 2014)

Hello all,

I was in town yesterday, waiting for my cell phone to be repaired, and decided to go into a small antique store to have a look around. This store is tiny and packed to the gills, so it's difficult to see the forest for the trees, so to speak; I only saw this microscope when I was about to leave. 

Here's a few pics.... sorry for the lack of focus on some...
















It was used in the local dairy industry, apparently to determine if a cow was pregnant or not, and by looking up the serial number, it dates to 1915. It's really in outstanding original condition and hasn't been polished. That's the original laquered finish.

I didn't get a screaming deal on it, but I did get it for half of what he had on the sticker. I was always interested in biology as a kid and had a microscope before I was eleven years old. Now I have three, one will be used as a shop microscope and I am working on building a stand for it.

Anyway.... I thought that I would share... 

I am waiting for the nor'easter storm to hit. I've been up since 7:00 a.m. and it was completely still at that time. Now, as I look out my window, the wind has begun to pick up and the tops of the trees are beginning to sway. It's exciting for me and the fact that I have a generator panel, generator and lots of fuel and food, I am looking forward to seeing the fury of this storm. They are forecasting wind gusts of over 60-70 mph and lots of snow.

Brian


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## vapremac (Mar 26, 2014)

Brian ,

 Nice find ! Its seems to have been well cared for over the years and the original box ,nice.

 I have been looking for a better scope for my shop as some of the parts I build require
certain finishes.

William


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## Brain Coral (Mar 26, 2014)

Hello William.... thanks... 

Yeah, I'm quite happy with the microscope. It may not get a whole lot of use, but I do dabble in microscopy.

I bought a Unitron ZSB stereoscope for the shop, which didn't come with a stand, so I've been playing around with making one.

Here's a few pics...













I still have a bit of work to do on it, but I will be able to use it at the lathe, as well as on a solid base.

Brian


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## vapremac (Mar 26, 2014)

Very nice !   That scope and the mount you have made is what I have in mind of doing.
Or should I say need to do !

William


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## TOOLMASTER (Mar 26, 2014)

Score a nice zeiss a couple years ago from the local university for free. Great scope..watching blood cells stack is just feekin weird


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## Brain Coral (Mar 26, 2014)

A Zeis microscope for FREE... ??? !!!  You dog.... :greenwithenvy:

There should be a law against getting stuff for free.... just because it never happens to me... 

Brian


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## Brain Coral (Mar 26, 2014)

Well, this nor'easter storm has lived up to it's forecast.... I thought that it was bad out before, but now the wind is shrieking and visibility is less than 50 feet. That's 50 feet while standing still... less in even bigger gusts....

Power hasn't gone out yet, but I suspect that it will. I live in the coutry and the infrastructure is old. It usually goes out in a storm like this. 

Brian


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## David S (Mar 26, 2014)

Brian when I was younger I lived in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.  There were times when we had big time snow.  I hope that you get through this ok, and also that spring will finally arrive.

All the best.
David


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## Brain Coral (Mar 26, 2014)

Hello David,

I find the weather exhillarating and am not worried in the least. As bad as this storm is, it pales in comparison to the blizzard of 1992. 162 cm. ( 5' 4" ) of snow fell in 3 days with awesome winds... anic:

Here's a link...

http://past.theweathernetwork.com/n...stormfile=look_back_at_a_wicked_winter_300112


My brother and his pal went snowshoeing after the storm was over. They snowshoed down the street above the roofs of cars and then went up a 2 1/2 storey snowdrift to the roof of the mall and then went down another drift at the other end. People were trapped in their houses and had to escape from second storey windows.... and they didn't have to jump.... legs over the sill and there you are...

I hope that this link doesn't end up as long as it looks.... if it does, I apologise for having to scroll...

Brian


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## John Hasler (Mar 26, 2014)

Brain Coral said:


> I find the weather exhillarating and am not worried in the least.



You don't have any livestock.


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## Brain Coral (Mar 26, 2014)

No I don't, but I have a massive dead Tamarack tree on my neighbours side of the property line that is 30 feet to the north of me and is 70 feet tall.... did I mention that the wind is straight out of the north... shrieking... ?? ... and it has been pelting my house with branches for the last hour or so.... good thing that it only died last spring.... at least I'm hoping that it has enough elasticity left in it to weather this storm. But I am still not worried. If there was something that I could do right this minute, I would get dressed and go do it. 

If I did have cattle, of course I would be concerned, but not worried....

Brian


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## randyjaco (Mar 26, 2014)

I just finished up a B&L that was given to me, The desk base was limiting so I made this up to allow me to to use it anywhere in the shop.

Randy


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## JimDawson (Mar 26, 2014)

randyjaco said:


> I just finished up a B&L that was given to me, The desk base was limiting so I made this up to allow me to to use it anywhere in the shop.





randyjaco said:


> Randy




OK, I want one of those.  Very nice stand!!


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## valleyboy101 (Mar 26, 2014)

Hi Brian
Definitely a major late season storm!  Here in E. ON we are left out, -16 C (+-5 F) but no snow.  Great day to watch the weather, stay warm in the shop and watch the snow blasting by.
Michael


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## AR1911 (Mar 26, 2014)

Love microscopes. Spent many hours as a nerdy kid looking for protozoa in the local mud puddles. Unfortunately I lived in a desert at the time :/

I have been playing with the cheap digital scopes lately. At my age (with contact lenses)  seeing the image on a 24" screen is a lot better than a little round eyepiece. 

Couple years ago i lucked into a nice auction buy on a Mitutoyo toolmakers microscope. VERY nice scope!


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## Brain Coral (Mar 27, 2014)

randyjaco said:


> I just finished up a B&L that was given to me, The desk base was limiting so I made this up to allow me to to use it anywhere in the shop.
> 
> Randy



Very ingenious Randy...  I really like that... 

It looks like you used an office chair base with beefed up wheels, attached a weight lifters weight to make it bottom heavy and you must have a cylinderical counterweight inside the tube attached to the cable for ease of raising and lowering the scope. Very clever, indeed....

You should give us an explanation of how you built it so that we can steal your idea... 

Brian

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valleyboy101 said:


> Hi Brian
> Definitely a major late season storm! Here in E. ON we are left out, -16 C (+-5 F) but no snow. Great day to watch the weather, stay warm in the shop and watch the snow blasting by.
> Michael



Hello Michael,

The sky is bright blue this morning, but the winds are still fierce with blowing snow and drifting. The tamarack tree is still standing and the winds have swung around to the north-east, so if it did go down, it wouldn't hit my house. I took a walk around the house, through the snowdrifts, and saw at least a hundred branches littering the yard and up against the house, all from that tamarack.

My resident chickadees were begging for food, so I filled up the peanut butter feeders and they were followed by a lone junco and a hairy woodpecker. It's incredible that they can fly in this wind. Hunger is a great motivator....

Brian


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## Brain Coral (Mar 27, 2014)

TOOLMASTER said:


> Score a nice zeiss a couple years ago from the local university for free. Great scope..watching blood cells stack is just feekin weird



Toolmaster... I didn't see the pic when I first looked at your response....  That scope must have been in the $5000.00 range when new.... and you got it for free...  That is one nice scope... 

Brian


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## TOOLMASTER (Mar 27, 2014)

Yea i know they aren't cheap..it actually came with a big light unit that i sold for 300.:thumbsup2:


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## frank r (Mar 27, 2014)

Brain Coral said:


> Here's a few pics.... sorry for the lack of focus on some...




That's okay, just turn that little brass knob a bit......


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## Brain Coral (Mar 27, 2014)

frank r said:


> That's okay, just turn that little brass knob a bit......



Hahaha.... very good... 

Brian


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## randyjaco (Mar 27, 2014)

Brian,
Back in the day when I did medical product R&D, I frequently had a surgical operating microscope kicking around in the shop. I found those microscopes quite useful for some jobs in the shop. (Like a loupe on steroids) I have always wanted one, but the $5K-20K price tag made that impossible. About 6 months ago a friend of mine gave me a desk top B&L stereo.(He sells microscopes and got it on trade and his company was going to scrape it) It was a great scope but it just sat in a corner in my shop and wasn't very mobile. So I started looking for a way to mount it on the lathe and mill. Better yet if I had it on a roller base I could use it anywhere. So I started looking for parts that would make that happen. I had a hard time locating 1.5" thick wall Al tube at the scrap yard. When I did I also located the components you listed and put the thing together. I don't know what the AL base came from, but it could have been a chair or some medical product such as a IV stand. The weight at the bottom is a 45# barbell weight. Set in the base are 5 casters from Harbor Freight. I just tapped into the original holes and screwed in the casters. On top of the base is 3' of 2" drill pile. Inside the pipe is @8# of weight to counterbalance the weight of the scope head and ancillary attachments. The 1 1/2" Al tube was some type nautical railing. It is not elegant but it didn't cost 20 grand either)

Randy


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