Spock's Sister Sees

This is my Vickers microscope. I thought I’d spend the day making rheinberg filters so I got it out to determine what size my patch stops should be.

I plugged it in and discovered that the lamp had blown. Bugger. It took me about an hour to get the new lamp in because the little screwy johnny (that’s the technical name) that holds it in place was determined to cross thread. I persuaded it to go on straight then spent some time getting the lamp centred.

I set up kohler then took an old rheinberg filter I’d made and popped it in the filter holder. Except I didn’t; because at this point I discovered that this vickers condenser doesn’t have a filter holder.

Insert expletive here.

The Vickers I gave to my nephews has a filter holder on the condenser but that’s on the other side of the country. Humbug.

I went to my bits and bobs box and found an old Cooke Troughton and Simms condenser that my children broke when they were toddlers. Did it have a filter holder? Yes!
Did it fit on the Vickers? Of course not.
I found an old vickers diaphragm and filter holder which also did not fit.

That’s how today has gone: slowly and painfully, and I’ve lost count of how many times I dropped teeny weeny screws and said an Anglo Saxon word starting with F and ending in uck.

I can make the Vickers filter holder fit but I need screws the right length and a spacer. I’ve ordered some M2 nylon spacers, can’t find any 8BA spacers. I could use a nut but it would look rubbish.

Hey ho.