Microscope Repair - Wobbly Eyepieces

Hospital laboratory microscopes are extremely complex instruments that require repair and servicing periodically to function at their best. When I repair and service these types of microscopes, I also calibrate them for optimum performance because a nicely operating insturment is a joy to work with. A wobbly eyepiece is one of the most commonest problems and irritating if your time and efforts are wasted when you get the best focus, and the eyepiece wobbles, and you have to start all over again! Luckily, on most models, the repair is simple as it simply involves tightening a couple of screws that usually become loose over the years.

If you worked long and hard enough in the NHS then not only will you develop wobbly eyes, but your microscope will get the wobbly eyepiece syndrome. This is of course a new medical term I would like to define due to the increase in occurrences. On this microscope, two very loose screws held each eyepiece, and there was a rattling noise if you shook the binocular optical head indicating that some of the screws had also come off completely.

Professional laboratory microscopes are often such that it is possible to remove the optical head and replace it with a different type. A thumbscrew at the side usually secures the head and undoing this allows one to detach it from the rest of the body. It is better to remove the head so that you get proper access to the lens mounting screws.

As you can see, the thumbscrew is just a simple way of securing the head.

Here is the optical head. As you can see, there are plastic covers on both sides, and screws hold them. To gain access to the eyepiece mounting, it is necessary to remove the covers. The following pages of this multi-page article show the next stage of the repair.

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