Microscope Stands

Looking some feedback/experience w/ microscope boom stands.

I currently have a simple single boom arm. My current stand only has 2 degrees of movement (no sig tipping of the scope head—just straight up/down). I also want to mount the stand directly onto the drill press vertical post (TIG the base onto the post).

I see the GRS, Golden Machinery (similar to the GRS) and Conrad ones. The Conrad stands seem small, but simple. They might not be robust enough. I'm leery about Golden Machinery but they are about 30-40% less than GRS. I'm leaning toward the GRS acrobat due to their well-known quality and long term support, but wanted to know everyone’s thoughts.
Also, I’d appreciate feedback/lessons learned about combining the drill press stand and scope. I’m leery about vibration and having to bolt everything down 250% to keep the image stable.

Dan

I have found spring loaded boom stands to be, well, springy.
My stands are home made from 2 inch galvanized pipe.
Simple and cheap and I have engraved hundreds of guns with them.

Barry, could you please post a photo of your design?? I am not to thrilled with my scope stand, and have been thinking of making one to go with a portable engraving bench setup I am working on.

Here is one view of one:

and a detail:


And the aluminum stand:


It is my opinion that most engraving setups are just recycled jewelers benches, and I look at it differently.
My method is an engraving system, featuring a stand, it sets up anywhere, and the tools go in tool boxes that roll, that sit on either side of me.
And it will swing a 32 inch set of side by side barrels.

Barry any plumber or steelworker would be proud of that truly home grown
Ray

As Barry stated, I have heard others say the GRS acrobat stand is not as stable as would be desired. I happen to have the old GRS boom stand and like it quite well. I have always been curious though about the Acrobat stand because of the spring loaded set up and am wondering what users think of theirs. Does it lock down nice and stable?

Here is a photo of the microscope boom and assembly I made. The upright is a 1.125" OD shaft, which is mounted to a 30lb. steel block. The upright is mounted to the steel block base by a 3/8" bolt that screws into a threaded hole in bottom end of upright. The upright OD is threaded for six inches or so at the bottom end. The 10 inch diameter cast iron wheel has an internal thread the same as the thread on the upright OD. The boom is a 7/8" round bar that slides in a 2"x2"x5" aluminum block via bronze bushings. The boom has a 1/4" groove machined its length that allows a set screw (with lever handle similar to one shown in photo) to tighten the boom in place; as well as to keep the boom square to microscope center line of view.

The aluminum block also has a 1.125" ID bronze bushing fitted for the upright. When you wish to raise or lower the microscope boom, one turns the 10 inch diameter wheel (actual a weight lifters Gold's Gym weight wheel. Above the 10" wheel are two collars that I made to custom fit my sitting height and above the two collars is a 1.375" OD x 1.125" ID bronze bushing that acts to precision align everything to the aluminum block and its 1.125" ID bronze bushing. Between the bronze bushing on the upright (the bushing above the two collars) is a 1.125" ID x 1.375" OD needle thrust bearing with bottom and top precision washers. There is another similar needle bearing between the 10 inch wheel and the bottom collar.

The boom is attached to my microscope focus assembly by a bracket that allows the microscope to rotate at the bracket. The bracket contains a 3/4" ID bronze bushing and a 2" 90 degree offset 3/4 in OD from the boom forward ends fits into the bracket.

Above my head in the photo is a string that leads to an electric switch that allows me to turn a 5 volt laser beam on or off. The laser beam is precision aligned (via 3 aligning screws) with the center of the 12" OD turn table my vise placed upon. The laser needs a bit of adjustment through the year due to humidity changes as it is attached to wood paneled shop ceiling.

The microscope light I made also using a 5 1/2" OD fluorescent lamp as the light source. It puts out 900 lumens and is light years away from anything you can buy. The lamp reflector is made form an electirc kitchen range burner reflector.

Regards;
Steve

Mr Hands:
Huge thanks as you affirmed two things:
1. I'm not the only guy who's constantly tinkering
2. My initial "crazy idea" wasn't a crazy idea (pretty close to yours)

I thought I was going to have to look all highbrow/professional and get a factory made setup. I like what you have but might add a compression ball joint into it over a pipe elbow. This would allow me to easily tilt the scope w/o having to retorque a pipe elbow. I'll look more into it. Biggie is it can't slip. HSM magazine had something on how to prevent slipping a few years ago, but I'll have to dig.

Steve:
You have basically what I currently am setup with. I wanted an axis to tip the scope toward me allowing me to sit back in a chair slightly more. This would bring my hands in closer to center of mass hopefully offer a better or alternative position.

I would like to keep my drill press stand. It allows me to easily adjust vise height up/down for scope VS optivisor. Like many people, I got the basic idea from Ray Cover and stuck with it. (thanks Ray!)

Dan

Dan;

My boom has such an axis adjustment as you mention. I have mine set on 90 degrees which works for my microscope and my head position. The 2 inch long 3/4" OD offset from the end of the boom has a flat machined on it, and that flat fits against a similar flat on the forward end of the boom. A 1/4 inch socket head screw holds the offset to the boom and allows for tilt adjustment forward and rear. My adjustment may not be exactly 90 degrees but 89 or 88 degrees as I set it to fit me.

However, you may not have access to a milling machines and lathes as I do (I am really a gunmaker, who also engraves) and not be able to modify what you have. What I currently have was developed over a 3 year period of various revisions.

The latest revision being the adding of the needle thrust bearings and before that the revision of the 10 inch wheel to allow me to move the microscope boom up and down without getting up from my seat.

Regards;
Steve

Dan, mine tilts in any direction and is tight, look at the pics.
If you think of a better way I would love to see it.
I have visited dozens of engraving shops and engraved at most of them and this is the best setup I have seen.
Good luck with your experiments

Barry;

I like the jig you have for holding the single shot rifle action in your photo. Do you mind if I use your design basis to build one for myself?

Steve

Sure, it's just a center jig, my adaption of the ken hurst / rowles design.

Steve, very nice.....looks like you used plate aluminum and brass....I really like the concept, and it's clean. Minimal footprint too. I like to keep things light/small as possible because we moving every few years w/ the military. (can't wait to retire, settle down and FINALLY get all my machine tools out from storage !!!)

Mr Hands: Huge thanks too. You gave me an idea about a very K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid (PG version)) solution 1/2 way between both your and Steves method. I'm impressed at how the simple answer is often the best. BTW: Nice lathe and single shot action in the pictures ....appears to be the one they had in HSM.

You both have given me a lot to mull over.
Back to tinkering

Dan

Thanks, the lathe is a 1966 southbend 10k that I got NIB a couple years ago from a friend who bought it and never put it together.

Barry,
Thank you for sharing the photos, they will help me a lot to figure out what I need to do with my setup.

I've been tossing around the options of either buying or fabricating an Acrobat type parallelogram style scope stand. However the GRS branded version is rather expensive and the Alibaba vendors seem to be a crap shoot and don't really give a comfortable level of detail besides being a Pacific ocean away.

The user manual gives a fairly detailed capture of the design, however there are are few points I'm hoping an owner of the stand may be able to provide. The first of which is the arm member structure. I seem to recall being told they were 1x2x1/8" rectangular tube steel. However I now question that as the squared sectional corners are far more likely to indicate an aluminum extrusion than a standard rolled steel section. Also the connecting plates could either be aluminum or steel,and from what I'm able to estimate appear to be about 1/8" thick. I'd appreciate if an owner of the stand could confirm the material and gauge of the arms and connecting plates.

Many thanks!

Barry,

On the aluminium picture, who's the guy having a beer in the background?

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I have a regular boom stand works good, gets the job done.

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Good thread. Barry, what is the total weight, including the box, of the setup you brought to the show at Las Vegas? I like the ability to swind 32" barrels.