Tag: stage

Not sure what happened to this poor thing

This is the stage from a smith, Beck and Beck Best microscope. I’m not sure what happened to the poor thing! The entire microscope (not just the stage) is covered in what appears to dirt and mould. However, it is not just dirt, it appears to be varnish encrusted with dirt and mould.

The substance is rock hard and takes a great deal of work to remove. I think the microscope was stored somewhere without a box, varnish or something similar has been spilled on it and dirt has fallen into the still-wet coating. At least that’s what it looks like. I have finished restoring most of the microscope, just the stage left to do.

I shall post a picture of the microscope when it is completed. I need to get on, I have two telecopes and two oher microscopes to do..

finished jug handled microscope

This lovely little Baker jug handled microscope came to me in need of repair. The coarse focus pinion was horribly bent and the mechanical stage was sticking. The paint on the handle and the chemically blackened stage were very worn and a small area of paint on the on the foot was badly chipped.

The pictures below show the microscope before and after repair. Paint work renewed, stage blackened, pinion straightened and stage “un-stuck.” Nothing was re-lacquered

Stage and paintwork

A customer has asked me to partially restore his microscope, a jug handled Baker. He has specified certain areas that he wants repaired as he wishes to conserve as much of the original paint as possible. He wants me to re-do several areas of the handle, an area on the foot, and the stage. The stage is a little stiff in one direction so the movement needs looking at too.

As you can see, I will also have to make a new pinion as the original pinion attached to the coarse focus is badly bent. Here’s the before photograph – let’s see what we can do! I’ll start by giving it a good clean as it is very dirty.