It may seem sacriligeous but...

Hi,

I've been following this forum for some time now and dabbling with various CNC bits but for a change I thought I'd try something slightly different: I've just bought a Japanese microscope from Ebay for 20 quid including postage (it arrived today, sunday - isn't Parcelforce wonderful) - no lenses but it's as solid as a very heavy solid brick, complete with orthogonal rack/pinion guides on three axes and thought that it may make a nice, if limited travel, CNC machine - Anyone out there tried something similar?

I've so far stripped it down to basics and removed the mirror/bottom light guide stuff leaving the Z barrel which has an internal diameter of 28.75mm and XY table, so without any metal bashing should be able to fit a mini-drill in there and maintain the intrinsic accuracy of the stages. It may not go anywhere, just putting down my marker and to encourage me for the future.

All the Best

Sounds like a good plan to me. . . Pics would be nice.!

Thanks for the response Jazz, I've just managed to find my camera under a pile of junk and of course the battery needs charging, hopefully some time this evening I'll get a piccie. By the by, as it stands the XY slide bits can travel 43x30mm, just right for a small (very) PCB.

Anyway, 1 pic attached showing the unit on delivery.
Attachment 6019

Hi Bodger,
I never thought of using the mecanics of a microscope! :-) Should have the precision I supose...
It won't have the power of a Brigy... But it should be OK for PCBs I guess ! :-)

Keep bringing the Pics!

RNR

Thanks for the reply rnr, it certainly has got the precision and made of very solid cast iron, I expect that any mini-drill I shove in the barrel wont be as precise as the rest of it but we live in hope. I expect to use it for CNCing small PCBs and it should be more than solid enough for that.

Just wondering if I've started a trend - I've had an Ebay bid on an even heavier microscope for several days (I pass by the vendors village every day so collection not a problem), sitting at £0.99 for the last week, suddenly the price has taken off, maybe I should've kept schtum for another day or two. Not my reason for buying the 'scope originally but if you compare the rigidity of low-cost aluminium mounts for mini pillar drills (50 quiddish)which cost considerably more against even a small microscope - they are worlds apart and one other benefit is that the (anvil?) can rotate 90 degrees making fitting of drill/accessories a lot easier than normal.

Will be interesting to see where the project takes us

Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by XYZbodger

Just wondering if I've started a trend - I've had an Ebay bid on an even heavier microscope for several days (I pass by the vendors village every day so collection not a problem), sitting at £0.99 for the last week, suddenly the price has taken off, maybe I should've kept schtum for another day or two.

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This site may interest you:

www.gixen.com

It's particularly useful for popular items since you can instruct it to bid on a list of items then stop when it wins one. Also good for if you're just going to be out/asleep when the item ends.

Thanks Jonathan, I'll look into it

Hi All,

Some first pics for what its worth

CheersAttachment 6028Attachment 6029Attachment 6030