Scherr-Tumico Optical Comparator - ID and Manual Needed

[comstockfriend]

The boss had this Scherr-Tumico Optical Comparator follow him to work last year for the nominal consideration of $ 50. After gathering dust for a while he has gotten interested in it again and asked purchasing for a instruction manual for it. Scherr-Tumico ( Optical Comparators) says it is too old for them to identify and support (as I'm the guy that takes care of our old crap, I find that an bad answer!)

Anyway, even if Scherr-Tumico can't ID it, can some of you gents take a stab at it??? I'm assuming this is a WWII era 14" unit.



Any manuals floating about in cyber space???

John

 

[comstockfriend]

Oh, and the serial number on the tag (model number???) is 2876

John

 

[Pete Deal]

Funny I have the same one and also paid $50 for it. I don't have any sort of manual for it though.

 

[comstockfriend]

It's a lot of tool for $ 50 bucks, but at the moment it's a boat anchor...

John

 

[CarbideBob]

It's a 14 vertical.
Was sold up through the 80's.
Uses the same lenses as the 14 inch horizontal.
Not much need for and instruction manual.
The glass the part sits on has jacking screws, get it running flat.
You remove the screen to clean the mirror but on this model the mirror stays clean fairly well.
Do not use windex and a paper towel to clean the mirror.
Use foaming glass cleaner and let it run off, repeat as needed and maybe very lightly wipe with cotton balls.
Streaks are ok on the mirror as the are out of the focus of the optics.

If you remove the glass you will have to realign the cross hairs.
Keep track of how far you back out the set screws on the ring.
Align the zero as close as possible to the scale which has a small amount of movement on it's own.
Rotate 90, 180, 270 looking a at point and shift the screen in the ring to align north, south, east, and west so the cross hair is centered in the ring rotation.
If you use overlays, screw charts or such you also should check the mag in each quadrant but the mirror alignment on this machine is failrly tolerant of the machine being moved.

The bulbs for the lamphouse up top are not easy to get but you can find them on E-bay.
Do not play with the lamp mounting screws unless you want a lot of work getting it back right.

Handy things, even out of calib. they will do great measuring using the mic heads.
Downside is they measure through the glass on the stage so they pass a bit less light and it's easy to scratch the glass when sitting parts on it so make sure the parts are clean.
On the lamphouse is a slide lever for a light stop, stop this down as much as possible when working with round parts. It reduces the off axis light rays that produce fuzzy edges.

I'm hoping you have fiqured out how the up/down, in/out, side to side and mic turret works already.
Pictures may be deceiving but your mic turret looks all wrong, This should be checked using gauge blocks or pins.
Each index should be right on a inch and new they will nail this within a tenth.
I don't like to use it much as it is easy for dirt to mess you up, I pull the stage, gently insert a gauge block and wiggle it.
Your's looks cocked in the picture.
Bob

 

[comstockfriend]

Scherr-Tumico came through. T. Larson of the tech department ID'd it from my photos and had a pdf version for this Model 1500 ("The comparator is obsolete but we have still have some parts depending on what you need").

Pete, I'll try to send you a pm...

John

 

[Rick Finsta]

So I just got gifted one of these and it is outfitted (retrofitted?) with an Ehrenreich Photo-Optical Industries Model 2-645P Digital Readout and Boeckler 9300-1 Digital Positioners. I was getting signal on one but not the other when I first plugged everything in, now neither is reading reliably. I've got the oscilloscope hooked up as the positioners look to have simple optical gate wheel setups in them and built-in VR conditioners. I don't want to waste too much time but it would be nice to have this thing to use. Worst case it has the backlighting option as well so it will make for a nice microscope. VR circuits needed a tuneup and now both are looking good but the head unit won't register movement.

Regardless, anyone know of anywhere that will service something like this? Looks like EPoI was purchased by Nikon in the 60s so who knows how old this thing is.

 

[TGTool]

Regardless, anyone know of anywhere that will service something like this? Looks like EPoI was purchased by Nikon in the 60s so who knows how old this thing is.

No immediate help, but if you share your location it might help focus on possible service companies.

 

[Rick Finsta]

I'm in SE Wisconsin but assumed I'd have to ship it.

 

[winger]

I think I paid $50 for mine, obsoleted by the plant I worked in. Vertical screen type. 3 lenses, 2 of which reflect upside down on the screen. Used it a few times to measure tiny thread pitch with only 1 or 2 threads left on. Originally had a digital but the readout box was gone when I got it.
At least it doesn't use the super expensive bulbs the J&L s do.
Don't really need it but it sits in the corner.

Guess they are cheap.

Dave