Rebuilding 1878 With-Browning Telescope

[bloodhound31]

My humble apologies Roger and Ron,

I have only ever seen one instrument by Browning here in my mud hut.....my world is still flat.

Baz

[Roger Davis]

No, you're not in flatland, nor in a mud hut.
I've been doing this kind of thing for too long and just love getting my hands dirty on old instruments. For example I had a lovely old pair of large WWII binoculars brought in by their owner for work. The original restorer would have been Arthur Geddes (one of the co-founders of York Optical back in 1949 and a good friend and mentor, sadly passed away some years back), but apparantly taken somewhere else for a clean. The owner still couldn't see through them. I don't know who did the repair/collimation, but I had to remove all the prisms and clean them, plus remove of the field lenses of the RH eyepiece which had a huge thumbprint on it It came up well in the end with the culprits thumbprint removed. Mind you I did get a picture of the offending thing. (Sorry about the quality of the bino pic, but my phone camera has a damaged lens [must do something about that!])
Best restoration to date has been a 4" Cooke Troughton & Simms which is shown below.

[bloodhound31]

Coming along.... You should check out Ron's site! http://www.antiquescopes.com/Restoration.aspx
I just had a good read through it all last night. What a story is emerging.

Baz.

[bloodhound31]

Today's work...

[kinetic (Steve)]

Hi Barry,

Seeing images of the restoration work almost had me drooling!
What beautiful attention to detail you have put in.
I just love looking at old instruments like this , they
look so special with the brass all polished up like you have done.

I once restored a family heirloom sextant and compass and your
photos took me back

I had to make a few fine brass threads and pins and I restored
most of the old polished hardwood case to new again.
I can pm some pics If you like.
The hardest part is coating all the brass with something to
stop it tarnishing that doesn't feel gluggy or interfere with fine
tolerance moving parts.
I borrowed a book from the library and learnt how to use it but
I found my latitude to within 4 nm . If I was a captain I'd
probably have the ship on the rocks

I would love to restore an old scope.
I want to make a full scale version of the Isaac Newton scope you see
in my Avatar but I can't turn wood that big on my lathe for the tube.
The gold looking miniature scope you see in the other flashing Avatar is
the brass miniature Dad made for my 21st birthday cake
He had it gold plated to stop it tarnishing so quickly .

Thanks for sharing the progress with us all,

regards,
Steve B.

[bloodhound31]

Thanks guys, here's a few more teasers after the new work has been added...

http://i36.tinypic.com/5nrak1.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/30tmo7s.jpg
http://i33.tinypic.com/2rm2wlt.jpg
http://i35.tinypic.com/2uhbjmo.jpg

[DobDobDob (Ron)]

Hey Baz, the WSAAG boys will be drooling the first time I take this to Mt. Linden, shouldn't be much longer now

[Ric]

Wow Baz, that scope has come up a treat. It looks as new as the day it was built.

A fine bit of restoration.

[bloodhound31]

Originally Posted by tailwag

Hey Baz, the WSAAG boys will be drooling the first time I take this to Mt. Linden, shouldn't be much longer now

Well, at least it will be well lubricated....

Originally Posted by Ric

Wow Baz, that scope has come up a treat. It looks as new as the day it was built.

A fine bit of restoration.

I am no artist mate, but I gave it a go......thanks.

[bloodhound31]

Here's todays work...my poor hands.....

[Satchmo]

Baz , I wondered about what had been involved in restoring the coating on the mirrors. This would be a challenging task to remove any remaining old coating ( silver ? ) without damaging the original optical figure of such an old historical mirror.

[DobDobDob (Ron)]

Gee the mount looks great Baz!

[bloodhound31]

Originally Posted by Satchmo

Baz , I wondered about what had been involved in restoring the coating on the mirrors. This would be a challenging task to remove any remaining old coating ( silver ? ) without damaging the original optical figure of such an old historical mirror.

It wasn't challenging to remove the old silver at all. Ron got it off very easily.

[DobDobDob (Ron)]

The decision to resurface was made, we found a company to do it and the job was done. The original surface was pretty poor, so redoing it meant we could actually use the telescope to some degree, this makes it both an historic item as well as usable piece.

[Satchmo]

Ron, Do you mean it was reground / repolished and has a new optical surface figure?

[DaveGee (Dave Gault)]

Originally Posted by Satchmo

Ron, Do you mean it was reground / repolished and has a new optical surface figure?

Hi Mark,

The mirror was recoated only by Isaac. I took it to him myself, along with a 10"f6 I made.

Regards
DaveGault

[DobDobDob (Ron)]

Thanks for answering Dave

[Satchmo]

Originally Posted by bloodhound31

It wasn't challenging to remove the old silver at all .... Was it Ron?...

Guys, do you think you managed to get the old silver off without damaging the optical figure /surface of the mirror?. I'd really like to look through this scope out of historical interest.

[bloodhound31]

Originally Posted by Satchmo

Guys, do you think you managed to get the old silver off without damaging the optical figure /surface of the mirror?. I'd really like to look through this scope out of historical interest.

What makes any of you think you are ever going to see this telescope alive ever again? I'm not giving it back! NO! You can't make me! Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

[bloodhound31]

All Done.