Jewelers spectacle magnifiers

[Faceting Frank]

Made up a makeshift jig for my digital microscope, to see if I could cut a few rows of facets, just using the computer screen to look at the stone. The object being to see if I could get all the meets right to such an accuracy that when looking through the 10x loupe they looked spot on.
That worked ok though it took three times as long to cut the stone and the facets were simple rectangular step cuts. Also, it was none reflective 1200 grit, the built-in light won’t work on polished or semi polished facets.

But it looks as though it’s going to be worth setting up some means of fitting it to my faceting machine. The picture of the steel ruler showing the 1mm increments is at its closest setting. I want to be 15mm from the stone surface, at that distance there would be 5mm across the screen and the focal range would be about 1.5mm deep. So, I’m going to have to have some accurate means of fine adjustment, to keep the scope exactly 90deg to the facet. 

[Pro-oz]

Looking good frank. I don't think I'll worry about getting my meets that accurate just yet, but may have a go at comp stones one day.
With the scope connected to a smart phone, would it be a quick and easy way of taking a good photo of the stone? You said it wouldn't be but now you have had a good play, what do you think?

[Faceting Frank]

No, it won’t be any good at taking photos of whole stones Prooz. The colours are all washed out and the overall quality of the picture isn’t up to much.

[FlashGP]

Hi Prooz

A microscope has too shallow a depth of field to be any good for taking photos of stones.  Only part of the stone will be in focus

If you use a camera you can get a decent depth of field using f22.

Depth of field is a CC measure of how much depth from the point of focus the subject is reasonably focussed

[Pro-oz]

Thank you FlashGP, appreciate any help. I have to get back to playing with the camera, for stone shots.

Cheers
Prooz

[Faceting Frank]

This is still work in progress.
Butchered up a flexible table lamp stand, but its not working. To rigid and has a "memory", that is it wants to slowly go back a bit over a short time.
So buying one of those flexible mobile phone stands and see how that goes.
This is not going to get me past the 1200 stage as its no use when there is any polish, but hoping it will reduce a lot of 10x eye work.

[MakkyBrown]

Hi Frank, my eyes are getting a hard time atm so looking for a solution. Found this

https://kano.me/row/store/products/webcam
55mm focus distance, 1080p and has a light, flex arm. Ticking a lot of boxes, back to looking. I am looking for macro webcams. fps might be low can't see mention of that.

MB

[Faceting Frank]

Hi Makky, looks good but it’s not saying much about itself. 
If you search “portable digital microscope” on YouTube nearly all the vids that come up are about the one I’ve bought. The problem I have to solve with it is to have it attached to something that is both easy to move and stay still when put in position. The table lamp stand I tried was way too stiff.
The flexible mobile phone stand looks good, so hoping it’s going to do the job.

[Faceting Frank]

Phone stand came in the mail Friday and have got the basics of it setup. Fitted it to the mast base so it moved along with the mast.
The rest position of the quill when looking at the stone is always in the same place, the only thing that changes is the quill is higher up the mast as the angle changes. So only have to alter the height and angle of the scope to suit.
The only problem with the phone stand is it takes a bit of time to get it in the right position to suit those row of facets being cut. Also, it wobbles from side to side when touched and takes a few seconds to settle down. So, going to fix the upright part of the stand to something ridged, so only the top bent bit flexes.
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[MakkyBrown]

My computer just crashed when replying. So this is the short version.
-good point mounting so it changes height when you raise/lower the faceting head.
-can I grab the link to the camera you got again I want to have a look.
-that photo you posted earlier showing the crown you were cutting is not bad.
-Your using it at the lowest magnification ?
-What is the distance(roughly) between stone and camera?
-maybe that small camera I found might work but concerned it doesn't have enough magnification.
-bigger the monitor you use the better.

MB

[Faceting Frank]

The link to this scope is on my second post.
The computer screen is 350mm wide and putting a ruler across the stone at my current distance of 25mm from the end of the scope puts 7mm on the screen. So that would make it 50 to 1. It is capable of greater magnification by getting closer, but it’s not practical. I will probably get further away from the stone because the focal length will increase. It’s very fiddly getting it in focus at 25mm.
I know I have a lot more to do with this to make it quick and efficient to set from one row of facets to the next, but for the moment will cut 18 triangular facets on the crown of this stone. It already has a faceted girdle and table and have cut the facets without bothering on meet points.
The plan being to cut all the facets at the 1200 stage and having to use the cheater and mast height adjustment to get 10x loupe standard meet points on every facet without using the loupe.

[MakkyBrown]

Thanks found it. Has 40x minimum. What is the furthest away from the stone you can focus on it ? Further away should hopefully improved the DOF.I have seen some microscopes that go as low as 10x, do you think it would be better having 10x as the the minimum, perhaps a range of 10-50x ?
MB

[MakkyBrown]

Just been having a look at Aliexpress, this seller has some interesting cameras.
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/video-microscope/2345154_513741182/2.html?spm=2114.12010612.8148361.1.5df31ae9HvKqYV&origin=n&SortType=orders_desc&g=y

[Faceting Frank]

Looked at those types of scopes Makky, but they all seem to have rigid sort of stands, don’t know how to fit it to the faceting machine. Haven’t tried to get any further away than about 40mm, the purpose being to get the meet points right.
This stone is a 12-sided cubic zirconia that I had already cut and polished the crown and girdle. I added 18 facets to it and finished cutting them with 1200 grit just using the computer screen to work with. The scope is 25mm from the stone and the stone is 11mm dia.
It’s very fiddly to work with the way I have it setup. Can’t turn the motor up very high as it makes the scope vibrate. Focusing is a pain because touching the scope makes it move. But overall, I like it and will make another setup on my machine that makes it easier to use.

[MakkyBrown]

I was thinking a fixed mount bolted to the faceting head assembly. Those aliexpress cameras look good and some would probably be good enough for gem photos. Most of the mounts have height adjustment, the mounts using chrome rods look pretty good but postage is too expressive on them, cheaper to make. Watching your progress with interest Frank.
MB