Microscope for cartridge inspection

I’m lucky, I live only 35 minutes away from VAS, they check them in seconds.

I bought an inexpensive USB microscope, says max 1000x.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SR7YPV5?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1

Has built in dimmable light (you need light without glare), and 2 hand tightened ball joints

You need a stand to hold it still and precise movement, this was the best I could get of my friend’s Soundsmith tip for a Grace F9 Ruby 

Some can take pics, if you remember the software and how to use it. If a button on the scope, you might shake it pressing the button. That is a SCREENSHOT pic on a windows pc, so you only press the keyboard buttons: hold the windows symbol key (bottom left side) and the ’Prt Sc’ (print screen, top row, right side) key at the same time.

Find: in ’pictures’ folder, a sub-folder named ’screenshots’. Open it, it’s the entire screen: crop only the part you want to save so it’s bigger to view. Rename it, move it wherever.

This cheap one, movement is not precise, you diddle till you get lucky, or, one trick is to move the stylus precisely by putting layers of thin paper below it, moving it incrementally closer to the scope which stays where it was. Tedious, but if not willing to buy something more professional, 

I thought the tip was damaged, turned out the aluminum cantilever is cracked just inside the rubber of the suspension (can't see it, but it had become a low rider and felt funny (my friend broke it, no getting away from the truth) Steve is changing it to a MicroRidge on Boron, it was a darn good sounding cartridge, ought to be terrific.

USB microscopes are fine for checking VTA/SRA, but to look at a stylus you really need a good optical microscope, and there you pay for quality! I was lucky when the hospital lab bought a new Leica they gave me their old binocular Olympus. I used it for years to do urine microscopy and hanging drop slides, but now it has a new lease on life!

I’ve got an Olympus too, picked up from NIH surplus. It’s not ideal because of limitations on near object focus, but good enough for my needs.

Post pics of what your device shows, and links to the device, the results reveal what we can’t perceive from words.

I really could not visualize what 1000x would look like, and how close it needs to get, and the short focus distances are hard to imagine.

you need light all around without shadows, and angles to avoid glare

....................

mine, as I said, is cheap. I just bought it to learn something about how decent cheap ones have become, the pic shows it.

check specs carefully, the top one, not disparaging it, but the plastic lens gives 510x, it is 3x digital that magnifies that to higher numbers, now it might be terrific, but I want to see a pic of what you see before I choose/buy it..

A really high quality microscope is essential for determining wear on the tip of a stylus.  It also takes practice to develop proficiency.  I am blessed to have two old, but excellent microscopes, both Wild-Herrbrugg, an M3 and an M5.  The M5 is superior, but they both are excellent.  To use them properly you need to mount the stylus underneath the lens so that the tip of the stylus is facing straight up.  I use Silly Putty, but whatever it is important to ensure that the stylus is firmly planted such that it will not move.  Excellent light is important.  I found a ring of LED lights that clamp to the microscope work better than the two arm arrangement that I used to use.  As I key this message I am in NH, but when I return to our home in FL week after next where this equipment is housed I will set it up, take some photos and post them here if I can figure out how to do so.