Service and Repairs for Olympus BH2 Microscopes
If, despite the resources available on this site, you do not feel qualified to undertake the servicing required to make your BH-2 a pleasure to use once again, please contact me. I do not want potential BH-2 owners to be discouraged from buying one of these scopes, just because they are not on a first-name basis with a screwdriver! I have serviced BH-2 scopes for many hobbyists (at very low cost to them), as well as for professional microscopists. Plenty of people have sent their scopes (or parts thereof) to me for service, or had their ebay purchases directly shipped to me for service.
I recently serviced a BHS scope for a professional microscopist (author) who was complaining of terrible hysteresis in the fine focus. After he got his scope back, he told me that he didn’t realize how bad off his BHS was, until after I had serviced it. When I tore his scope down, I found (as expected) that the elevation gearbox was nearly completely seized, and that the rest of the moving parts were not much better off. All of this was of course due to degradation of the grease in the focus mechanism and focus block. It had clearly been way more than eight years since this scope had been properly serviced! The dysfunction had slowly crept in, unnoticed by him, over the decades, until one day his trusty BHS become unusable. After the service, his scope was once again a pleasure to use. Without a doubt, there is a night-and-day difference between a typical BH-2 scope that has not been serviced in many years, and that same scope after it has been completely disassembled, the old grease thoroughly removed, and the whole thing reassembled with fresh grease. You can rest assured that if your scope is serviced by the Empire of Dirt Workshop, this is the level of service you will receive.
I don’t shoot Marvel Mystery Oil into the stiff parts and work it around to loosen it up. That is a temporary remedy, at best. At the end of the day, THIS IS A HOBBY FOR ME! Time is not money at the Empire of Dirt Workshop. I do this for enjoyment, and for the satisfaction of helping others. If I spend six or eight hours hunched over the workbench in my basement hell-hole, making your scope a pleasure to use once again, that’s a fun weekend for me! That’s exactly what I like to do. I do not do this to make money. Believe me when I tell you the “make-money” horse has left the barn long ago, and can never find its way back again.
As an example. a complete service on a BHT/BHTU scope would include disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly with fresh grease of the following components:
- Coaxial Focus Mechanism
- Sliding Focus Block
- Substage Assembly
- Nosepiece Turret
- Electronics (re-cap and re-solder any fractured solder joints)
- Viewing Head (binocular or trinocular)
- Field Diaphragm (if necessary)
- DPlan, A, or E Objectives, clean the spring tips
Can You Help Me Service My Own BH2 Microscope?
There are a ton of resources on this site to help you repair your BH2. But if you plan on servicing your own Olympus BH2 scope, I can offer no better advice than to get yourself a good set of JIS-compatible screwdrivers. I cannot stress this enough! Most of the screws used in the BH2 scopes are either Allen-head or JIS-head screws. There are no plain old Phillips-head screws, but this fact is not at all obvious to the casual observer. Unless you look very closely, the two screw types appear the same.
Does this really matter? I have a motto: “You can use a proper JIS-compatible screwdriver, or you can use a Phillips screwdriver and then a drill press, to get JIS fasteners out.” If you plan on working on BH2 equipment, do yourself a favor and get yourself a decent set of JIS-compatible screwdrivers. Old-school Phillips screwdrivers are a disaster when used with JIS screws!
Even when using the proper JIS screwdrivers, it’s still a good idea to seat the driver bit in the head of the screw and give the driver a quick whack with a soft-faced mallet, for luck, before loosening the screws. Olympus really liked to put thread-locking adhesive on all of their fasteners.
How can you tell if a given cross-point screw needs a JIS driver? Look carefully at the screw head. JIS screws can usually (but not always) be identified by the presence of a single dot, or by an “X”, stamped into one of the four quadrants of the cross-point depression (see image below).
The Japanese cross-point screws commonly referred to as “JIS” screws were made to the now obsolete JIS B 4633 standard. Subsequently, a screwdriver made to this standard will work the best on these JIS fasteners. But good luck finding a real “JIS B 4633” screwdriver these days. There are very few manufacturers still making screwdrivers to this obsolete standard. The DIN 5260-PH standard (which has an identical tip to ISO 8764-1) was created to be compatible with both JIS and Phillips screws. Subsequently, quality drivers conforming to the DIN 5260-PH standard will do a good job with both types of fasteners. Will a real JIS driver work better with JIS fasteners than a DIN 5260-PH driver? Almost certainly. Will a quality DIN 5260-PH driver work well enough with JIS screws? Yes, for all but the most stubborn screws.
So, having said all of that, what drivers should you get? Hozan makes a set of drivers that are advertised as JIS. These are reasonably priced drivers but are probably not the best choice for heavy-duty or commercial usage. The set that I bought seems to be real JIS drivers, and not the newer DIN 5260-PH drivers. But as always, your mileage may vary.
Rumor has it that Sunflag still makes real JIS drivers (look for their 888 and 215-P series), but I don’t believe Sunflag tools are distributed in the US. Moody also still makes JIS drivers in the very small sizes.
The Japanese tool company Vessel (who made the first JIS screwdrivers in the early 1950s) makes their Megadora cross-point drivers to the DIN 5260-PH European standard and, although significantly more expensive than Hozan, are excellent drivers. Vessel also makes a 4-piece impact bit set that contains +2, +3, and +4 JIS-compatible bits.
From the Vessel Tool Website
“As you might know, VESSEL is the oldest screwdriver manufacturer in Japan, and made a contribution to set a Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) standard. We do follow JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) standard for cross point screwdrivers. Because the technology to manufacture screwdrivers in Japan had already become above a certain level, JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) recognition system for screwdrivers became extinct in 2008. So there is no authorized JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) manufacturer now, and we therefore cannot print “JIS” mark on our screwdrivers.”