Leitz 170mm TL conversion to 160mm TL conversion

[henryr]

In 2015 I posted about my effort to convert my Dialux 170mm TL scope to 160mm TL. The reason for the conversion was I bought the 170mm TL Dialux stand with no head, eyepieces or objectives and I had 160mm eyepieces and objectives. So I bought a Leitz 160mm trinocular head and started working on the conversion.

The conversion was completed in late 2015 and I thought I would share how it was done. Below are a few photos and details of the conversion.

Since the Leitz 160mm TL trinocular head was made for 160mm TL microscope stands it seemed obvious that I needed to know the dimensional differences between 170mm TL and 160mm TL stands. And it seemed a key difference might be the dimension from the stand's head mounting surface to the turret objective mounting surface.

I knew that the dimension of my Dialux 170mm TL was 40.19mm, so I needed to know the dimension of a Leitz 160mm TL scope. I posted that question on a few microscope forums and got the following replies: "Dialux 22-EB, Laborlux S, are both 47mm" and "Leitz collectors assured me that the 47mm dimension from the top surface to the face of the turret objective mounting surface that the head rests on are a general feature for all the small white 160 mm stands w/o tube lenses, including the Dialux 20".

Those answers made it clear that only an approximately 7mm spacer was needed between the head and the surface it rests on. It worked out well and images look pretty good. And this is how I arrived at the final spacer thickness: 47mm - 40.19mm = 6.807mm = .268". Below are some related photos. And has anyone else done this type of conversion?

Thanks,
henryr