Member postings for Raymond Griffin

PS. Sorry I foggy I have linked you with SK’s Leeuwenhoek project.

Ray G

Hello Ifoggy

The world of electron microscopy is fairly small and I wonder if our paths ever crossed? I was head of the electron microscope unit at Southampton General Hospital from the mid 1960’s until 1987. Then senior lecturer in electron microscopy and cellular pathology at the University of the West of England in Bristol from 1987 to 2000. Also a model engineer for most of the time. As you imply, the mechanics of electron microscopy and associated specimen preparation are mind boggling.

Your microscope project looks interesting. Good luck with it.

Apologies to other participants in this thread for going off piste.

Ray Griffin

I purchased a sheet from Polly Model engineering some years ago. Still using it. They have it in their catalogue but P.O.R. Great material for burners. Cuts easily with a fine saw.

Ray G.

Hi SillyOldDuffer, thanks for editing my photos. I am in a quandary about uploading photos to this site. My pictures are the correct way up in my computer. When I upload them to my album on the site they become rotated. I cannot see tools to get them correctly orientated’ so am stuck with it on my postings. Please can you advise on DIY rotations so that I don’t have to bother editors.

Ray G

Hi Rolster, I have just noticed that I am not in the photo that I posted. We will probably be easily recognizable as the only two people in the bar, with white hair.

Hi Robin, I use a Celestron 44302. It was purchase from Amazon. UK for £47 in 2012. Do not know if this model remains available. Perhaps they will have improved. Mine came with a little stand that was useless for my purposes. I made up a flexible arm from my odds box. See photo.

Hi Michael, as you say, the patience and skill of some people is astounding. I have a biography of Robert Hooke by Lisa Jardine. It is a very good read. Also, I went to the Museo Camillo Golgi at Pavia just before Covid struck us. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but to those of us studying the ultrastructure of cells and tissues a maestro. The curator invited me to use his drawing microscope, photo attached. Used to make the drawings of neurones and nerves that resulted in his Nobel prize. He must have had enormous patience and skill. It must have taken hours to make each drawing. I found it very difficult to produce anything resembling what I saw, although I have taken hundreds of photos using microscopes.

Ray G

As usual with this site my photos have been rotated. Apologies.

mod edit: photos fixed

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 15/09/2022 22:10:38

Hi Robin,

I attach some photos that I took this morning. I was using a cheap USB digital microscope from Celestron. The magnification range is 10X to 150X and the photos are of lowly resolution. I attach it to my computer and use the basic windows camera app. The microscope came with software that was more sophisticated and I believe that there is good software on the internet. The windows version is good for my purposes.

The pictures are low and higher power images. One is a new Swan Morton scalpel blade and the other the cutting edge of a microtome knife used to cut thin slices of tissue embedded in paraffin wax for microscopy. It is clear that the polishing of the cutting facet of the microtome knife is superior to the scalpel blade. I do not know if you require this level of “sharpness”.

In general terms the Celestron suites my purposes in the workshop. I would be wary of cheap devices offering enormous magnifications. High magnifications and good resolution cost a lot of money. I do have “proper” microscopes and use them often, but when it comes to a quick look at the finish on something from my lathe or milling machine the Celestron comes out. It is sufficient, quick to set up and use. With all microscopy, and photography, lighting is the key to good images and needs to be done properly. If I do have a gripe with the Celestron it is the ring of LSD’s around the lens. OK for most purposes but need supplementary side lighting on shiny metal.

Now and again, I think about replacing it with something giving higher resolution, but it needs a lot of research.

Ray Griffin

Hi Rolster, would you be able to meet up in Tourtour on Friday 16^th at 6.00pm? I suggest La Farigoulette, across the road from the Bar des Ormeaux. We will be on an outside table. Would this be suitable for you?

We have visitors, the week following.

Ray

Hi all,

I posted earlier in this thread regarding model engineering/ steam activities in my part of the South of France. Also noted the incredible friendly welcome that I received at my club. I failed to include, that this is in complete contrast to the indifferent welcome that I met in some clubs in the UK.

I have met and enjoyed talking to Simon the times when he visited our club exhibitions before Covid. He kindly made an ER collet holder by 3D printing for me, which has proved so useful. The gauge 1 steam railway of Chris Ludlow in his garden at Toulon deserves another mention, though Covid has stopped his annual international steam week ends.

At my club we are now planning our first exhibition since Covid, for February 2023.

I was attracted by the mention of Tourtour by Rolster. We went there yesterday (Friday) evening to enjoy a glass of local wine and admire the sunset. The village offers great views over the local countryside and splendid sunsets can be seen there. Tourtour is only 20 minutes away from Lorgues so it would be great if we could meet up. I have just finished my 1” Minnie traction engine and have now started making the Stuart models Williamson engine.

Cheers

Having followed this thread from Noel's first note, it seems that few go because they enjoy it.

I can understand Noel being keen to promote the show. Having seen him at past shows he has enormous enthusiasm and puts on a great and knowledgeable display of casting metal.

I go because I enjoy seeing the work of other model engineers. I like browsing on the trade stands and buying the pieces that are difficult in the post. I like the atmosphere of knowing that there are other likeminded enthusiasts present.

It will cost me more than a few pounds on fuel. I will have to take a flight with the attendant chaos of UK airports and the UK border, hire a car and stay in a hotel for a few nights. To my mind, it is very worthwhile, and I thank the organizers and participants of stands for taking the trouble to make sure that the show goes on.

I agree with the previous note about people barging about with backpacks. It’s bad enough with some people at airports and in aircraft.

Ray G

I have recently purchased a kit for the Williamson engine from Stuart models. I have the book from 1981 “Building the Williamson engine” by Tubal Cain but would also like to read and compare the articles that he wrote for ME in 1976. I believe that the articles were published in Model Engineer 1976 Vol. 142, numbers 3542-3548.

I remember reading them at the time but long ago disposed of old magazines. Please can anyone help me out with copies of the articles or point me in the direction of a searchable archive.

Many thanks Ray Griffin

Great to see the advances in taking 3D photos with a camera. My first attempts were very primitive. A piece of wood with stops at each end to limit the travel of the camera. Take a photo in one position, slide across and take the second.

I wondered if photos of the projector kit that I used in the 1970’s/ 80’s would be of interest. The first is a book published in 1982, that I found very useful. May be available today? The others are the Hawk Mk V1 projector that I used for lectures to people working in the specialities of anatomy and pathology. The projector was marketed by a company called Polaron in the UK who supplied consumables and equipment to us in laboratories specializing in electron microscopy. The projector has the look and feel of a custom-made item. The kit included over 100 pairs of polaroid glasses and a screen with a silvered surface. I also have a little device for aligning the photos in cardboard mounts. Good to see that this fascinating form pf photography continues to progress.

Ray

Mod Edit: rotated photo.

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 19/04/2021 13:28:07

A topical pair this time. I think that this is a diagrammatic representation of coronavirus, used in the 1980’s. It is now a bit grainy but used to look good projected. Right is top and left lower.

Sam, is Photoshop easy to use for pairing these images? Also, is it possible to colour one image red and the other blue/green; so that they can be viewed with coloured glasses on a PC? My projector polarises the images at 90°, and they are viewed on screen using polaroid spectacles. I cannot see how polarising could work on a monitor. Thank you for the paired images.

Raymond

PS Left is top and right is bottom

Another stereo pair showing blood vessel in kidney. I am having trouble deciding how to present these. My slides are bound up as pairs for projection. I take them apart and scan in the Nikon scanner. The one labelled right is on the right in my projector with the emulsion side facing the lens of the projector. Could be different when viewed as photos. Raymond

Another pair showing the JEOL JSM35 microscope that I used to take these stereo pairs. Please let me know if they are coming out well and how you are dealing with them. Ray G Top is right lower is left

Unable to find crystal as 3D pair, perhaps try this pair. Shows a white blood cell adhering to the wall of a blood vessel in scanning electron microscope. Photos labelled left and right. If it works, I can send others. Ray G Top is right lower left

I will look out some stereo pairs and post them. At present I use a stereo projector and polaroid glasses, all a bit clumsy. I will separate some pairs and put them through my Nikon Coolscan to preserve the resolution. It would be great if someone could come up with a simple way of getting them onto a computer. I think that it would need red and blue/green filters as I cannot see how polaroid separation could work on a PC.

A crystal in the urine of an individual with kidney disease. I took this in the 1980’s using a scanning electron microscope; so, may not be considered macro photography. Perhaps not as beautiful as some of the coloured photos already shown, but fascinating. At the time, I made 3D photos of normal and diseased tissues, which look amazing when looked at in a hand viewer or projected onto a screen. Hard to add 3D samples here.

Hi Brian, I don’t have the expertise to compare the relative merits of solder versus JB Weld. It seemed to me that the joints are not heated or highly stressed and are riveted. For me, joining metals with epoxy has always been successful provided that the resin is well mixed, the surfaces to be joined are roughened and that the components are kept warm to facilitate polymerization. I have seen other reports or flux residue causing corrosion.

Your wheels look nicely made. Ray