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Please when asking about parts availability I need the best description you are able to give. I need a photo of the instrument, photo of the part or where a missing part goes, the make, the model if known, any thing you can tell me to be able to see if I have the part in question. Any threaded parts, screws knobs leveling screws I need the diameter of the thread and the pitch (the number of threads per inch) It is best to have a machine shop measure threads for you.  About level vials, I need the inside diameter of the tube it fits into, the free length inside the tube both to with in the nearest thousands of a inch, and the length of the window in the tube. Also the desired sensitivity. Also all measurements need to be in thousands of a inch and fractions are of no use, please do not use them, NO metric measurements either. This will save me time when looking for a part as well as having to email back and forth, it will save us both frustration. I spend at least a half hour and sometimes spend hours looking through parts while trying to find what you may need and exchanging Emails. I am pleased to try and find a part for you but please respect my efforts to do so. I have right now the 1st of September 19 parts or part assembles sitting on my one workbench which probably on average I have spent at least a half hour with locating each of them, the correspondence back and forth with a price quote, maybe with photos, and I never hear back. Some of those parts have been set aside for a year, but it seems the number never changes. Today 29th of March 2022 are 21 parts on the bench from this last month with no order for them. That is roughly between 5 t0 12 hours of effort to find them plus emails back and forth. It is not good to not respond after I let you know I have the needed part.  The instrument parts I have in most cases are not available anywhere else. Please be serious about wanting parts. Often the price I charge is for some of my time and UPS shipping not the part, I try hard to be fair. I don't like wasting my time!!!!! This is not a hobby!

The parts I have are separated by make when known, but only about .001% are labeled as to part number. That is why I need the information above and the consideration.. 

Please understand that most all the parts are prior to 1980, they may not interchange or need to be fitted. The older parts from before around 1920 were made one at a time most often from a rough sand casting and basically finished by hand. That was true of most of the early makers. They also did not have screw cutting lathes to cut threads and used a thread chaser that was used as you would shape a piece of wood in a wood lathe held by hand on a rest. The taps and dies they made or had made to their specifications and often threads do not interchange and the parts do not always interchange. What you may have learned in school about interchangeability of parts was only a partial truth. When a company offered interchangeable parts it was only for their products made to their gages with their tooling. In the 1890's the railroads started thread standards, but only for the railroads needs. The instrument makers did not need to adopt any standards. Standard threads were not used until the 1930's and 1940's. During WWI measuring tools and gages were standardized, but again the instrument makers just kept doing what they were doing until the 1930's and some Government standards were required. WWII came along and things changed and most everything was then made to standard measurements. There are exceptions to that especially in thread sizes.

 

Email is: robert@antiquesurveying.com

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