Home made bore scope?
- Thread starter BarryL
- Start date
Barry,
Borescopes look like they would be difficult to make, especially with typical garage equipment. We have one at work and it uses optical fiber to convey image from lens to eyepiece. Your biggest problem would be finding optical components small enough to fit a slender tube.
You may not need a lens at the bore end, but you'd need at least a quality prism. Then you'd have to sort out the problem of the interface between prism and fiber so that the image doesn't get jumbled. Super-pure epoxy is the typical solution,check out Epotek on the web) but keep in mind the index of refraction for the glue needs to be pretty close to that of the prism and fiber. At the other end, you'd need to interface the fiber to a lens. You'd have to work out the optics between this lens and whatever eyepiece you want to use with it. That only covers the viewing portion of the scope though. You'd need a duplicate fiber and prism for projection light into the bore too, since it's kinda dark in there and your little scope won't gather much light.
Now that I've thought about it, it's probably not that difficult to make one. It does seem, however, like the exercise might end up costing quite a bit. How much does a manufactured borescope cost?
Borescopes look like they would be difficult to make, especially with typical garage equipment. We have one at work and it uses optical fiber to convey image from lens to eyepiece. Your biggest problem would be finding optical components small enough to fit a slender tube.
You may not need a lens at the bore end, but you'd need at least a quality prism. Then you'd have to sort out the problem of the interface between prism and fiber so that the image doesn't get jumbled. Super-pure epoxy is the typical solution,check out Epotek on the web) but keep in mind the index of refraction for the glue needs to be pretty close to that of the prism and fiber. At the other end, you'd need to interface the fiber to a lens. You'd have to work out the optics between this lens and whatever eyepiece you want to use with it. That only covers the viewing portion of the scope though. You'd need a duplicate fiber and prism for projection light into the bore too, since it's kinda dark in there and your little scope won't gather much light.
Now that I've thought about it, it's probably not that difficult to make one. It does seem, however, like the exercise might end up costing quite a bit. How much does a manufactured borescope cost?
ballistic64
Silver $$ Contributor
Wolfdawg,have you used either of those scopes? Just like some feedback about them.
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