i am about to make a video tearing down a Hitachi S-800 scanning electron microscope (SEM) from 1988, this will be the biggest and most expensive thing i have made a video on and it's really quite exciting...
Normally i don't post up until i make a video but in this case i am and i will attach a few pics here before i start. The microscope is not complete and doesn't work so what i want to do is make a video on it all and once i have recouped my expenses from buying and shipping it (probably by selling the main diffusion pump) i want to give away some of the other parts. Because there are so many things in it that might be extremely useful and very hard to obtain if your doing high vacuum stuff as a hobby.
So i have the actual microscope part (the main control panel was sadly scrapped before i saw it so i only have the 'science' element of it), but this does include most of the high vacuum parts like the main chamber with several feed-through things, electron gun, beam scanning and focusing column & a large diffusion pump (Branded Daia, 700 Watt, 570L/s), two small and one large (23kg!) ion pump(s). There is a ton load of other bits like pneumatic actuators, valves, sensors and the secondary electron & x-ray detectors. The main chassis could be useful as it's a very solid steel frame with rubber isolators for the main column so could make a great starting point for a vacuum system.
Before i start taking things apart and making the video, what items should i NOT do a (coining Mike's phrase here) 'extreme teardown' on or which items should i be careful with because they might be useful for other experimenters and high vacuum fanboys?
I'd love to take it all to many, many bits but i guess i might get lynched if i do end up destroying something particularly useful
i should point out that although some of the bits will be free, i will ask you cover cost of postage and most of those parts are extremely heavy and may not be suitable to post. To give you some idea the whole thing must be getting on for 1/4 ton!