The $10 scanning electron microscope

[Bendba]

Hi,

Here is the story of a $10 SEM.

A few days ago, I was browsing eBay and checked my saved searches. One of which is for electron microscope,  hoping to find a few parts to build one, one day.

And I found a listing for "ISI 60 A scanning electron microscope", for $10. I first thought that they probably mistyped the price and forgot a few zeros.

Unfortunately, the photos of that listing didn't want to display. So I just jumped in the buy now button. What is there to lose for $10?

I had to ask for some photos, not really knowing what I just bought. Was it a mangled pile of microscope parts? Was it a microscope manual?...

No, it was this:



All the panels and covers are there, even if not on the photo.

Luckily, I had a friend in Sydney, where the microscope was, who gave me a hand to pick it up.

To my surprise, it seems very much complete, very clean. The oil tank for the diffusion pump is even still full of very clean oil.
And to top it off, I got handed a folder full of schematics and another with the full operation procedure.

The plans are not of the best quality, as they are photocopies of plan in Japanese. But it is still very helpful.



The microscope is still in transit as we had to drop it off half way up the trip, the trailer transporting it was required someplace else. But it should get home very soon.

I'll try to document as much as a can of the machine, what is going to need fixing, the setting up and some pictures.

____________________________________________________________

I'll keep a log of the events and expenses in this first post, of I can keep on modifying it:

05-06-2018: Purchase, $10
08-06-2018: Picking up the microscope and starting heading home.

[JS]

No way! But why!

Is it supposed to work as it is?

As you were planning for building one so I guess is a good thing either way.

JS

Enviado desde mi LG-M250 mediante Tapatalk

[Bendba]

It was working two years ago, they unplugged it and did nothing with it since.

I'm expecting to have to replace a few capacitors but that's about it.

Apparently, someone told them that there was no market for use SEM's so they were basically giving it away.

[JS]

Ohhh you lucky man, I wouldn't have where to put it nor real use for it but man, that's nice!

JS

Enviado desde mi LG-M250 mediante Tapatalk

[RoGeorge]

Winning the lottery looks easy peasy when compared to this, congrats! 

Can't wait to see it up and running.
Keep posting pics in the process, please.

[David Chamberlain]

You lucky SOB. Thats an amazing score even it it does not work

[Bendba]

Winning the lottery looks easy peasy when compared to this, congrats! 

Can't wait to see it up and running.
Keep posting pics in the process, please.

I know. I didn't think I'd ever see either happening, winning the lottery or have my own SEM. I guess the first one is still less likely to happen as I never buy tickets.

Will definitely post some photos.

You lucky SOB. Thats an amazing score even it it does not work

Well, even just the roughing pump was worth the hassle for that price. It runs but I didn't have a vacuum gauge to put on it to see how well it works.

[rhb]

Wow!

Get that working and you've got a high dollar consulting firm.

[Bendba]

That is in option I have considered, there might be a market for hiring time on the microscope.
The first two things I would want to do with it once I get it up and running is adding a digital image capture system and an x-ray spectrometer sensor.

[rhb]

You should be able to pick up work from smaller universities and keep your day job until it makes economic sense to switch over to doing it full time.  Students and professors  working on grants will be happy to wait on a longer turn around in exchange for lower cost.  And a long list of university clients will make good references.  But you've certainly got the right idea and an extraordinary bit of luck.  Have Fun!

[bitseeker]

Very cool, Bendba. I remember being fascinated as a kid by photos from SEMs. I guess the seller's lack of photos (or eBay's random bugs that broke them) worked in your favor.

Looking forward to seeing it up and running and what you first scan in it.

[CatalinaWOW]

So who says the only good deals are in the USA?  Congratulations on a great buy, and best of luck in getting it up and running.  Should be fun no matter how it turns out.

[David Chamberlain]

Well you've posted about it here now so your legally not aloud to do anything less than follow through with some crisp images of silicon artwork.

[Mukrakiish]

Well you've posted about it here now so your legally not aloud to do anything less than follow through with some crisp images of silicon artwork.

[In Vacuo Veritas]

Where can I send gold-plated houseflies and other crawlies?

[Kleinstein]

If the diffusion pump is running with oil and no Hg this is a good sign. At university they where disposing off an SEM that still worked with Hg based pumps and quite some glass  materials - quite some hassle with that.

The system looks really old, judging from the rather small screen. Still an old SEM is still much better than no SEM.

AFAIK the market for used old SEMs is in deep not that great - quite a few application turned to AFM / STM, which are are more compact. SEMs are not that special and large instruments. So many universities do have a more more modern one or two.

[Bicurico]

You should be able to pick up work from smaller universities and keep your day job until it makes economic sense to switch over to doing it full time.  Students and professors  working on grants will be happy to wait on a longer turn around in exchange for lower cost.  And a long list of university clients will make good references.  But you've certainly got the right idea and an extraordinary bit of luck.  Have Fun!

This SEM is to a modern microscope like a 8086 CPU is to an Intel Core i7.
It will have a much lower resolution, lots of issues like aberrations, etc.
No university is doing any research on such an old device, at least in first world countries.

Also, bear in mind that the pump may not produce the required vaccuum anymore, the CRT may be worn out, etc. Don't underestimate the dangers of such an equiment: toxic fluids and components, leaking x-ray, mechanical failure, etc.

Finally, it takes a lot of knowledge and experience to correctly and efficiently use a SEM.

So please don't get hopes to high making any profit with this machine.

None of this is denying the coolness of owning such a device and what a great buy it was. I pretty much would have liked to score such a deal!

Regards,
Vitor

[james_s]

None the less, I'm sure it's going to perform better than anything a hobbyist could reasonably build from scratch. Unless it's been totally trashed, the vacuum system alone is worth many times the purchase price of the whole system.

[Bicurico]

No doubt about that.

I just wanted to point out that a 30+ years old SEM is not performing anywhere near a modern SEM. Plus there has been other microscopy technologies available, which perform even better.

For a hobbyist this is a dream, but not an impossible one. You can get more recent ones at eBay for less than 5000 USD and with some chances that they might still work.

The biggest hurdle for a hobbyist is probably the required space and running costs.

By the way, you can book time in a modern lab with SEM for around 100 to 200 Euro per hour, including a trained technician that operates it. But you need to specify the purpose. It has to legal...

[Bendba]

Hi all,

thanks for the interest in this find. Unfortunately, I am working away for a couple of weeks at a time so the news will be far between.
Hopefully, I will be setting it up next time I am home and try the go over the power supplies, check capacitors and such to make sure it is safe to plug in.

I don't know about universities but I am sure there are a few people out there that would be interested to have access to a SEM. I am not really looking at making a living out of it of course. If I did, I would spend a few tens of thousands and get a more recent microscope.

I already have a few idea of things to put in it (I don't yet know what will have the honour of being first) but I will need to spend a bit of time on building a digital acquisition board before doing too much, as well as a metal deposition system (I haven't decided which system to use yet.) I will of course use it with the analogue display and take photos of that but the quality of photos might to be the best. I'll see if I can fit a DSLR to the second picture screen.

I would have liked to get a mercury diffusion pump, they can be made safe to use. And the mercury can be cleaned and recycled. Oil cost is probably going to be a factor in how much I will be able to use it.

Well you've posted about it here now so your legally not aloud to do anything less than follow through with some crisp images of silicon artwork.

Could you please refer me to the article of the terms and conditions in question?

It's on the list, I have an old ceramic 27C256 EPROM and some processors ready for decapsulation.



In the meantime, here is a different kind of microscopy:









I started pulling a broken projector apart. After ripping out the nonsense electronic and being left with the power supply, fans and optics (minus the LCD's and polarisers), I was wondering what to do with it.
I eventually worked out which wires were turning on the Mercury lamp and stuck a microscope slide where one LCD was and bingo, a projecting microscope.
The magnification is x180 on these photos. With a bigger room, it can probably get better, gotta see when there start to be too many aberrations.

[Wolfram]

For the diffusion pump, you probably want a non-silicone based oil to avoid depositing silica on the electrodes. I know silicone oils (polypehenyl polymethyl trisiloxane, i.e. DC-702, DC-704, DC-705 and equivalents) are not recommended for mass spectrometers but I don't know how critical it is for this generation of electron microscopes. That leaves old ester based oils (Octoil etc., cheap but prone to oxidation) and the polyphenyl ethers (Santovac 5, fancy and expensive but pretty much indestructible). If there already is oil in the diffusion pump, don't throw it out in case it is Santovac, this stuff often lasts longer than the pumps it's used in.