Removing Reticles (1 Viewer)

Today I plucked up the Dutch courage to twist off the eyepiece from my current Swedish military Habicht with reticle. The Reticle was a fun novelty at first, but now I desire reticle free viewing.

I can say that the torque required to remove that right eyepiece by hand was unbelievable. I could guess the NM...it was crazy. I have the hands of a gorilla and i had nothing left to give. These are obviously IF. On my fourth or fifth attempt I lay them flat on a bench top with eyepiece overhanging, and gave it absolutely everything. I was bellowing like a soviet shot putter as I untwisted the thing. It finally budged. Then undid smoothly. The reticle protruded about three mil from the rest of the eyepiece housing, so I tweaked it out smoothly with some Swiss army small pliers. All went back together straight away smoothly.

I did the procedure quickly but the humidity was 60% but cool....so, as an experiment, we'll see how the right side goes. It is perfect right now.

Now I have a fresh clean view. Just beautiful. Stunning.

I also did this to my Chinese mil IF bins before turning them into monoculars for the kids (they loved them!). Same simple reticle removal procedure..but reticle was a bit rougher to remove.

Anybody done the same thing?

Cheers
Rathaus

Check this -

Here is an example of a polished (it was worse) recently removed current day Chinese reticle with a Swarovski reticle, both glass sides up. Guess which is which. Though virtually invisible here, the Swarovski reticle presented a stronger cross hair with markings etc when mounted in the binocular.

Thanks Rathaus, I have a couple of binoculars with reticles, and have often thought about removing them, you have motivated me to have a go.

Hi,

congratulations on the successful surgery... my Hensoldt 8x30 also still have the recticle and also it's not straight in mine... but I'll get a strap wrench.

Joachim

Rath - Removing reticles can be difficult without the proper tools and a little bit of experience. My experience is with the Swiss army 8x30 IF (five times) and a Celestron 8x30 IF. (1 time). Of the two, the Celestron was the easiest because the Celestron reticle housing is secured by three screws. Remove those and just lift the housing off. Also, the Celestron, being a roof model is easy to put in a vice without marring.

My technique is this. Use a secure, large table vice. Get some thick neoprene pieces to cushion the jaws. This requires careful placement of the Swiss army model to avoid marring. It is an awkward piece to hold, and if using only your hands with a strap wrench, almost impossible for ordinary folks to hold while rotating the strap wrench.

I use a hair blow dryer to warm up the area once the binocular is secure. (carefully) That causes some expansion of the threads and body and makes breaking the ocular housing easier.

Both the Swiss army and Celestron oculars twist counter-clockwise, thank God.

My first experience with a reticle was with a Zeiss Dialyt 8x30 IF when they began to market them is the US. It arrived with the reticle in place, much to my surprise because Zeiss hadn't advertised that special feature. At first it was a novety, but then it became irritating. So I sent it back to Zeiss for removal, which they did without cost to me other than the initial mailing. Zeiss even sent the reticle back for unknown reasons since I have found no use for it other than to show friends the precision of the whole piece.

But my first Swiss army reticle removal was frustrating to say the least. Hand holding only proved it wasn't the way to go. Eventually a fellow BF member contacted me for advice, which was pretty shallow actually. He was an advanced scholar type with access to special tools. He mailed me a special metal tool he made which takes the place of a strap wrench, and that made everything much easier for subsequent removals. I lost his address and never thanked him, so this is a belated apology to him.

We live and we learn.

John

Note that depending on the refractive properties of the reticle glass, removing it can shorten focal lengths necessitating the focus adjustment be screwed down deeper than previously.

LPT said:

Note that depending on the refractive properties of the reticle glass, removing it can shorten focal lengths necessitating the focus adjustment be screwed down deeper than previously.

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Hi LPT et al.:

Refractive properties are not the only bugbears, as thickness is also to be considered. Of course, most are very thin and within thousandths of each other, manufacturer to manufacturer. Yet, some are so close to the observer's limit of accommodation, the difference MIGHT be enough to cause a focus problem.

Just a thought; I'll crawl back in my hole, now.

Bill

I didn't do a pre and post test on whether the markings on the diopter changed after the reticle was removed. All three, the Zeiss, Swiss army, and Celestron, did focus normally. If the focal plane moved slightly, ought not the focus adjustment be able to accommodate that?

John

John Dracon said:

I didn't do a pre and post test on whether the markings on the diopter changed after the reticle was removed. All three, the Zeiss, Swiss army, and Celestron, did focus normally. If the focal plane moved slightly, ought not the focus adjustment be able to accommodate that?

John

Click to expand...

In a well thought out bino, yes. However, a goodly number of binos discussed on the various bino sites, these days, do not fit that category. The chances all will work out well are very, very good. But, because there is a chance it won't, I thought it was worth the mention.

Cheers,

Bill

John Dracon said:

I didn't do a pre and post test on whether the markings on the diopter changed after the reticle was removed. All three, the Zeiss, Swiss army, and Celestron, did focus normally. If the focal plane moved slightly, ought not the focus adjustment be able to accommodate that?

John

Click to expand...

No problems to report on rhe Swarovski either.