Cleaning Sand From Binocular (1 Viewer)

Well, a beach/birding trip and my wife is not too careful with equipment, and there is enough sand in my Celestron Trailseekers that the focus is very rough and has a gritty feel. Has anyone done any partial disassembly and cleaning of binoculars? It looks doable. Anyone done this? A few questions:

- Any general experiences would be helpful--not a lot of the internet about this.
- Is there a grease that is good to apply to the focus ring or eye relief to help keep it smooth and in good condition?
- Do the small brass screws have locktite or anything to help with waterproofing, or can I just unscrew them to ensure I get all of the sand out then put them back in?
- The focus knob rubber seems like it might have some weak adhesive on it to keep it in place. Anyone know what that might be?

If the Trailseeker is waterproof as I think Celestron claim? I would wash the sand off or even wash the binocular in a sink of pure water.

Perhaps disassembly would be a worse solution.
But wait for advice from some more experienced in these matters.

Binastro said:

If the Trailseeker is waterproof as I think Celestron claim? I would wash the sand off or even wash the binocular in a sink of pure water.

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Tried that. It improved things, but not enough unfortunately.

"waterproof" say nothing about grit proof as per the axle or focus mechanisms. And, there are 8 degrees of waterproof. Which category are these in?

Wash it good, use it frequently, don't be a nitnoid, and, as the grit is loosened by use, it may fall away.

Bill

PS Watch what you take to the beach. :cat:

WJC said:

"waterproof" say nothing about grit proof as per the axle or focus mechanisms. And, there are 8 degrees of waterproof. Which category are these in?

Wash it good, use it frequently, don't be a nitnoid, and, as the grit is loosened by use, it may fall away.

Bill

PS Watch what you take to the beach. :cat:

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They don't advertise a rating, just that they are fully waterproof and ok to use in any weather conditions. I'm probably going to grab my small tools and dive in to do a bit of a deeper clean. Still would be nice to know if there is an acceptable grease--there already appears to be some so as long as I'm careful I can probably reuse what is there.

Yeah, definitely need to be careful of what goes to the beach. I wouldn't take $1000 bins there. These I don't mind too much, but want to be able to keep the focus from being gritty and awful if/when they do get some sand. Some of the best birds are viewed from little intercoastal islands after all.

If your binculars are surely waterproof, get a spray bottle, fill it with distilled water, and gently hold the binocular, or lense inverted upside down pointing the ground, and gently squirt the sand away, make sure all the water flashes off downward to remove the sand and debris.

nacmancer said:

If your binculars are surely waterproof, get a spray bottle, fill it with distilled water, and gently hold the binocular, or lense inverted upside down pointing the ground, and gently squirt the sand away, make sure all the water flashes off downward to remove the sand and debris.

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After much flushing, sand and grit remained. I was able to carefully remove the eye relief piece (there were some small rubber pieces that definitely could have gotten lost easily, each about the size of an ant). From there, I brushed out the sand with an old paintbrush, put the tiniest amount of bike chain oil on the mechanism and reassembled it. (There was no grease on this part, but the travel has always been very rough.) Anyways, the binoculars are back together apart from a rusted (!) screw that I'll need to ask Celestron to replace. The screw basically crumbled when I put it back in due to serious corrosion. They all appear to be in similar condition.

For the focus mechanism, I was able to get to all of it by removing the rubber focus wheel cover, which provided better access to the mechanism. I'll need to find some kind of adhesive to reattach the wheel. I'm thinking I might try a light spray adhesive. I've not decided what to use yet, because I don't think I want something overly permanent for that piece--it just needs to lightly hold it to the metal focus wheel.

edit: Hmm.. maybe rubber cement.

b3rd said:

...I'll need to find some kind of adhesive to reattach the wheel...

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I recommend VHB film from 3M. They have several versions. Here is the one I like best http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=1879965&highlight=vhb+tape#post1879965

--AP

Alexis Powell said:

I recommend VHB film from 3M.

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Ordered! Looks pretty ideal. Thanks for the tip!

If you take it apart again, you may want to consider lubricating it with "dampening" grease. There are a number of variations (thicknesses) of dampening grease, so do your homework. This is the type of grease used on, say, focus rings on expensive camera lenses, or volume knobs on expensive stereo amplifier/receivers.

longboat said:

If you take it apart again, you may want to consider lubricating it with "dampening" grease. There are a number of variations (thicknesses) of dampening grease, so do your homework. This is the type of grease used on, say, focus rings on expensive camera lenses, or volume knobs on expensive stereo amplifier/receivers.

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Yeah, the stuff looks intersting. Saw a longish thread about this on rokslide or somesuch. I ended up using what I had on hand, which I will admit lacks finesse, but it did loosen things up a bit. Plus for these Celestrons there is basically no clearance between the eye relief adjustment ring and the eyepiece, so if I used a grease I think it would have to be extremely light indeed since all but the smallest bit would squeeze out. If I ever need to do something with the focus knob, I'll definitely look into the dampening grease. Who knew there was so much to know about such things!