Hey all, I want to buy a boroscope . .. think I need to get one with a mirror attachment, etc. Anyone played with one of these? Thanks, Sean
Harbor Frieght used to sell them for $150 or so. I am sure the quality is poor, but if you need something cheap for occasional use.... http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do?keyword=boroscope&Submit=Go
I have several flexible borescopes/endoscopes. The truth is that I find them to be less useful than I had imagined. Every now and then a situation comes up where it is an absolute life saver, but it is quite rare. I found that the biggest factor in a scopes usefullness is the diameter of the flexible optic. Some of the industrial scopes have such a large diameter optic bundle that it is hard to get it where you want to see. Two other important issues are the light source and whether the flexible optic has one, two, or no axis scan control. The high intensity light source can be fairly costly, but you need good light if you want to see anything. There are scopes that have what amounts to a "flashlight" attachment at the handpiece. It doesn't give as good a light, but it does have the advantage of being more portable. Scan control is a knob at the handpiece that allows the operator to bend the viewing end of the optic back and forth in one plane. Some units have two controls that allow two axis control. Some scopes view straight ahead. Some view at an angle to the optic bundle, generally 90 degrees. Some scopes have interchageable tips to allow you to choose. Unless there is a specific use that you have for it, my opinion is that a rigid scope would be a waste of time and money.
A decent one will likely cost over a grand. It depends on what you are trying to see. Personally I would want the sharpest optics and brightest light possible if you are looking for details. Some of the cheap ones look like you could lose parts down the hole you are looking into (wouldn't that be SPECIAL!).
Thanks for the info. My main reason is to monitor cylinder bores after I rebuild these engines . . . when I tore the last one down there was some scuffing/scoring in the bore but the engine had got real hot so don't really know if it's a clearance issue or bore distortion or??? Second reason would be to monitor valve seats which is why I thought you'd need one with a mirror. Don't mind spending some cash but if I couldn't get these two things crystal clear (like 2NA says . . . sharp optics and bright light which is what you'd want to achieve this) I don't think I'd want to spend the money. Thanks, Sean
Try Griotsgarage.com. I bought it and returned it as I never found a use for it. It was good though, especially for $350.
Griot's had a "garage sale" where they sold all their returned items recently. My buddy runs an auto repair shop and bought one there for $100, wonder if it was yours?
$100? really? Does it have the quality guarantee. I also get one UVIEW 580600 Boroscope at a deal price of $425, maybe a little expensive, but I think I paid what I got. You also can look up http://www.dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?deal_id=68110
From my experiance, these will not have good enough optics for what you are trying to do. A couple of years ago I purchased a medical Broncoscope with the CRT interface. With this you can see everything as if you were looking directly at it. That comes with a price tag that reaches into thousands of dollars but I did it after wasting many hundreds on these lesser units. The Broncoscope I bought is about 1/4" diam. and flex's 180 degrees either direction via hand controls. It will look back the direction it came from in a 1" bore, no mirrors to deal with. Guess it depends on how often one plans to use it. I use mine daily. Dave
