www.MG42.us

I have a fair collection of ZF12,s....condition both externally and internal optically varies greatly.

Some pristine examples , optically are quite poor, while some "rough" examples are very good optically. I have always wondered what the setup of the internal lens system was, so using a very rough damaged example i decided to dismantle it to see if it is possible to clean the optics if needed.
Obviously you probably wont want to do this to a rare or good example, but for a sight that is used regularly on a shooter that mabye has poor optics, then mabye so.

I have a good condition sight that had very noticeable containments on the internal lens,s, very blurred and cloudy.
After using the OLD example as a test unit, i dismantled my good sight.
The ZF12,s optical system consists of ..

Rear ocular lens..... this magnifies and focuses the Reticle cell.
Reticle cell... The earlier cell has the wire reticle "sandwiched between two slides of glass, the later has the wire exposed with no glass slides.
The periscope prism..... this is a solid glass unit, a very nicely made piece...
The Objective lens..... this focuses the overall image.

After carefully dismantling the components, all were cleaned with isopol achohol, then re assembled.
The difference is staggering!!!! The sight is now crystal clear and very sharply focused.....very happy with the results..

If anyone is interested in cleaning /dismantling a sight and wants some advice, please let me know

Hope someone finds this useful..

Paul.

Here are a few pics of the internals...

This is the sight i cleaned...




Pictured through the lens didnt work out, but believe me its very sharp and clear!!!!

HMMM, obviously my pics were to big, as they appear to be cropped..

You used photo bucket and the site software just cropped the showing of them from photobucket.

HOWEVER Everyone the pic is there. Right click on any of the above photos and then click "view image" and you can see the full pic.
I did the right click and downloaded and saved this pic and posted it again. This time on this site's photo storage area not photo buckets. A larger image is available by clicking on the photo I re-posted below.

I have done this without pic owner permission. If you object to my moving the pics to this site out of photo bucket let me know and I'll remove it.

GREAT Job on showing the breakdown and showing the inside of your ZF12 sight I'm sure that some folks are going to love to see it.

Later 42rocker

Very nice! Lets see some pictures of the whole collection!

I have been tempted to open some of mine up but I have not done it yet... I have some I would like to restore eventually. I have an early style ZF12 that needs some real work. I forget the number but its real early.

Off topic... does anyone know anyone who does cross hair etching? I have a Russian scope I need a new set of cross hairs made for. However they are etched in the glass not wire. I have looked everywhere without luck!

I used to do it back in the 1970's. Started with a sheet of glass, cut, ground, coated, then acid etched then put the white material on the glass. I'll remember the white stuff some other time I'm sure.
HF sells a sand blasting detail airbrush and you can follow up with U-tube how to do videos. Saw some really nice work in some of those video's. Good Luck.

Again Great pics and thread on taking it apart.

Later 42rocker