[3889]
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I've noticed several peeps on here have Ebbco sextants with opaque / damaged shades. Having recently become mildly enthused about celestial navigation, I took to repairing my damaged shades.
Each shade comprises a cellophane-like tinted film, sandwiched between two sheets of clear glass and held in place in a pop-out plastic, circular frame.
On dismantling a shade, I found the original film had degraded to release a substance similar to printer ink which could be be easily cleaned from the glass encapsulation disks.
I ordered, at considerable expense (99p), an A5 sized sample of car window tinting film:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110718360887?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
and used 2 / three layers of this to replace the original filter film with reasonable success.
This will not turn your EBBCO into an Astra IIIB deluxe but it becomes usable.
Each shade comprises a cellophane-like tinted film, sandwiched between two sheets of clear glass and held in place in a pop-out plastic, circular frame.
On dismantling a shade, I found the original film had degraded to release a substance similar to printer ink which could be be easily cleaned from the glass encapsulation disks.
I ordered, at considerable expense (99p), an A5 sized sample of car window tinting film:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110718360887?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
and used 2 / three layers of this to replace the original filter film with reasonable success.
This will not turn your EBBCO into an Astra IIIB deluxe but it becomes usable.