Different bases on Amscope microscope

[ironcurtain]

I have personally chosen to drill a hole through the workbench (solid thick wood), so I am not using the base it came with for anything. The setup is very stable and saves a ton of space. You do need to do some measurements and adjustments to figure out the angles so you can rotate the microscope assembly away and then back to the right place where you can comfortably sit and rest your eyes at the right distance.
Before doing this I considered getting one of the arms that can be bolted to the side of the workbench, but in the end that seemed more unstable and take too much space wherever it was bolted to.

[HobGoblyn]

Been offered 15% off their website store as compensation.

Not after compensation, which is just as well as I have no desire to upgrade stand or scope etc in the foreseeable future (years).

Still they said if I order anytime in the future, point them to their email and they will honour it.

They communicated very well even though there was initial miss understanding.

I wonder whether their scopes/stands are made specifically for Amscope or whether they simply stick their company name on exactly the same looking ones available elsewhere, sometimes for more, sometimes for 1/2 the price (such as Aliexpress until you add postage).

I’d like to think they are made specifically to Amscopes specifications and the others are cheap clones, but after taking my stand apart, I’m not all that convinced.

[jfiresto]

... I’d like to think they are made specifically to Amscopes specifications and the others are cheap clones, but after taking my stand apart, I’m not all that convinced.

I am not sure it matters. From what I have read and heard, these things are built to a price, so that delivering more microscope than the customers requires just wastes money. For example, a CM might eliminate a little labor and allow some rust if that will not be an issue or noticeable within a product's five year warranty. Unfortunately, sometimes someone is too clever by half and makes a change that fails an implicit customer requirement – and the customer(s). I find it annoying when that happens as I never seem to recover my costs of addressing the resulting problem(s).

FWIW, the price you quoted earlier is roughly half what you would pay for a somewhat larger, table-clamp, double-armed boom stand from Motic, a well known, Chinese brand that does not like to waste money. Some of that premium is for the name, but a significant portion is invested in the product.