Hello all;
I have a Lyman STS which needs the broken crosswires replaced.
I am reluctant to send it to Parsons when they seem to be having
some difficulty after Gil's passing.  Their website is no longer up, 
and Gil was the one who answered the phone, received and unpacked,
and packed and shipped scopes and parts.
Any suggestions where I can get this done without waiting forever
and at a reasonable cost?
Thanks, and Merry Christmas!
Jerry

Jerry,
If you unscrew the eye piece, the cross hairs are right at the back, easily accessible. They are on a ring that's secured with a couple of small screws. The cross wires are soldered to the ring.

You can use an electronic solder iron to melt the solder, wipe it off, and replace the wires. 

Search for the thread on building a scope. He used a single strand teased out from dental floss, super glued in place. The strands are incredibly fine & strong - they work just fine.

I used the same technique replacing wires on a Unertl 20X & it worked great. Unertls have the wires secures with screws, which make things a bit easier to line up the cross hairs squarely. One Redfield I did had grooves in the ring, with the wires soldered - that also was easy to line up.

I have a 15X STS with wires that are too coarse & need replacing. Perhaps this weekend, I can get to it & take some pictures.

Merry Christmas,
Ron

A friend that lived locally and repaired old scopes, told me the best "hairs" to use are from a black widows web. And that the makers from the 19th century used them in the first scopes. For there weight, they're stronger than alloy steel. 

Food for thought,

Frank

I second the suggestion of John Knudsen. He has done several old scopes for me. You can easily remove the piece to which the crosswires are attached and just send this to John. be aware, though, that you must be very careful handling and installing the repaired piece as the wires are very fragile.

Hi Gents;

I have been selling reticle wire for about 15 years now, and have 2 different diameters to choose from...(.0015") medium and (.0005")  fine.

The wire is purpose-built for optical instruments involving reticles..It is annealed tungsten and shows up jet-black.  Its very strong to work with...I've sold much to members here in the past year, with no complaints...
I sell it in 10 foot increments...$15.00 total, shipped, per 10 feet....Only rule I have is that I accept ONLY US Postal Money Orders..

If interested, or have any questions, please email me at:

ds1911@verizon.net

I give up.
Fred

Old thread, but sent my STS to the fellow in NM last winter and he did a very good job with a thorough going over (clean, lube, new reticle). Reasonable price and ~6 week turn around. If anyone needs detailed address, etc., respond and I'll dig up the contact info. He advertises in Precision Shooting.

Send it to Bill Ackerman. This spring Bill did a dot for me on my Mitchell. When it was sent back to me the post office handled it so roughly that it broke the Jack Dexter box inside a cardboard box and damaged the scope. I called Bill he said to send it back. I repaired and re-glued the box then packed it in an even larger box with plastic foam and sent it off again. Bill fixed all the damage that the post office did to my scope and returned it to me. The only thing he charged me was for shipping. The scope is now perfect and doing well on my rifle. I can't say enough good things about Bill.

40 Rod