I thought those cheap fiber optic inspection scopes were junk until a job in Tulsa changed my mind.

We had a stubborn intermittent fault on a Citation's flight deck display, and the usual borescope wouldn't fit into the tight space behind the panel. A guy on the line had a $150 generic fiber optic scope from an online tool shop. I rolled my eyes, but we gave it a shot. That little thing snaked right in and showed us a cracked solder joint on a connector pin we never would have seen otherwise. It saved us probably two days of guesswork and panel pulling. Has anyone else found a surprisingly good use for a tool they initially wrote off?

3 comments

3 Comments

john_ramirez27d ago

Seriously? That's pure luck, not a good tool. Those cheap scopes have garbage image quality and break if you look at them wrong. You got one clear look at a perfect target, but try tracing a wire bundle or seeing anything in a dark corner. They're frustrating junk that wastes more time than they save. I'd never trust one on a real job.

amy26827d ago

Sometimes the cheap tool is the right one for a weird, tight spot. It's not about trusting it for everything, just having it for that one job.

gonzalez.phoenix3d ago

Yeah, I've been that guy rolling my eyes too. I guess @amy268 has a point about the right tool for a weird job. My cheap scope mostly collects dust, but it did find a lost washer down a gearbox once when nothing else would fit.