Blew $75 on a borescope that cant see past my thumb

I picked up one of those cheap wireless borescopes off Amazon to inspect some internal corrosion on a Cessna wing spar. The thing looked great in the reviews, but in practice the camera lens kept fogging up and the LED glare washed out everything. I spent a whole Saturday trying to get a decent look at a fuel tank baffle and gave up, the images were useless past 2 inches. Ended up borrowing my buddy's old rigid scope from his Snap-on truck and it worked perfect on the first try. Anyone else get burned by those cheap flexible cameras, or is there a decent budget one that actually works?

2 comments

2 Comments

pat_schmidt6022d agoOG Member

Forty years of turning wrenches taught me this. Those cheap scopes work fine for looking at spark plugs in a minivan, but the moment you need to see corrosion inside an aircraft structure, the resolution just isnt there and the image processing makes everything look like a watercolor painting. The wireless ones are also a battery hog and the connection drops out right when you finally get the tip positioned where you need it. Your buddies Snap-on scope probably cost ten times as much but its got a proper lens and the lighting is balanced so you actually see what youre looking at instead of a whiteout. Id say consider this a lesson learned. Some tools you can cheap out on, but anything that involves your eyes and safety critical metal is not the place to save a few bucks.

blake32222d ago

That Snap-on guy must have a real exciting life if he's this worked up about a $40 scope.