Kern Prism reproduction

There's a (Swiss-born) fellow somewhere in the Southwest U.S. that bought all of the Kern spare parts when they were bought out by Leica some years ago. I don't remember the contact info, but he might be able to help you. Note that he was up in years many years ago, so I do not know if he's still living.

"NewTech" is the name or is similar to that is located in the Northeast U.S. that has WILD Heerbrugg parts & technicians. They may be able to get you in contact with the elderly Kern fellow.

I think this might be the firm Cliff is referring to:

http://www.swisstek.com/

good luck.

Ken

After posting the above suggestion, I received this email, forwarded here, anonymously:

Ken I saw your post on beerleg and would like to give you the following info to pass on (I do not post on beerleg, I only read it)

There was a company in California that made some, some time back, but I hear that they were not that good(?).

Hope that helps.

Ken

or it could be this

http://www.actekinstruments.com/sales.html

Scroll down on the page and you'll see a Kern prism assembly.

But the copyright date at the bottom of the page is 2006 so information might be out of date.

Kara Co. in Chicago shows Kern instruments on their web site.

http://www.karaco.com

Appears to be a current offering on Ebay. Looks like it's led rough life.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=kern+prism

I think one of these would have set you back at least $500 new, maybe closer to $1,000.

Cubic also made a biaxial EDM that wrapped around the telescope of a theodolite. I think the prisms were similar to Kern's. Might work if you could find them but the offset could be odd.

Reproducing one today would likely be cost prohibitive if you could find a manufacturer who would even consider it. A lot of the retro prisms for surveying sold today are made in factories overseas as it's a labor intensive process. The housing and mount might have a U.S. brand name but it's likely the prism came from overseas.