Binocular repair

News flash: I just discovered that I know how to collimate binoculars! Last fall I got a cheap pair of Bushnell (made in China - *sigh*) binocs as a promo gift at work. We didn't look at them until this spring, when we tried them in the back yard. Iain complained that he couldn't get the images to line up, and I had the same problem, so I was getting ready to chuck them in the next yard sale. But then I did a google for out-of-focus binoculars, and found that they can go out of collimation and are still fixable. The fixes looked intimidating (involving research and purchasing books), but one fellow said he took his apart and played with it, so I thought "what the heck"and took off both the lenses. I couldn't see anything to adjust, but then had the bright idea of switching sides, just in case someone at the factory in China had a left-from-right perception deficit, and VOILA! Now they work perfectly. I highly recommend trying this if you have a similar problem (or hit them with a rubber mallet until they go into alignment, another recommended repair method).