Re: ATM Fortuitous Find + an OT ?

[Anthony Stillman <atmer@flash.net>]

I want to thank everyone who wrote with solutions for my usoft problem.
I'll be responding to all of you off line.

As I left the disk in the car, I took it with me to the Chabot mirror
making workshop and just now got back.  Yes, I strutted about like the cock
of the walk, and still look like a three year old with ice cream, I just
can't help myself.  I did manage to get a little work done, making a tool
out of Fixall with Mark Thein's help.  Well the back of the tool anyway.  I
plan to generated the glass, then cast a thin curved form of Fixall and
epoxy it to the back and tile to its front.  Also, I learned a couple of
thing.  First, when you mix up 50 pounds of Fixall (in two batches) with
thirty pounds of water you end up with a really heavy tool.  And second
when it says on the back of the bag that you have 15 minutes to get the
Fixall in place, you have 15 minutes to get the Fixall in place.

Early in the evening Kevin Medlock walked up to me and, pointing to the
glass, asked if it was mine, then offered his sympathy.  As I was making
the tape dam around the disk in preperation for casting the tool, it began
to sink in just how big this thing is.  David Barosso told me he had just
dissasembled his large machine, which can take up to a 36 incher, but added
that it might get rebuilt in a year or so as he an Earl Watts, between
them, have an number of large disks that need work.  The machine I have is
entirely too small to handle this disk, so I'll have to make something
larger.  I'll be visiting all the machine sites I can find over the next
few weeks (those are software weeks) so if anyone has suggestions or links,
I'de like to see them.  Oh, and Mark VandeWettering also offered me forty
dollars for it ;-)

Kevin suggested that I core the blank and support it with a center hub,
saying that a sling mount would allow so thin a piece of glass to fold,
thus introducing stig.  It is 20:1, but I'm not expert enough in statics to
make an educated decision about this.  I've no doubt about Kevin's wisdom
and, having seen the split remants of coring failed, I'm hesitant to do
any.  In any case all advice will be appreciated.

Anthony