ATM Be very careful

["Frank Ward" <thewards@mindspring.com>]

No matter how careful I am, I always make
mistakes. Here's my newest.

The symptoms were simple. I could not get the
outer 1/8" to polish. I even went back to 
400 and did it all again checking constantly
for a good fit.

After hours of polishing the outside 1/8" would
not effectively polish out, even though the 
surface was a nice sphere. I decide that it would
have to be ground off.

Then I asked myself if I had been doing anything
different with this mirror. That's when I realized
that I had added a circular rubber (cut from a mouse pad)
base below the work piece on the turntable. To insure
that the clamps hit the sides tightly I cut it 1/2"
smaller in diameter than the 8" of the blank.

I reasoned that at polishing levels when the tool
(on top) applied pressure on the edge as it went over
the mirror was able to tip just enough to let the tool
go over without hitting it forcefully. The pad was
allowing the pressure to be wasted.

I removed the pad and replaced it with two sheets of wet
newspaper. 

A half hour later I have a nicely polished and (as yet) 
perfect edge.

There are a lot of mistakes we can make. No matter how
many we catch there are always thousands more. What an
exciting challenge.

Frank Ward
Atlanta, GA(Goodby Mars, see you later)